Commission attention turns to Bayswater and Box Hill boys’ homes

By Jordy Atkinson And Jesse Wray-Mccann
Leader
September 2, 2015

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/east/commission-attention-turns-to-bayswater-and-box-hill-boys-homes/story-fngnvlxu-1227508915247

Bayswater and Box Hill boys’ homes will be the subject of a royal commission hearing in October.

ALLEGATIONS  of sexual abuse at the former Bayswater and Box Hill boys’ homes are the subject of a hearing in October.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has announced it will hold a public hearing to inquire into the experiences of children who lived in Salvation Army institutions between 1940 and 1990, which includes the notorious Bayswater Boys’ Home.

The home in Liverpool Rd, The Basin, operated from 1897 to 1986 and housed hundreds of boys who had been placed in legal custody.

The royal commission is encouraging former child residents at the home and anyone with any information to appear before the hearing, which will begin in Adelaide on October 6.

The commission will investigate how the Salvation Army responded to allegations of child sexual abuse.

In a submission to a Victorian parliamentary inquiry in 2012, Brian Cherrie, who was allegedly raped and sexually abused on numerous occasions at the Box Hill home, said the Box Hill and Bayswater homes were “absolutely notorious for beatings and child rapes”.

“I personally know of two people aged in their late 60s who have lots of physical scars on their bodies from the Bayswater Boys’ Home,” Mr Currie’s submission read.

His submission also stated that he had spoken to someone who had seen a skeleton at the Bayswater home during his residence there.

In the same inquiry in April 2013, Salvation Army legal secretary Captain Malcolm Roberts said he had seen service records of one officer who had confessed in 1950 to the sexual abuse of four boys at the Bayswater and Box Hill homes.

Mr Roberts said the officer never worked in a Salvation Army children’s home again, but he did not know if the man was ever reported to police.

In 2004 and 2010 the Salvation Army made formal apologies to former children’s home residents for the abuse they suffered.

In a written statement, the Salvation Army said it would “fully co-operate with the royal commission and actively engage with individual survivors and care leaver groups”.

To make a submission go to childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au