AUSTRALIA
The Australian
Child abuse victim raped, burned, held underwater by Salvation Army major Victor Bennett
DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN APRIL 07, 2014
A SALVATION Army officer put out cigarettes on the body of a seven-year-old boy, who was also thrown into a swimming pool with bricks tied to his feet, the royal commission has heard.
The boy, who cannot be named, was repeatedly raped by the officer, Major Victor Bennett, at a Salvation Army-run home in Queensland but was later offered only $10,000 in compensation by the church.
In a formal statement sent to the Salvation Army in 2007 and subsequently tendered to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the victim said “Major Bennett put out cigarette butts on me and even between my toes.
“I was stripped naked and bricks were tied to my feet then I was thrown in the pool by Major Bennett. I managed to get my feet loose but when I tried to get out, he pushed me back in,” the statement said.
A separate internal report, drawn up by another Salvation Army officer who interviewed the victim, said he “has terrible memories of his experiences, waking at night screaming at his wife.”
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