Child Sexual Abuse Royal Commission: Former Salvation Army Home Residents Describe Being Bashed, Having Testicles Squeezed until Passing out
By Candice Marcus
Harrowing accounts of abuse and cruelty at children's homes run by the Salvation Army have been heard as royal commission hearings in Adelaide go into a third day. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse today heard stories of sexual violence committed against children at Box Hill and Bayswater boys' homes in Melbourne. Former resident Ross Rogers said he was frequently raped and sexually abused by senior Salvation Army officer Willem Willemsen in the 1950s. He described being beaten and said on one occasion when he tried to resist the sexual abuse, Willemsen grabbed a nearby plank of wood and hit him across the face, breaking his nose. "I understood from my lawyers that the Salvation Army's response was one of complete denial," he said. "They denied any responsibility for what happened to me and responsibility for Willemsen or his actions." Mr Rogers said he was given $32,500 in compensation from the Salvation Army, but after paying his legal fees he was left with $11,000. He said it was the lack of support that upset him most. "At no point through the criminal proceedings relating to Willemsen nor my civil claim did anybody from the Salvation Army contact me," Mr Rogers said. "I was not offered any counselling. Nobody from the Salvation Army ever listened to my story or spoke to me at all. They just denied everything and left it to their lawyers to sort out." Mr Rogers said he was left with no closure from the Salvation Army. "In my opinion, the Salvation Army just gave me a small amount of money and this money didn't represent any wrongdoing. It was just money to keep me quiet." "I want the Salvation Army to own up to what happened to me and own up to being responsible for Willemsen's actions, as he was employed by them." The commission is examining four children's homes in South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia. Victim's 'testicles squeezed until he passed out' at Bayswater Former residents of Bayswater Boys' Home at The Basin, Victoria, told the commission of routine bashings, punishments and widespread sexual abuse. One of the witnesses, who cannot be identified, said a Salvation Army officer once punished him by squeezing his testicles until he passed out. He said one abuser had threatened him into silence. "He would say 'I'm your friend now. If you don't let me do this, the other boys and officers will do it'." He said there was a small punishment room with no windows that he and other boys had been locked in. "I was thrown into the punishment room, had my clothes ripped off, had cold water thrown over me and I was instructed to stand with my nose against the wall for up to four or five hours." He said staff members also encouraged other boys to be violent and humiliate others. "The officers at Bayswater regularly used older boys to carry out punishments on younger boys," the former resident said. "On one occasion, I was taken to the dairy and two older boys tried to get the cow to kick me. I was forced to fight in the boxing ring several times with much bigger, older boys as punishment." Philip Hodges was also abused at the Bayswater Boys' Home. He described trying to report the abuse he endured while he was in the home and realising it was the worst thing he could have done. Mr Hodges said he was locked in a fire escape stairwell for two to three days as punishment. He said he had always loved photography and had managed to hide a small camera in the home. He said while he was locked in the fire escape he secretly took a photo of an officer bashing another boy. He said when he went back to the home in 2006, after arranging to retrieve his camera through Salvation Army lawyers, it was no longer there. Mr Hodges who suffers from epilepsy, said he learnt how to trigger an epileptic seizure to give himself the physical strength to defend himself while he was at the home.
Commission hears victim's posthumous statement The inquiry was due to hear from former Box Hill resident David Wright but heard he had died. His family provided a statement to the commission saying the abuse had destroyed their father and he wanted his story told. Mr Wright's statement was read to the hearing, in which he detailed regular beatings, punishments, humiliation and sexual abuse at the boys' home. "I suffered greatly," his statement read. "I was physically, sexually and emotionally abused, and I would never get that childhood back. "The system programmed you to believe that you were always wrong, and you were always being punished for things. "I didn't feel there was anybody I could tell." Mr Wright stated that he struggled to deal with what he had been through and had tried to repress the horrific memories. "I tried to live my life without having the abuse hanging over me. I was also always too ashamed and embarrassed to tell anybody, including police," the statement read. "I was also scared that I would not be believed and I continued to have that fear of getting into trouble that I developed from my time at Box Hill." It seems the Salvation Army just handed everything off to be sorted out by lawyers. No officer ever wanted to sit down and listen to what I had to say, they just don't care to even know what happened in their name. The late David Wright In his statement, Mr Wright called for change, urging the Salvation Army to treat victims with respect, humility and kindness. He described the mediation process for settling his compensation claim with the Salvation Army as "terrible" and said he left the meeting feeling like he had experienced abuse again. "They need to acknowledge what happened to the beautiful children who went into their homes," Mr Wright's statement read. "They seem unprepared to turn their minds towards what happened, to what their employees were capable of, and to respond to it. "It seems the Salvation Army just handed everything off to be sorted out by lawyers. No officer ever wanted to sit down and listen to what I had to say, they just don't care to even know what happened in their name." Mr Wright said despite the significant public donations and financial capacity of the organisation, it routinely handed out as little compensation as possible. "No amount of money can restore a childhood but it is a way of recognising the wrongs that occurred in their name to the individual and to society as a whole." Justice Jennifer Coate thanked Mr Wright's family for their cooperation and for honouring their late father's wishes to have his story told. Victorian Government admits failing in its duty of care The Victorian Department of Human Services has admitted failing its duty of care over children who were abused at Salvation Army-run children's homes.
Performance, regulation and reporting director Alan Hall faced the commission and begun by acknowledging the department's failures. "I want to say that I've sat through the days of the evidence being given and to acknowledge the pain and suffering that people have talked about experiencing in their time living in these homes and the impact that that has had on the rest of their lives," he said. "I want it to be clear that the department had a clear responsibility for oversight of those homes and that it clearly did not do enough. "We should have visited more. We should have been there much more for the times that you wanted someone to talk to outside of the homes. "I would just like to commend the courage that people have shown in being able to put their statements forward so clearly and to say that that helps ensure that all of us will do everything we can to make sure that these sorts of events don't happen again in the future."
|
.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.