Horrific abuse at Queensland orphanage

By Miranda Forster
7 News
April 14, 2015

https://au.news.yahoo.com/nsw/a/27092694/orphans-scared-to-report-abuse-inquiry/

A woman has told the royal commission she was repeatedly raped by a priest at an orphanage.

A former resident of a central Queensland orphanage has told a national inquiry how nuns administered public floggings and forced bed-wetting children to stand with soiled sheets draped over their heads.

Retired nurse Mary Adams, 64, suffered repeated emotional, physical and sexual mistreatment at the hands of nuns and priests at the Neerkol orphanage near Rockhampton in the 1950s and 1960s, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard.

Sobbing uncontrollably at times, Ms Adams told the hearing in Rockhampton she was punched, slapped, pulled by her hair and on one occasion flogged with a skipping rope so forcefully she struggled to walk for days.

Boys who tried to run away from Neerkol were publicly flogged with horse whips and those who wet the bed were forced to stand with the soiled sheets draped over their heads.

Ms Adams recounted how when aged 12 she confided in a visiting priest, and he tried to rape her.

Another priest repeatedly molested her while she was billeted to a foster carer in Mackay, the commission heard.

She later received $20,000 compensation from the Catholic Diocese of Rockhampton and the Sisters of Mercy, who ran the orphanage.

However, Ms Adams said she felt let down by the former Catholic bishop of the Rockhampton Diocese Brian Heenan, who she said hadn't made any real attempt to identify the priest who sexually assaulted her at Neerkol.

"No amount of money can ever give back my childhood, my loss of confidence, my lack of formal education, my dignity, my self-esteem and self-worth," Ms Adams said.

About 4000 children passed through what was known as St Joseph's Orphanage between 1885 and 1978.

Earlier, a 67-year-old woman who worked at Neerkol said Bishop Heenan had been originally dismissive of her claims she was raped more than 100 times by parish priest Reginald Durham, who is now dead, from when she was 11.

"After each time I was sexually abused, I had to go to confession to him and confess my sin of impurity," the woman, identified as AYB told the hearing.

Father Durham was in 1999 sentenced to 18 months prison for indecently dealing with the woman but many more serious charges involving her and other complainants were discontinued.

Another 12 former residents are due to recount their experiences at the hearing, which is scheduled to conclude on April 24.

The commission is investigating historical allegations of child abuse at the Neerkol St Joseph's Orphanage near Rockhampton, which was operated by the Sisters of Mercy until 1978.