Child Sex Abuse Inquiry: Former Neerkol Resident "Received a Bullet in the Mail" after Reporting Child Abuse at Orphanage
By William Rollo and Marlina Whop
A man who reported sexual abuse at St Joseph's Neerkol Orphanage received death threats after talking to police, including a bullet in his mailbox, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard. The commission, entering its third day of public hearings, is taking evidence from former residents of the orphanage in Rockhampton. David Owen, 76, said he became a resident of the orphanage at five months of age. He told the commission he was an altar boy for Father John Anderson, who sodomised him for years. "One occasion I was held over the side of a bridge by Father Anderson and told he would drop me into the fires of hell if I didn't do what he required me to do," Mr Owen said. He recalled a nun taking him to see Father Anderson and claimed the nun knew he would be sexually abused. Mr Owen told the hearing if he refused to see Father Anderson, the nun would beat him. He said he reported the abuse but was bashed by the nuns, who yelled: "You filthy animal, how dare you speak about a priest like that". Mr Owen said the nuns forced boxing matches between boys and girls at Neerkol. In the 1990s, Mr Owen said he reported the abuse to the police and received death threats by an anonymous caller shortly afterwards. "I also received a bullet in my mailbox," he said. "It may have been the same day as I received the call." Earlier, a witness known as AYA said she was sexually assaulted by one of the priests. "On my 12th birthday I was sexually abused by Father Reg Durham at Neerkol," she said. "Durham would often ask the girls to visit him. "He would entice you to his room with a display of food that we didn't have such as chicken." AYA also told the inquiry she would often be on her hands and knees scrubbing floors with a chemical. "I do not know what the chemical was," she said. "It burnt my hands and made them white in colour. "I would like to have seen all the victims from Neerkol get justice from the people that abused them but unfortunately most of them have passed away." Another witness known as AYD told the commission a priest applied ointment to an injury and then abused him. "He was rubbing me in between my legs, penis and testicles for about 15 minutes," AYD said in a statement. "Throughout I felt something warm going up and down my arm. "Eventually he told me that I could roll over. "When I rolled over he was standing in front of me with no clothes on and he had a fully erect penis. "When I saw this, I realised what I had felt rubbing along my arm was his penis." It is alleged that hundreds of children were physically and sexually abused at Neerkol from the 1940s to 1970s. Harrowing tales of sexual and physical abuse have already been heard from former residents, including one woman raped when she was 14 by a worker at the orphanage in 1965, and another sexually abused by a priest and forced to drink her own urine to stay hydrated. 'I could not comprehend what he was telling me, it was appalling' Professor Bruce Grundy, a journalism professor at the University of Queensland, broke the Neerkol story. He told 612 ABC Brisbane that the cases of barbaric behaviour were not confined to one person. "Neerkol of course was an absolute hell hole and the way they treated children was just beyond description," he said. "Not all the children, I have to say, but a lot of them." Professor Grundy said he hoped the royal commission pursued complaints made to authorities. "I will be very interested to see how far they will pursue," he said. "Some of those children did make complaints." Mr Grundy said the first contact he had with a victim was in Newcastle, in New South Wales. "I could not comprehend what he was telling me as it was so appalling," he said. "I just wanted to be able to question him to figure it out if it could possibly be. "This man's name then became synonymous with a form of punishment at Neerkol which involved one of the workmen delivering punishment with a stockwhip. "That kind of barbaric behaviour was not just confined to this particular person. "Others have told me the stories of the beatings that they have received." Mr Grundy believed Neerkol was not the only institution in Queensland where abuse occurred. "I just do not get it. These are people who are working in the name of God and these children are being brutalised," he said. "A lot of people, it seems to me, have questions to answer about what went on in Neerkol apart from the nuns."
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