Survivor, Father Rod Bower Speak out for ‘silent Victims’ of Institutional Child Abuse

By Geraldine Cardozo
Daily Telegraph
October 28, 2015

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/central-coast/survivor-father-rod-bower-speak-out-for-silent-victims-of-institutional-child-abuse/story-fngr8h0p-1227586567886

Child sexual abuse survivor Malcolm Angus with Father Micheal Davies (L) and Father Rod Bower (R) at St Luke’s Church Woy Woy. Picture: Mark Scott

More than six decades have passed since Woy Woy Bay volunteer firefighter Malcolm Angus was sexually abused by an Anglican priest.

And yet the horrific memories of the repeated abuse, which started in Fiji when he was only 7 and ended in rape in an Australian Anglican boarding house when he was 18, still haunt the 69-year-old former CEO.

“The effects of childhood sexual abuse never leave you,” Mr Angus, who will be speaking out publicly for the first time about his experience on Saturday, said.

“But only the living victims have been offered a chance for justice. Only the living have told their stories of horror and sadness.”

Mr Angus, who never told his parents and only opened up to his two adult sons about the abuse last year, will be talking at a world-first service at St Luke’s Anglican Church in Woy Woy on Saturday night for the “silent” victims of institutional child abuse who have died.

Controversial Anglican Archdeacon of the Central Coast Father Rod Bower will also be speaking at the inaugural event.