Harrowing tales at abuse royal commission

Harrowing tales at abuse royal commission
By Australian Associated Press
29 June 2014

Forty years later in 2006 the man giving evidence read an article by Tommy Campion, another former resident of the North Coast Children’s Home….

In the 1980s he had been diagnosed with depression and attempted suicide several times. He now had leukaemia. In broken voice he told of beatings that left him scarred; of being left at a table for ten hours because he could not eat the food. If he threw up he would be made to eat the vomit.

A priest who seemed kind made him lie naked while he performed a pseudo-religious ritual that involved molesting him sexually….

His life has been no life just like many among the thousands of people who are coming forward to tell their stories – often for the first time….

Children of abuse survivors are learning for the first time why their mum or dad could never hug them. A landscape of broken lives, failed relationships, drug use, anger, suicides, bravery and extraordinary honesty while people struggle still for happiness is being painted by these witnesses.

Preparing for and giving evidence is a renewed trauma and the commission always has counsellors on hand to help them through.

Institutions, the Christian and Marist brothers, the Salvation Army, Catholic and Anglican dioceses, the YMCA, Scouts Australia, state run child-protection agencies and police forces across the country are trying to explain how it happened on their watch.

When a Salvation Army witness started to say how different standards of child discipline in the 1960s and `70s might explain why boys were beaten until they bled in homes in NSW and Queensland, commission chair Justice Peter McClellan interrupted to remind her she was talking about criminal assaults.

Brand protection, systemic failures, wilful ignorances, whether it be in the YMCA, the Scouts or the Catholic Church are being uncovered daily at these hearings.

The Catholic and Anglican churches moved abusers when complaints were made.

They kept no records that can now be produced.

In the case of the Marist Brothers, a man who was jailed for 12 years in 2006 was put on a plane to a clinic for sex-offending priests in Canada three days after the order knew police were investigating him for offences dating back years….
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/aap/article-2674516/Harrowing-tales-abuse-royal-commission.html

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Australian panel told of sexual abuse of boys at Salvation Army homes, Salvation Army’s response to The Royal Commission, Child abuse inquiry: Priest told boy he was ‘product of evil and satanic relationship’, Are our children at risk of Satanic pedophile rings?

Australian panel told of sexual abuse of boys at Salvation Army homes
By Jethro Mullen and Jessica King, CNN
Wed January 29, 2014

(CNN) — An Australian commission is hearing allegations of the physical and sexual abuse of boys in the care of the Salvation Army over several decades.

The shocking treatment at some of the organization’s boys homes included rape, beatings, locking boys in cages and, in one case, forcing a boy to eat his own vomit, the commission was told Tuesday.

The public hearings, taking place in Sydney, are part of a wide-ranging investigation into how Australian institutions responded to cases of child sexual abuse.

The current phase is focusing on the Salvation Army’s response to abuse that took place in four of its boys homes in the states of Queensland and New South Wales in the 1960s and ’70s….

The Salvation Army isn’t denying the abuse, which came to light previously. It has apologized, admitting that hundreds of boys suffered in its care….

Those who did complain weren’t generally taken seriously.

“In cases when abuse was reported, the boys were often disbelieved and were punished for reporting what were characterized as ‘lies,'” he told the hearing….
http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/28/world/asia/australia-salvation-army-abuse-hearing/

Royal Commission

These pages have been designed to answer questions you may have about The Salvation Army’s response to The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. On the 28th of January 2014 the Royal Commission will begin its public hearing into four boys’ homes operated by The Salvation Army’s Australia Eastern Territory during the period from 1965-1977.

The Salvation Army feels deep regret for every instance of child sexual abuse inflicted on children in our care. We are grieved that such things happened. We acknowledge that it was a failure of the greatest magnitude….
http://salvos.org.au/royalcommission/

Child abuse inquiry: Priest told boy he was ‘product of evil and satanic relationship’
29 January 2014

A priest told a former resident of a church-run children’s home in Northern Ireland that he was the product of an evil and satanic relationship, an inquiry has heard.

The son of an unmarried mother said he became a zombie, introverted and fearing the next beating, lying soaked in urine at night in an attempt to dissuade any sexual abusers from “dropping the hand”.

He was a resident at St Joseph’s in Termonbacca, Londonderry, run by the Sisters of Nazareth order of nuns, in the 1950s and complained about his treatment to a priest after leaving the home.

The response was: “You must never speak about this, you must understand… you and the other orphans are bastards. You are the product of an evil and satanic relationship. You never had a chance.”….

“I have waited 65 years to say this. When I was reared by the Sisters of the Congregation of Nazareth it was equivalent to being reared by the Taliban, such was their sadism, their lack of empathy, their fundamentalism, their lack of dignity to the little helpless boy.”

He ran away and was recovered time after time.

One nun smirked and said: “Welcome back, your majesty,” the witness said.

“Then the beatings would start.”….
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/child-abuse-inquiry-priest-told-boy-he-was-product-of-evil-and-satanic-relationship-29961572.html

Are our children at risk of Satanic pedophile rings?
Judy Byington Saratoga Springs Child Abuse Examiner
January 29, 2014

Are our children in danger of exploitation by global Satanic pedophile rings?

This month several child abuse survivors of Satanic pedophile rings came forward to say “Yes.”….
http://www.examiner.com/article/are-our-children-at-risk-of-satanic-pedophile-rings

Salvation Army ‘deeply regrets’ sexual abuse of children in its care, Northern Ireland child abuse inquiry to hear victims of Derry nuns, Sisters of Nazareth become second Catholic order to admit to child abuse

Salvation Army ‘deeply regrets’ sexual abuse of children in its care
Charity acknowledges ‘failure of the greatest magnitude’ before public hearing into its response to abuse at four of its homes

Australian Associated Press
theguardian.com, Monday 27 January 2014

The Salvation Army says it feels deep regret for every instance of sexual abuse inflicted on children in its care.

The statement comes as representatives of the Salvation Army prepare to appear before the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse on Tuesday.

The commission is preparing to investigate the charity’s movement of staff linked to sex abuse between children’s homes in New South Wales and Queensland….

At a child abuse inquiry in Victoria last year it was revealed that since 1997 the Salvation Army had received 474 abuse claims, 470 of which arose from its children’s homes, over 30 to 40 years.

It has also been reported that the Salvation Army Australia has privately paid out more than $15 million settling abuse claims.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/28/salvation-army-regrets-sexual-abuse-children-in-care

Northern Ireland child abuse inquiry to hear victims of Derry nuns
Former residents of homes run by Sisters of Nazareth to give evidence at historical institutional abuse inquiry on Monday

Henry McDonald Ireland correspondent
theguardian.com, Monday 27 January 2014

The UK’s biggest ever child abuse inquiry will hear evidence on Monday from victims who were abused in two Derry homes run by Catholic nuns.

Based in Banbridge courthouse in Northern Ireland, the historical institutional abuse inquiry will focus on the maltreatment of children in Nazareth children’s home and Termonbacca, both run by the Sisters of Nazareth.

The order of nuns has already issued an apology to victims at the tribunal….

The Derry-based homes are among 13 separate institutions where children were physically and sexually abused. The inquiry will hear from 434 people and will last until June 2015.

A representatives of Northern Ireland’s Health and Social Care Board also said that if the state had failed in any way it was sorry.

Among the state-run institutions under examination was the former boys’ home at Kincora in east Belfast where senior staff including a prominent Orangeman ran a regime of sexual abuse and rape during the 1960s and 70s.

A number of those who ran the home or were implicated in the abuse were also loyalists working as state agents….
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/27/northern-ireland-child-abuse-inquiry-nuns-sisters-nazareth

Sisters of Nazareth become second Catholic order to admit to child abuse
Nuns join De Le Salle Brothers in admitting at institutional child abuse inquiry that children in their care were abused

Henry McDonald, Ireland correspondent
theguardian.com, Tuesday 14 January 2014

Two Catholic orders have now admitted children were abused in their care at the largest inquiry into institutional child abuse in UK legal history.

The Sisters of Nazareth nuns joined the De La Salle Brothers in their admissions on Tuesday that girls and boys were subjected to physical and sexual abuse in institutions in Northern Ireland that they controlled….
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/14/de-la-salle-brothers-order-admits-abuse-boys-care-home