Child sex abuse inquiry: Girl raped at an orphanage told at birth she was 'having the devil taken out'

By William Rollo
ABC News
April 15, 2015

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-15/child-sex-abuse-inquiry-witness-who-was-raped-baby-taken/6395858

St Joseph's Neerkol Orphanage in Rockhampton in central Queensland, date unknown.

A teenager who was raped at a Queensland orphanage and fell pregnant was told by nuns she had the devil inside her, the royal commission into child sexual abuse has heard.

The woman, who gave evidence under the name AYL, was raped when she was 14 by a worker at St Joseph's Neerkol Orphanage, near Rockhampton, in 1965.

She was taken to the Good Shepherd's home in Brisbane to give birth in front of nuns, who she was not permitted to talk to, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard.

"The baby was taken from me by one of the nuns who assisted in the delivery of the baby and was told I was 'having the devil taken out of me'," AYL said.

"I do not know the names of any of the nuns who were present, because I was never allowed to speak to them.

"I do not know what happened to the baby.

"I did not comprehend properly what happened."

It was only later in AYL's life, when she had her first child, she realised the true nature of the ordeal.

"I felt disgusted and dirty," she said.

The royal commission is sitting for two weeks in Rockhampton to investigate the St Joseph's Neerkol Orphange, near the Central Queensland city.

The inquiry is hearing evidence from former residents of the orphanage, where hundreds of children were physically and sexually abused from the 1940s to 1970s.

Earlier in the day the commission heard from Diane Carpenter, who lived at Neerkol intermittently until she turned 17.

Ms Carpenter said she believed all five of her siblings were sexually abused at the orphanage, where children from the same family were kept apart.

She also recounted to the commission physical punishments dished out by the Sisters of Mercy nuns.

At times she was beaten, shook or belted on her bare bottom with a stick.

"On one occasion I was locked in an extremely hot room and was forced to drink my own urine to stay hydrated," Ms Carpenter told the commission.

Ms Carpenter also recalled a nun ordering another girl to scrub her.

"I was very brown, you know, black and I was scrubbed with a scrubbing brush," Ms Carpenter said.

"I still have scars on my back today because it was really hard and it was like somebody was cutting me with a knife."

Ms Carpenter received about $10,000 compensation from a civil case launched on behalf of Neerkol victims.