Ballarat's toxic legacy of sexual abuse by clergy

By Hamish Fitzsimmons
ABC - Lateline
May 18, 2015

http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2015/s4238389.htm

Both victims and abusers will give evidence, when the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse holds public hearings in the Victorian city of Ballarat. Lateline's Hamish Fitzsimmons was given exclusive access to a support group for survivors

EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: Both victims and abusers will give evidence tomorrow when the Royal commission into child sexual abuse holds public hearings in the Victorian city of Ballarat.

It was one of the worst places for abuse by Catholic clergy and the damage they caused continues to ruin lives.

One survivor has told Lateline the death rate from suicide is now higher than the road toll in Ballarat.

It's been revealed that at one stage in 1971, the entire male staff of the St Alipius primary school was molesting children.

One of the most notorious abusers in Ballarat was Father Gerald Ridsdale. He'll be giving evidence to the commission this week via video link from prison.

While the Federal Government opposes a national redress scheme for victims, support is available. It's often provided through the Catholic Church, but there are others, like the Centre Against Sexual Assault in Ballarat.

Lateline's Hamish Fitzsimmons has been following this story for several years and he was invited to a meeting of abuse survivors as they prepared to give evidence to the commission.

TIM, ABUSE SURVIVOR: I've had five friends and I've only been back in Ballarat for six years and I've had five - and I'm not a real sociable person. And so five of these friends are no longer with us. And I know three of those people had been abused and hadn't found the opportunity to come to a group and be recognised, and like us, having the opportunity to be with people that ...

WOMAN: That get it.

TIM: That get it.

WOMAN: Yeah.

TIM: And like I was saying before, I had a couple of - a rough couple of weeks, and, you know, as a group here, without those - you guys being here, I wouldn't have been able to do it. There's no way I would've been able to get through it. And if this group wasn't here, I don't think I'd be able to get there. I'd be out back on my ownsome again and probably contemplating suicide again. And it's not a good place to be.

ANDREW COLLINS, ABUSE SURVIVOR: My wife cut me down. I tried to hang myself once and she was the one who cut me down. And that's had a massive impact on her and her life. It's - yeah, the effects of the abuse just don't stop with us, you know, they continue on.

JULIAN, ABUSE SURVIVOR: We've all got these problems of you suicidal thoughts 'cause you surely can't trust anyone to talk to. And when you do, you'd get a group like this, and all of a sudden, life becomes a little bit better, but it takes a while. But, you're hanging out on your own, there's a fair chance you won't make it.

PETER BLENKIRON, ABUSE SURVIVOR: It's also that community impact right across the board. Like, we know survivors that didn't make it and whose families had their funerals in the church next door to the school where they were abused. Like the denial through the community. And all of a sudden, the suicide rate in Ballarat's through the roof, not just from clergy abuse, but from that almost socially acceptable to take your own life if life gets in a tough spot. Most people I know, they've - half a dozen people that have suicided. Let alone premature death from people who've drunk themselves to death. Like, it's not a ripple effect, it's an atomic bomb that's gone off in Ballarat and it's got this hidden trauma of - landscape of death that I believe is higher than the road toll, but we don't hear about it. We gotta stop that.

TIM LANE, ABUSE SURVIVOR: With the community, there was a person in denial a bit on the news the other night, I remember seeing an old lady come out the front of the church and she said, "Oh, well, I don't believe it." And this is why this has happened. Get the stiff Catholic neck out of the sand and have a look. We can prove it. We've proved that it happened. So get the stiff neck out of the sand. And protect future kids and stop it. 'Cause kids - well, as we know, what happens with kids. You know, so important, our generations upon generations.

SHIREEN GUNN, GROUP COORDINATOR, CASA BALLARAT: The men talk about it being really important to them. The men, as you would've heard in the group, talk about how it actually keeps them alive. Some of them have come to the group at a time when they were feeling desperate.

STEVEN WOODS, ABUSE SURVIVOR: All aspects of society needs politicians to have courage to enact laws for redress to make things like that happen, because as we see in Ballarat here, there are so many premature deaths, you know, and we all know that each one of us has been at the point of suicide many times. Some of us have tried it. Damn, that's hard. ... What about our families? You know, our parents had suffered through so many things. My parents went to their graves thinking they failed us.

VOICE OF DAN, ABUSE SURVIVOR: I don't understand where the Government's coming from. The denial is just unbelievable. This fight has - I've come out, what, three and a half years ago with my views, but this battle's been going on since - oh, well, from my recollections, way back in the mid-'90s, probably even earlier, and the (inaudible) are going way, way back from that. So, this battle has been ongoing for many, many years.

ANDREW COLLINS: If there are a whole heap of politicians who've taken their own lives or a whole heap of senior government workers that had taken their own lives, there would be instant action. They wouldn't have to stand up and fight for recognition. They wouldn't have to stand up and fight. It would just happen. Here we are standing up and fighting. What are our lives worth? The longer that the Government waits to put forward some form of redress scheme, more lives will be lost. What are those lives worth? It sends the message out that our lives aren't worth anything.

SHIREEN GUNN: I think there are a lot more because we talk about that cluster around St Alipius and at one stage there was the whole school staff and plus the principal, plus the local parish priest were all sexual offenders.

ANDREW COLLINS: The abuses may have happened historically, but they're in our minds every day and we have to live with that ongoing. It's not one of those things that it's in the past and you close the door and it's gone. It literally lives with you every day. And unfortunately, that gets too much for some people. And if they don't have the support and the networks around them to help them, then unfortunately, yeah, a lot of people take their own lives. And most of us have been in that situation where we've either been close or we've tried. And, unfortunately, that's a reality.

PETER BLENKIRON: There is a lot of dark and a lot of horrific stuff that's making people still kill themselves, but we've got to look at how do we fix that? How do we put a system in place? How do we adjust what we do? How do we change? This is, this is - we're at the ashes and the Phoenix has to rise from the ashes, otherwise it's all just a waste of time and it's a waste of breath.

EMMA ALBERICI: And if you're concerned about yourself or anyone you know, you can call Beyond Blue (1300 22 4636) or Lifeline (13 11 14). The numbers are on the screen now.