Salvos Urged to Change Attitude to Abuse

Sky News
October 8, 2015

http://www.skynews.com.au/news/national/2015/10/08/salvos-urged-to-change-attitude-to-abuse.html

The Salvation Army has been urged to change its attitude and better recognise the horrific abuse suffered by children taken into its homes.

In a statement read to a royal commission in Adelaide, David Wright, who died recently, said the Salvos needed to acknowledge what happened to the 'beautiful children' who went into their homes.

'They seem unprepared to turn their minds towards what happened, to what their employees were capable of,' Mr Wright said in his statement read on Thursday.

Mr Wright spent two years at Box Hill Boy's Home in Melbourne in the 1950s, arriving there when he was just nine years old.

His statement to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse detailed the emotional, physical and sexual abuse he suffered over that time.

He said the culture of punishment and fear at Box Hill was horrific, with boys beaten with broomsticks and straps or with whatever staff members could get their hands on.

'There was no rule book but you seemed to always be breaking the rules,' Mr Wright said.

Punishment in school often involved a boy standing on a stool in front of the class with a bag over his head.

'This was a terrifying punishment as you were left vulnerable and humiliated,' he said.

Mr Wright settled a compensation claim with the Salvation Army in 2013 for $45,000.

He also received a letter apologising for what happened but did not believe it was 'worth the paper it was written on'.

'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,' he said.

The commission is continuing.