Sex Abuse Investigation: Heartwrenching Tales Of Sexually And Physically Abused Children

By Barsha Baruah
International Business Times
April 15, 2015

http://au.ibtimes.com/sex-abuse-investigation-heartwrenching-tales-sexually-physically-abused-children-1439759

A woman walks past a boarded shop in Rotherham, northern England, February 4, 2015. Rotherham's council leader and entire cabinet resigned after the publication of a report into their response to years of child sexual exploitation in the town. The report said the authority was not fit for purpose and had been in complete denial after an earlier inquiry found that 1400 children, some as young as 11, were abused in Rotherham, by gangs of predominantly Asian men.

A first person’s account of a child sex abuse inquiry revealed she was reportedly raped "well over 100 times" by a priest at St. Joseph's Neerkol Orphanage Rockhampton in central Queensland. ABC News reported that The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found out that the children were treated brutally at the orphanage.

Meanwhile, in a previous investigation it was found that hundreds of children were sexually abused, beaten and forced into hard labour there. In fact, the orphanage has always been under numerous police and government inquiries, one notably being by the former Queensland governor Leneen Forde in 1999. 

The Royal Commission, which is monitoring how the institutions such as schools and churches dealt with allegations related to child sexual abuse, will hear evidence from 18 witnesses for the next two weeks. Among the 18 cases, 13 are from the former residents of the orphanage, who were abused there between 1940 and 1975.

Listen In To Couple Of The Witnesses

A witness named AYB narrated her experience of being sexually abused by a former priest at the orphanage, Father Reginald Basil Durham. She told the investigation that her abuse began when she was only 11. She said, during Father Durham’s visit to the family home on Christmas Eve, he started taking advantage of her sexually. She, not only felt powerless and robotic but also felt enslaved.

When he kissed her, she said, "He was a smoker and the taste was horrible.” But he told her to keep everything secret.

Another witness of the investigation, a former resident Mary Adams, now 64 said two priests sexually abused her at the orphanage. Over time, she had become hyper, often weeping and trying to get rid of the abuser. "All I could focus on was the crosses on his shirt, so I yelled at him, 'Father, you are committing a mortal sin.”

Justice Delayed But Should Not Be Denied

Former Rockhampton bishop Brian Heenan is also expected to appear for further investigation next week. In 1996, he denied all the allegations against the priests at the orphanage, however in 1997 he forcibly apologised and regretted the way he reacted.

In a press statement in 2003, bishop Heenan said he had always worked with honesty and integrity. In June same year, a Catholic Church tribunal informed the Bishop never seriously violated the church's principles.