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Child sex abuse royal commission: Salvation Army did not protect young boys from being abused while in its care, report finds
By Antonette Collins
ABC News
March 17, 2015
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-17/salvation-army-did-not-protect-young-boys-from-abuse-report-says/6325954
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| Alkira Salvation Army Home for Boys at Indooroopilly was the subject of child sex abuse claims. |
[with audio]
The Salvation Army did not protect young boys from being abused while in its care from the late 1950s to the early 1970s, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has found.
Last year the commission heard harrowing details and accounts from victims of child sexual abuse that occurred in four boys' homes run by the Salvation Army in NSW and Queensland.
In a report released on Tuesday, the commission found that the boys who reported abuse were punished, disbelieved and accused of lying.
"Former residents told us of brutal sexual abuse at the hands of Salvation Army officers, at times accompanied by extreme physical punishment," the report said.
The commissioners also found the Salvation Army's policies and procedures did not enable the prevention or detection of child abuse, and that it failed to provide appropriately trained staff to ensure child safety.
Government agencies were also criticised in the findings for not properly investigating allegations.
A survivor of child sexual abuse while in the care of the Salvation Army, James Luthy, said he felt vindicated after the findings were handed down.
He was a resident at the Gill Memorial Boys Home in Goulburn and said he was subjected to brutal abuse, but was ignored when he first made a complaint in the 1970s.
"People were told that no-one would believe us, things were hushed up and people just wouldn't and couldn't believe that the Salvation Army was involved in these kinds of things," he said.
"But they were - they hid officers, they moved them interstate, they denied these things happened.
"And now I guess we all feel very much vindicated."
The report said the Salvation Army had since developed its approach to dealing with child sexual abuse claims.
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