Child sex abuse royal commission speaks to parents of children allegedly abused in Victorian state care
By the national reporting team's Dan Oakes
15 Aug 2014
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has interviewed parents of children who were allegedly sexually and physically abused while in state care in Victoria....
Parents have called for the royal commission to hold public hearings over abuse in Victoria's out-of-home care system, such as those already held regarding the Catholic Church, Salvation Army, Swimming Australia and after-school care operated by the YMCA.
The public hearings have exposed failings that led to the sexual abuse of children in the care of those institutions....
Public hearings about the Catholic Church's "Melbourne response" to child abuse will be conducted for two weeks beginning on Monday.
The development comes after revelations in recent months by the ABC that children in residential care units have been targeted by paedophile gangs, and have been subjected to horrific sexual and physical abuse by older children.
Last month, a judgement handed down in a Victorian court savaged the Department of Human Services over its treatment of two young siblings who were allegedly raped by older children in residential care and witnessed the sexual and physical abuse of other children....
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-15/commission-speaks-to-parents-of-children-abused-in-state-care/5671688
British Police Search Property of Cliff Richard Over Sex Abuse Claim
By KATRIN BENNHOLD AUG. 14, 2014
LONDON — Another prominent British public figure has been caught up in allegations of pedophilia.
On Thursday, the police searched a property belonging to Cliff Richard, one of Britain’s most successful recording artists, as part of an investigation into a claim “of a sexual nature.” The allegation, which dates to the 1980s, involves a boy who was younger than 16 at the time, a police statement said.
The claim relates to an alleged sexual assault at a 1985 faith rally in Sheffield where Billy Graham appeared, the BBC and The Guardian reported. The police did not say whether the search of Mr. Richard’s house made him a suspect or a witness or neither.
No arrests have been made and Mr. Richard, 73, who is currently out of the country, issued his own statement, calling the claim “completely false.”....
Leading the coverage was the explosive revelation in 2012 that Jimmy Savile, a former children’s television host with the name recognition of Johnny Carson, had raped and sexually assaulted scores of children. Mr. Savile, a BBC staple and friend of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, used his status and charity work to gain access to vulnerable children in schools and even hospitals. He died in 2011 at 84.
Since then, other well-known personalities have been accused or convicted of sexual offenses involving children, among them Rolf Harris, once one of Britain’s most popular television entertainers, who last month was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison for a range of sexual offenses committed decades ago against girls as young as 8. Others who have been convicted include Max Clifford, 71, Britain’s best-known publicist; and Stuart Hall, 84, a former broadcaster for the BBC.
The political establishment, too, has been in the spotlight, both for sexual misconduct and for apparently covering it up.
Cyril Smith, a once-respected member of Parliament who died in 2010, was accused of abusing boys in a children’s home in his constituency....
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/15/international-home/cliff-richard-britain-sex-abuse-scandal.html
Showing posts with label Salvation Army. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Salvation Army. Show all posts
Thursday, August 14, 2014
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
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
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
Monday, January 27, 2014
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
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
Monday, December 20, 2010
Author of 'Pedophile's Guide' Arrested on Obscenity Charges, Salvation Army says sorry for abuse
Author of 'Pedophile's Guide' Arrested on Obscenity Charges
Philip R. Greaves II Arrested After Mailing Book to Undercover Officers in Florida By KI MAE HEUSSNER Dec. 20, 2010
The Colorado man who sparked a firestorm of controversy with his self-published "pedophile's guide" on Amazon has been arrested on obscenity charges.
Officials with the Polk County, Florida, Sheriff's Office said today that they worked with law enforcement in Pueblo, Colo. to arrest Philip R. Greaves II, 47, author of the electronic book, "The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure: a Child-lover's Code of Conduct." The book, which went on sale in late October, ignited intense online protests and was ultimately pulled by Amazon in November.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said his office obtained a warrant for Greaves' arrest after the author mailed a signed copy of the book to undercover detectives, giving them jurisdiction. Greaves has been charged with distribution of obscene material depicting minors engaged in conduct harmful to minors.
"I thought the book was outrageous," Judd said. "That someone would pen a how-to manifesto to sexually batter very young children." He said Florida has a very clear obscenity statute prohibiting the depiction of children engaged in sexual conduct and two real-life stories in Greaves' book violated that statute.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/author-pedophiles-guide-arrested-obscenity-charges/story?id=12440853
Author of pedophile guide arrested on Florida obscenity charge
By Craig Pittman, Times staff writer December 21, 2010
....Greaves, 47, was not charged with distribution of child pornography because there were no pictures of children being molested, explained sheriff's spokesman Scott Wilder. However, the book includes first-person descriptions of sexual encounters, purportedly written from a child's point of view.
In the book Greaves contends it is only a crime to act on sexual impulses toward children, and offers advice that purportedly allows pedophiles to abide by the law.
The author, a retired nurse with no criminal record, told Fox News last month that his book does not promote pedophilia, although it's "something that I have sympathy for because of my own childhood." He told CNN at the time that he has not had sexual contact with a child as an adult, but he did when he was a teenager. He said an adult female introduced him to oral sex when he was 7.
Greaves chose late Monday not to fight extradition. In a brief court appearance in Colorado, the author...told a judge he would go face the charge in Florida.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/criminal/author-of-pedophile-guide-arrested-on-florida-obscenity-charge/1141156
Salvation Army says sorry for abuse Susanna Dunkerley December 7, 2010 AAP The physical scars may have faded but the emotional ones remain raw for thousands of Australians who were abused while growing up inside children's homes.
So an apology by the Salvation Army for the abuse of children in its care up to the 1990s was welcome news for many of the survivors who gathered in Canberra on Tuesday...."Many children did not experience the gentleness of love that they needed," the apology, later distributed to media, read. "Some children suffered abuse and deprivation. As a result their stories are full of hurt, rejection, discouragement and a failure to realise potential....The support network for the half a million so-called forgotten Australians, who grew up inside orphanages and institutions, welcomed the apology....Brian Cherrie, 57, who was repeatedly raped inside the notorious Box Hill Boys' Home, wants the churches and charities responsible for the abuse to sell assets to pay for compensation.
"The children's home where I grew up is still owned by the Salvation Army ... and is worth tens of millions of dollars," he told reporters.
"These churches and charities made a lot of money on the back of our misery and they need to cough up and pay redress to all forgotten Australians."
But survivors like Alfred Stirling, 70, say no amount of money will ever make up for the abuse suffered inside.
"I'd get the crap beaten out of me, and then raped ... it was hell," he said of his time in Bayswater Boys' Homes from 1954-57.
http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-national/salvation-army-says-sorry-for-abuse-20101207-18o2c.html
Philip R. Greaves II Arrested After Mailing Book to Undercover Officers in Florida By KI MAE HEUSSNER Dec. 20, 2010
The Colorado man who sparked a firestorm of controversy with his self-published "pedophile's guide" on Amazon has been arrested on obscenity charges.
Officials with the Polk County, Florida, Sheriff's Office said today that they worked with law enforcement in Pueblo, Colo. to arrest Philip R. Greaves II, 47, author of the electronic book, "The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure: a Child-lover's Code of Conduct." The book, which went on sale in late October, ignited intense online protests and was ultimately pulled by Amazon in November.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said his office obtained a warrant for Greaves' arrest after the author mailed a signed copy of the book to undercover detectives, giving them jurisdiction. Greaves has been charged with distribution of obscene material depicting minors engaged in conduct harmful to minors.
"I thought the book was outrageous," Judd said. "That someone would pen a how-to manifesto to sexually batter very young children." He said Florida has a very clear obscenity statute prohibiting the depiction of children engaged in sexual conduct and two real-life stories in Greaves' book violated that statute.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/author-pedophiles-guide-arrested-obscenity-charges/story?id=12440853
Author of pedophile guide arrested on Florida obscenity charge
By Craig Pittman, Times staff writer December 21, 2010
....Greaves, 47, was not charged with distribution of child pornography because there were no pictures of children being molested, explained sheriff's spokesman Scott Wilder. However, the book includes first-person descriptions of sexual encounters, purportedly written from a child's point of view.
In the book Greaves contends it is only a crime to act on sexual impulses toward children, and offers advice that purportedly allows pedophiles to abide by the law.
The author, a retired nurse with no criminal record, told Fox News last month that his book does not promote pedophilia, although it's "something that I have sympathy for because of my own childhood." He told CNN at the time that he has not had sexual contact with a child as an adult, but he did when he was a teenager. He said an adult female introduced him to oral sex when he was 7.
Greaves chose late Monday not to fight extradition. In a brief court appearance in Colorado, the author...told a judge he would go face the charge in Florida.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/criminal/author-of-pedophile-guide-arrested-on-florida-obscenity-charge/1141156
Salvation Army says sorry for abuse Susanna Dunkerley December 7, 2010 AAP The physical scars may have faded but the emotional ones remain raw for thousands of Australians who were abused while growing up inside children's homes.
So an apology by the Salvation Army for the abuse of children in its care up to the 1990s was welcome news for many of the survivors who gathered in Canberra on Tuesday...."Many children did not experience the gentleness of love that they needed," the apology, later distributed to media, read. "Some children suffered abuse and deprivation. As a result their stories are full of hurt, rejection, discouragement and a failure to realise potential....The support network for the half a million so-called forgotten Australians, who grew up inside orphanages and institutions, welcomed the apology....Brian Cherrie, 57, who was repeatedly raped inside the notorious Box Hill Boys' Home, wants the churches and charities responsible for the abuse to sell assets to pay for compensation.
"The children's home where I grew up is still owned by the Salvation Army ... and is worth tens of millions of dollars," he told reporters.
"These churches and charities made a lot of money on the back of our misery and they need to cough up and pay redress to all forgotten Australians."
But survivors like Alfred Stirling, 70, say no amount of money will ever make up for the abuse suffered inside.
"I'd get the crap beaten out of me, and then raped ... it was hell," he said of his time in Bayswater Boys' Homes from 1954-57.
http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-national/salvation-army-says-sorry-for-abuse-20101207-18o2c.html
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)