Richard "Tommy" Campion Vows to Continue Helping Other Abuse Victims Seek Justice
By Samantha Turnbull
He was brutally abused at the Church of England North Coast Children's Home for 14 years, fought for justice for a decade, and now Richard 'Tommy' Campion finally feels as though his personal battle has ended. "Probably about now, I'm the happiest I've been since I started this battle," he said. "The church doesn't stuff around with me anymore. "But you never forget these things." Despite ending his own quest for justice, Mr Campion is continuing to act as an advisor for other abuse victims. "Unfortunately some of the other children — now adults — I still think about them and wonder how they are," he said. "I'm not saying I want to see them and sit and have cups of tea, I just hope they're coping as well as I am. "I know that many are not, which is very, very sad." Abandoned at 'brutal home' Mr Campion, 68, and his sister Suzanne were abandoned by their mother at ages two and four respectively. Their father said he could no longer support the siblings and took them to the Church of England North Coast Children's Home in the northern New South Wales city of Lismore. "My father used to come back and visit us for quite a while and we'd sit under a tree out the front and apparently I used to pull the hairs in his ears and that sort of thing and he used to bring lollies," Mr Campion said. "But he stopped after about six months and I never saw him again in my life."
But Mr Campion and his sister did not find a haven at the home. Instead, they were subjected to years of abuse at the hands of the staff tasked with caring for them. "There was a matron there who was one of the most shocking people ever, she would flog the children until she was exhausted and purple in the face," Mr Campion said. "I was flogged so many times, I've still got the scars on my back because I couldn't recite the words from a prayer. "Most of the children were abused day to day and you could hear screams coming from inside the boys' dormitory and the girls' dormitory even through a thick wall. "It was a brutal home. "I still cannot understand to this day how someone can grab a child and abuse them." 'You know it's wrong' When you hear one of your little mates being flogged and hear them cry, you know it's wrong Richard 'Tommy' Campion Despite never knowing another childhood, Mr Campion knew the abuse was wrong. "You know it's wrong because something hurts you and you should never hurt anything," he said. "You just know these things, it's a natural instinct. "It's like you know when you're in love … it's inside of you and I just knew you shouldn't bash or hit a child. "When you hear one of your little mates being flogged and hear them cry, you know it's wrong." Mr Campion spent 14 years at the home and was once offered a glimmer of hope when his sister was adopted. "One day a car pulled up and these people came out and all the girls lined up inside," he said. "There were some people looking for a child to take away and adopt to look after and they picked my sister because she was a very pleasant, wonderful, soft person. "I never saw her for a long time but I fretted so much that they decided to take me too. "But it only lasted for a couple of weeks, they said I'd been raised by animals … and I was. At age 16, Mr Campion left the home to work in a hardware store.
"I thought 'I can't be in a job like this selling nails and running errands, there's talent here, I've got something'," he said. "I saw an ad in the Northern Star newspaper in Lismore that said 'Wanted: cadet photographer, must be outgoing'. "It got me to come out of my shyness and learn how to respect others. "I didn't have much respect for a lot of people; it took a while. "I realised it was a life I had to look after and I had to start loving and caring and worrying about other people, instead of worrying about the people who used to abuse me." Fight for justice begins When Mr Campion turned 58, however, the ghosts of his childhood came back to haunt him. "I started having nightmares, dreams and lots of thoughts about what had happened," he said. "I used to reach around to my back and feel the marks and people would comment on the marks sometimes at the beach. "I gradually started thinking about my friends who were in the home and I'd hear them screaming." Mr Campion wrote a letter to the Anglican Church in 2005 detailing his abuse. Days later, he received a written apology and an offer of compensation, but Mr Campion declined.
"I felt sadness for everyone and that I didn't deserve this so I didn't accept it," he said. "But, I thought the best thing to do was find these other people." Mr Campion scoured through libraries and placed advertisements in newspapers searching for other victims. "And it was about that time the church realised they were in trouble," Mr Campion said. The church denied being in charge of the home and argued that it was run by a "community group". "I thought 'Well this is a load of rot, if they want to fight, I don't know if I can do it but I'll try my best and we deserve the truth'," Mr Campion said. "So, I fought the bastards." After a long court battle, almost 40 abuse victims agreed to take payments from the church of less than $20,000 each. Mr Campion and his sister continued to refuse. "I fought on, not for the money, for the truth," he said. Royal Commission gives hope
In 2012, when former prime minister Julia Gillard announced the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Mr Campion saw new hope. "I was standing near the couch and I fell … I couldn't believe it," he said. "I knew I was going to win this." Mr Campion took the witness stand in 2013. "I was petrified, I was tongue-tied, lost for words," he said. "All of those built up years of fighting a church could never be explained at a Royal Commission, there was too much, it would've gone on for months." Mr Campion said he had just one regret. At the end of his questioning, Mr Campion was asked if he had anything left to say and he replied "no". "If I could go back I would've excused myself and turned to the people and said 'anyone in the church here today, my advice to you is to get out'," he said. "I would've told them to leave, I would've begged them to go, I would've even shooed them out of the room … and I think about that a lot and grit my teeth and wish I did." Victory at last Last year, former Anglican Bishop of Grafton Keith Slater and registrar of Anglican Diocese of Grafton Patrick Comben were defrocked for failing to respond to Mr Campion's claims of abuse. After a year of processing the result, and admitting vindication, Mr Campion said as long as there were other victims he would continue to fight for them. "Anyone in need, I feel like I should help as best I can," he said. "I feel that people deserve help and it's been instilled in me from later on in life from the people that have loved and helped me. "The church, I will battle them again if I have to."
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