Abuse denied as Salvos protect their own

Daily Mail (UK)
June 30, 2014

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/aap/article-2674539/Abuse-denied-Salvos-protect-own.html

A man who as a child had cigarette butts put out between his toes while in the care of the Salvation Army was given just $10,000 compensation.

The 10th public inquiry by the Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse looked at how the organisation dealt with abuse complaints.

It heard a matrix was used to measure what was offered to abuse victims.

EF was seven when placed in the Indooroopilly Boys Home in Queensland in 1966. He was violently punished and raped by the home's manager, Major Victor Bennett.

This second hearing into the Salvation Army was shown a report outlining EF's complaint, including that Mr Bennett put out cigarette butts between his toes.

The report had "allegations not proven" written on it.

At this hearing it was also revealed that Salvation Army officer Colin Haggar, who admitted abusing an eight-year-old girl in 1989, was running a crisis shelter for women and children in 2013.

Army whistleblower Captain Michelle White reported this to authorities when Commissioner James Condon delayed doing so.

Mr Condon, who has known Mr Haggar for a long time, said he went to the police with him in 1990 to report the incident. NSW police have no record of the visit and say it is improbable police would have turned them away, as Mr Condon remembered.

Salvation Army executive Kerry Haggar, the wife of Colin Haggar, was a witness at the inquiry.

In the days before the start of this hearing Ms White received an email on Facebook from Ms Haggar, with whom she was friends.

"The chain of events you set in place have caused devastation and incredible pain to many innocent people," the email said. "In attempting to protect families you have caused irreparable damage to mine."

Other witnesses included the mother of the girl abused by Colin Haggar.

She said her daughter self-harmed after the abuse and Mr Haggar, who confessed to the family, told them it was nothing serious - he had just digitally penetrated her.

Another witness was former head of personnel Major Peter Farthing, who said not all child abusers were pedophiles, explaining it could be because there was something broken in a person's life.