Child sexual abuse inquiry: Allegations told to Tom Calma not followed up, royal commission told

By Xavier La Canna
ABC News
September 23, 2014

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-23/prominent-rights-campaigner-told-of-sexual-assaults/5763700

Human rights campaigner Tom Calma visited the Retta Dixon home as a social worker around 1970 according to evidence.

Kevin Stagg gives graphic evidence to the royal commission.

Lola Wall told the hearing that she had heard of allegations against Don Henderson.

Prominent human rights campaigner Tom Calma was told of sexual assaults against a young boy in the 1970s that were not followed up, a royal commission in Darwin has heard.

On the second day of hearings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Darwin, there was more graphic evidence of abuse at the Retta Dixon Home, which mainly housed Aboriginal children between 1946 and 1980.

A witness known only as AKV said he was repeatedly abused by a former house parent at the home, Donald Bruce Henderson, who in 1984 was convicted of sex crimes against two boys unrelated to his time at Retta Dixon.

AKV said Dr Calma was working as a welfare officer with the NT government about the time the abuse took place in the early 1970s.

"I told him about Mr Henderson. I remember telling him about all the cruelties and beatings etcetera, definitely," AKV said.

Under questioning from senior counsel assisting the commission, Sophie David, AKV said Dr Calma, who is chancellor of Canberra University, seemed helpless when told of the abuse.

"Can you recall how he responded?" Ms David asked.

AKV told the royal commission: "You don't forget anything like that.

"[Dr Calma was] almost like, I am taking notes and this is about as far as it is going to go."

Dr Calma, a former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner, ACT Australian of the Year, and race discrimination commissioner issued a response via a spokeswoman denying he had ever worked for the NT welfare department.

"He is currently preparing a statement for the royal commission," the spokeswoman said.

Later, witness Kevin Stagg gave graphic evidence to the inquiry about the abuse he said he suffered at the hands of Mr Henderson.

Mr Stagg told the royal commission he was raped several times while at the home, either near a banana patch or at a chicken shed.

Mr Stagg told of how on one occasion he was hurt so badly he was taken to the old Darwin hospital bleeding from his anus.

"I was not allowed to speak to the hospital staff as Henderson was standing next to me," Mr Stagg said.

"I was scared to tell the nurses that Henderson had raped me."

Mr Henderson told staff at the hospital the injuries were sustained by boys playing with each other, Mr Stagg told the hearing.

He said that sometimes he and other children had been so badly abused by Mr Henderson that they had to wear nappies to school.

"Some of the other kids at the school knew and we used to protect each other if the other kids teased us," Mr Stagg said.

Later Lola Wall told the hearing that she became a house parent at Retta Dixon in 1973 and became aware of allegations that Mr Henderson had sexually abused children.

She said that she reported the information to AIM, which ran the home, but Mr Henderson continued working at the facility.

In 1975 another house parent raised similar allegations against Mr Henderson, she said, ultimately resulting in a police investigation and court action in 1976.

Ms Wall said when the matter went to court her husband Norman took children due to give evidence to the court house.

But when they arrived Mr Henderson was out on the street with older boys from Retta Dixon.

"The older boys then spoke to the younger children," Mr Dixon said her husband told her.

"After this the younger children would not speak about the matter and would not give their evidence in court," she said.

Ms Wall said after the court action a prosecution lawyer went to Retta Dixon and apologised to her for what had happened.

"He stated that Henderson was acquitted because some of the children wouldn't give evidence against him," she said.

A document tendered at the royal commission showed Henderson was convicted in 1984 in Darwin on two counts of "aggravated assault on a male child of sexual nature".

It is understood the charges related to events on October 18, 1983, years after the Retta Dixon home closed.

The document showed Henderson was released without penalty on a $500 good behaviour bond.

In total there were 87 counts against Henderson related to allegations that stretched from 1963 to 1973, including dozens of indecent assault charges and three of buggery.

All of the charges except the ones relating to the 1983 incident were later withdrawn.