Woman Tells of Child Abuse during Royal Commission at Perth Salvation Army Home

Perth Now
October 8, 2015

http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/woman-tells-of-child-abuse-during-royal-commission-at-perth-salvation-army-home/news-story/c071ccc79d35fba4b1b29961be0d5089

A FORMER resident of a Salvation Army children’s home in Perth was beaten, humiliated and sexually abused, a royal commission has heard.

The 57-year-old cannot be identified, but has detailed her treatment at the Hollywood Children’s Village in Nedlands from 1969 to 1972.

She said she had trouble with bed-wetting as a child and as punishment a staff member would rub her face in the wet sheets.

“I was also forced to wear wet underpants on my head with the crotch part over my nose,” she told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Wednesday.

“All the bed-wetters were made to stand in the lounge room so everyone could see us.”

The woman told how she was locked in a boiler room and one day thrown into a slop bin used to hold food for pigs.

She also gave evidence about sexual abuse at the Nedlands home, including some by a sibling, and the abuse she suffered at home with her family.

The woman said she hoped the Royal Commission would recommend ongoing support for victims of abuse who she described as forgotten Australians.

In other evidence on Wednesday, the commission heard that the South Australian Government knew of allegations of child sex abuse at a Salvation Army boys’ home in Adelaide dating back to the 1940s.

It was told of various allegations and incidents, including some that were investigated by police.

Among them was a report in 1963 that a live-in domestic worker at the Eden Park home raised concerns after being disturbed at night by sudden and violent screams and also noticed that the bed sheets of some boys were blood-stained.

Police investigated but no further action was taken, counsel assisting Sophie David SC said.

Taking Families SA deputy chief executive Etienne Scheepers through his evidence, Ms David detailed other incidents, including one in 1940 when a Salvation Army ensign was jailed for indecent conduct and 29 boys were removed from the school.

There was also an incident in 1982 when a social worker suspected three boys had been sexually abused.

The commission is continuing with evidence still to come from victims of abuse at Salvation Army homes at Bayswater and Box Hill in Victoria.