Abuse victim David Owen to relive pain of abuse at Neerkol orphanage at Royal Commission

news.com.au
April 14, 2015

http://www.news.com.au/national/courts-law/abuse-victim-david-owen-to-relive-pain-of-abuse-at-neerkol-orphanage-at-royal-commission/story-fns0kb3z-1227303446215

Neerkol Centre outside Rockhampton.

‘Wanted, some kind person to adopt a baby boy’ ... the ad placed in the Cairns Post for David Owen’s adoption.

David Owen as an orphan baby boy.

DETAILS divulged to the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse about horrific abuse that took place in a Queensland orphanage have been deemed “too lurid” to be made public, but one man is keen for his shocking story to be heard.

The Commission, sitting in Rockhampton from today, has begun to hear from men and women who attended the Neerkol Orphanage outside the city between 1940 and 1975.

The institution has previously been exposed as a place where physical, sexual and psychological abuse was rife during the Forde Inquiry in 1998 and 1999.

David Owen, 76, was one of the victims of abuse to come forward at that inquiry and will now be one of 18 witnesses to front the Commission opening up about his shocking abuse, all because he wants people to care.

Mr Owen was placed in the home, also known as St Joseph’s orphanage, after being born to a 12-year-old rape victim and offered for adoption in a newspaper advertisement.

Mr Owen was taken in by the Catholic Sisters of Mercy as a baby, only to be abused for years.

“The reason why people didn’t believe when we told them years ago was because it was so outrageous and so inhuman, what was done to us. All I can do is tell how it happened,” he told the Newcastle Herald.

In 1999, Mr Owen gave shocking evidence about the years of sexual abuse by priest Father Anderson, and hidden by nuns at Neerkol orphanage.

That inquiry concluded the under-resourced orphanage saw nuns overwhelmed by the needs of hundreds of children in their care, and children were neglected and abused.

With the help of Mr Owen’s evidence, it was found the orphanage operated in a climate of fear and children were subjected to a process of depersonalisation and at times harsh or degrading discipline, including isolation and floggings.

There were reports of sexual abuse from members of foster families, male orphanage workers, visitors, nuns and priests.

Adding to Mr Owen’s suffering, he had been told growing up that his mother was dead, but found her living in Newcastle as an adult.

“You only have one mum. I was with her for 18 years until she died. She was a treasure,” he told the Herald.

He also revealed the heartbreaking reason why he never married.

“I was worried that I’d take out the cruelty that was done to me on my wife, so I never married,” he said.

Mr Owen is readying himself to give evidence, telling the Herald going through the details made him relive the pain.

“You feel the floggings. You feel the fear and the pain. You go back to that time because it’s always there,” he said.

About nine former residents are expected to detail their experiences at a public hearing of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Rockhampton over the next two weeks.

Evidence from one witness who fronted the Commission today was too “lurid” to be made public for fear it would be sensationalised by the media, a lawyer argued according to the Courier-Mail.

“It is just difficult to exaggerate the way in which it might be sensationalised,” Mr Callaghan said, adding it was difficult to believe such an accusation had taken to long to emerge.

The estimated two-week public hearing began today at the Rockhampton Courthouse.