Abuse allegations heard at Commission

Sky News
September 23, 2014

http://www.skynews.com.au/news/local/darwin/2014/09/23/abuse-allegations-heard-at-commission.html

Former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Dr Tom Calma was told of an abuse allegation at Retta Dixon House in Darwin, decades ago, the Child Sex Abuse Royal Commission has been told.

Witness AKV - going under a pseudonym, with a protected identity - said he spoke to Mr Calma when he was a welfare offices.

The witness, a 54-year-old Eastern Arrente man from Alice Springs said he was sexually assaulted twice, and we witnessed horrific abuse.

'There were times my sister would be tied up to the clothesline,' AKV said.

'And have faeces rubbed in her face.

'(House parent) Henderson would regularly grove me in a sexual way.

'He really seemed to have a thing for dark-skinned boys ... Henderson's favourite place for abusing boys was in the chook pen.'

AKV told a chilling story of a 12-year-old girl who gave birth and was shunned by the religious coordinators of Retta Dixon House, even though he believed she'd been raped by a house parent.

'The baby was light-skinned ... Many thought Henderson was the father.'

AKV said the Royal Commission was akin to a 'Truth Commission'.

'(But) there is too much humbleness going on in this hearing,' he said.

'We do need compensation.'