|
Traumatised victims ...
By Andrew Dowdell
Traumatised victims of Eden Park boys home abuse say the Salvation Army should increase compensation THEY were systematically abused and robbed of their trust in humanity — now victims of the notorious Eden Park boys home say they were short-changed by civil payouts from the Salvation Army. The depravity and violence exacted upon former residents of the home led to a class action launched in 2007, in which 60 former Eden Park boys were eventually given civil payouts. However, many victims and the lawyer who handled the cases now say the Salvation Army should have paid more compensation. Matt de Gregorio from Duncan Basheer Hannon said early settlements were capped at $50,000 and has asked the Salvation Army to consider increasing those amounts already paid. “Their response has been that they want to await the results of the Royal Commission on the 31st of December, 2017 before they will consider that,” he said. Mr de Gregorio described the treatment of hundreds of boys at Eden Park as nothing short of “torture”. “Early on when we were taking statements from people, some of the matters described appeared at that time to be hard to believe — not that they weren’t believed — but the sorts of things people described about the violence they were subjected to at such a young age and over such a long period were fairly shocking,” he said. “The sort of violence where people are being hit with two-and-a-half foot long belts, leaving welts on them when they describe being attacked in a frenzy by an adult or being punched in the face by their caregivers.” Former carer William John Keith Ellis remains in prison serving a 16-year prison term for the brutal rapes of four boys between 1960 and 1971. Another former worker, John Richard Kerslake, committed suicide last month while awaiting a verdict on whether he was guilty of molesting five boys in the 1970s. “The sexual stuff was shocking in terms of its brazenness, Ellis in particular seemed to sexually assault children in circumstances where he could easily have been detected by another adult, but obviously felt comfortable enough that he could go on and do that,” Mr de Gregorio said. Mr de Gregorio said boys could be severely punished for the most minor infractions. “Talking back to a staff member, refusing to eat your breakfast, people described refusing to eat a particular food they didn’t like and being forced to sit at the table and eat it until they vomited, and when they vomited they’d be forced to eat it out of the bowl and wouldn’t be allowed to leave the table until they had,” he said. It was not just the carers who inflicted sexual abuse — older boys frequently re-enacted the rapes they had endured upon the younger boys. Graham Rundle recalls being raped for the first time by an older Aboriginal boy at the age of seven — the first of hundreds of violent sexual assaults he endured. Several weeks earlier, he was dropped at Eden Park by his father for a “three-week holiday”, which turned out to be an eight-year trip through Hell. “It wasn’t just the officers, it was the older boys because some of there were virtually men, they just took control,” he said. “No-one actually spoke about it but you could tell the way the boys walked ... or you’d see them crying somewhere and you just knew.” Mr Rundle said reports of the brutal rapes were ignored by Salvation Army senior officers. “A nurse in 1965 went to the Brigadier, and complained that when she was washing the sheets they were covered in blood, and the Brigadier just told her ‘it was just the big boys mucking up’ and that was the end of it,” he said. Mr Rundle spent more than a decade fighting for justice in both the civil and criminal courts, and saw his tormentor Ellis jailed in 2009. “I thought if I don’t then nobody will do this, I didn’t think it would still be going 10 years down the track but I won. I got (Ellis) in jail and to me it was worth every bit,” he said. “The civil case was all right, it was good, but it was nothing compared to having him jailed, on the day he was found guilty of all 13 charges I left that court I felt so much lighter.” Now 62, Mr Rundle did not reveal his history of abuse to anyone else until 2000, and ended up writing a book titled 44 — the number he was known as — during his childhood at the home. He said the decade of court hearings took its toll and understands why many victims settled for less than they should have. “You think it’s hard enough to go forward to be believed, but then it’s even harder to get into court ... and for the average person that has been through this, they can’t do it, they don’t have the strength,” he said. “I had to sell everything, I didn’t even have a car in the end, lost nice things I had collected all my life just to keep going.” Aside from the regular beatings by carers, boys from the home were frequently put into a tiny, dark brick building known as “the lockup”. “The lockup was six foot by eight foot, bluestone and the walls were lined, there was no light at all and no window or power in there, and just a little vent with a concrete floor and an old horsehair mattress and that was it,” Mr Rundle recalled. “The Aboriginal boys came from the missions and that was the first place they went, straight in there because they were pretty wild and it would break their spirit — that’s what it was used for.” Another former resident, Steven Grant, says he was spared any sexual abuse during the years he and his younger brother were kept at Eden Park. Forced to wear shorts year-round in the icy hills, the boys would routinely be woken in the middle of the night for cruel and unusual punishment for the deeds of other residents. “The punishment was horrible, if it wasn’t physical punishment they’d round us all up and take us up to what was like a basketball stadium shed with a concrete floor,” Mr Grant said. “For punishment they would throw buckets of wheat on the floor and we would have to pick it up grain by grain because they knew it would take a few hours. “You just wanted to do it because you were tired and wanted to get back to bed.” Mr Grant, 57, said he knew other former residents who had settled civil claims for much less than they were entitled to. “They’re offering $10,000 or $15,000 and they’re taking it because they’ve never had their own jobs or homes and I just think it’s wrong and should be fixed,” he said. Mr Grant was taken from Eden Park to Victoria for a time by Captain David Osborne, who went to trial in Melbourne last year charged with indecently and physically assaulting him. Osborne, now in his 80s, was convicted of punching Mr Grant but the jury was hung on the sex charges. “I was gutted but we got him for the assault when he punched me in the face, the jury believed that and we got him on assault and that was it — he just got a conviction to his name and sent home,” he said. “I saw him last year and thought how could I be scared of someone like that, he was old and pathetic, at least he’s now a convicted child basher.” Eden Park will be scrutinised by the Federal Royal Commission into institutional child abuse in Adelaide next year. A spokesman for the Salvation Army said the organisation continued to cooperate fully with the ongoing Royal Commission. “Once the Royal Commission has released its findings and recommendations, the Salvation Army will consider its response,” he said. “We reiterate that we are ashamed and deeply regret what occurred and for those who were abused and whose lives have been so damaged, we are deeply sorry.” Graham Rundle said he held no animosity towards the Salvation Army, despite the years of abuse. “Look at the good work they do — I am the first to admit that — but they’ve got to step up now, for Christ’s sake,” he said. Mr Rundle but said the memories of his time at Eden Park would never leave him “I decided if I wanted to have a family and everything, that part of my life would have to become the minor part — the family would have to be the major part and that stuff would have to be the minor part,” he said. “I still have nightmares now. I sleep for two hours at the most and then wake up, but that’s life and I have to deal with that.”
|
.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.