Child sexual abuse royal commission: Victim breaks down describing 'life of pain'

ABC News
April 29, 2014

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-28/witnesses-give-evidence-at-royal-commission-into-child-abuse/5415338

Abuse victim John Hennessey outside the commission in Perth.

A former resident of a Christian Brothers school in Western Australia has described living in constant terror at the institution where "violence was a way of life".

John Hennessey is the first of a number of victims to give evidence at the Perth hearings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

He was a child migrant from the UK and told the hearing he was excited to come to Australia as an 11-year-old boy, considering it an adventure.

Mr Hennessey, who was a resident at the Bindoon Farm School north of Perth, broke down during his evidence today as he recounted the moment he realised "something was amiss".

He was sexually and physically abused from age 11 until he was 16, when he left the school.

During those five years he became a regular sexual partner to one of the brothers and was violently raped by others.

"Each night, the dormitory would be visited by the brothers who either took individual boys into their rooms for the night or molested them in front of us," he said.

"Brother Keaney kept a small pool of pets who were boys he used for sexual gratification. I was one of those pet boys.

"At the time, I did not understand what Brother Keaney was doing to me. I thought somehow I was privileged.

"By the time I was 14 or 15, Brother Keaney had fully groomed me into a willing sexual partner. I used to tell myself he was like a father to me.

"I remember thinking that if I did what he wanted, he would be pleased with me and I might get extra treats."

Mr Hennessey told the hearing he never reported the sexual abuse he suffered because he did not trust anybody.

"I will go to my grave a tormented person," he said.

"I do not trust people, and who could blame me? I have lost my dignity and my self respect.

"I have lived a life of pain, confusion and terrible loneliness."

Mr Hennessey also said he lived in constant terror of physical violence.

"Punishments, by way of floggings with canes and straps, were frequently carried out as a public spectacle," he told the royal commission.

"The straps were especially made for the order of the Christian Brothers and they had metal things embedded in them.

"If they could not get us during the day, the brothers would get you at night - there was no escape."

Mr Hennessey told the hearing he was abused by "criminals" who could "relax in the knowledge that the State Government and the church were my legal guardians and would never bother to meet their responsibilities".

Another former resident of two Christian Brothers schools in Perth has told the commission his wounds will last a lifetime.

Albert McGregor attended the Castledare and Clontarf schools in Perth and said he was just eight years old when the sexual and psychological abuse started. It lasted a number of years.

Now 72, he says his pain and anger have grown over the years with the realisation of what happened to him.

He became a Christian Brother himself after school and in the 1990s he investigated other stories of abuse and found it was widespread.

He said the information was ignored by senior members of the Christian Brothers.

"They didn't see me as a victim but saw what I had done as an attack on the church," Mr McGregor said in evidence.

John Wells, who attended both Castledare and Clontarf schools with his twin brother Arthur, told the commission of the sexual and physical abuse the pair suffered at the hands of the Christian Brothers.

He said the Brothers would carefully single out the most vulnerable children to abuse.

"I think one of the reasons that the Brothers inflicted this violence upon us was that they enjoyed seeing a child cringing and looking terrified," he told the commission.

"Their objective almost seemed to be to break the child's spirit."

Mr Wells spoke of his feelings of shame in later life, his inability to show affection and his problems with alcohol.

"I have often felt worthless throughout my life and had very low self-esteem," he said.

Arthur Wells died in hospital last month and Mr Wells told the commission he was never able to show his twin any affection as "any physical contact would bring up our experiences."

"When Arthur was in hospital I held his hand for the first time in 70 years," he said.

"It makes me sad that he died with all these horrible memories and restrictions on his life."

The commission will spend two weeks examining four institutions run by the Christian Brothers in WA; the Bindoon Farm School, St Mary's Agricultural School in Tardun, and orphanages at Clontarf and Castledare.

It will also examine the way complaints and compensation claims were handled by the Christian Brothers and the State Government.

Counsel assisting the royal commission, Gail Furness, told the hearing it would hear evidence from 11 men who were residents at the institutions between 1947 and 1968.

Ms Furness said some of the victims still bear physical injuries, while others have experienced mental breakdowns.

She also said four Christian Brothers were charged with the sexual assault of children at the institutions.

Of those, only one was jailed, for three-and-a-half years.

The acting director of public prosecutions will give evidence about the reasons other brothers were not prosecuted, which included a delay in reporting abuse and the age of the accused men.

Another witness due to give evidence will be a man named only as VI, who was placed at Castledare when he was seven years old.

He will tell the hearing he was sexually abused by Brother Dick and he gave a statement to police about the abuse in 1994.

At the time, the brother had already been charged and convicted of sexually assaulting five children.

The police told VI that Brother Dick would not be charged in relation to the allegations he had made because they did not know if VI was one of the five children the brother had admitted to having sexually assaulted.

Before today's hearing got underway, abuse victim Tony Costa said many had waited a long time to tell their story.

"While it may be 60 years too late we're here to endorse and uphold the principle of what it's about," he said.

"We'd like to see justice to be seen to be done and that the next generation is never subjected to what we went through."

The body set up by the Catholic Church to respond to the royal commission has called for full disclosure from the Christian Brothers.

The Truth, Justice and Healing Council CEO, Francis Sullivan, said victims deserved the truth.

"The history of the Catholic Church in this area of child sex abuse is horrific and shameful," he said.

"These stories will demonstrate that and it's incumbent on the Christian Brothers to come forward again and explain themselves, make sure the truth is revealed.

"Explain the decisions they made and make it abundantly clear that it's the interests of the survivors that are the number one priority."