Perth Now
September 25, 2009
http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,27574,26123536-2761,00.html
[with audio]
HIGH-profile Perth radio announcer and former federal MP Eoin Cameron today revealed how he was raped as a 12-year-old student at a Catholic boarding school.
Cameron, who hosts the ABC's Breakfast Show, revealed his traumatic experiences in a graphic and heart-rending interview with fellow ABC announcer Geoff Hutchinson.
The veteran ABC radio personality also revealed how he had been diagnosed some years ago with bi-polar disorder and had suffered a long battle with depression, which he believed were linked to the childhood abuse.
ABC audio: Listen to the Eoin Cameron interview
His teenage years had become a nightmare, unable to tell even his brothers of the assault and he left school at 14, a struggling student whose achievements were below par.
He said he never told of the brutal assault until he confided in his young fiancee just before they were married in Albany, where he first began his radio career on the local station 6VA.
Cameron said he was only recently paid compensation after being raped by a Catholic headmaster in South Australia when he was 12.
 |
| ABUSED: Veteran radio host Eoin Cameron has revealed how he was raped by a Catholic headmaster at 12. |
During the frank interview Cameron told how he was called to the headmaster's office after he had gone to bed at the Marist Brothers boarding school in Mount Gambier.
The revelations first surfaced in a book Cameron wrote in 2003 about his childhood.
He told ABC Radio today that he had eventually received a payout and formal apology from Towards Healing, a body set up by the Catholic Church to deal with complaints of sexual abuse.
Cameron said during the interview that he was offered compensation but the church's original offer was "insulting".
"I felt like I'd been raped all over again," Cameron said.
A settlement was reached six weeks ago, which included a written apology.
After being a bright student at Primary school Cameron said his life "pretty much turned to s..t" when he went to the Catholic high school.
"The headmaster called me to his office one night, it was a Sunday night, and he said it was part of his responsibility to make sure he looked after the boys and see they were developing properly," he said.
"I was pretty much alarmed by this. I was called out of bed and I had my pyjamas and dressing gown on.
"The guy started fondling me through my pyjamas, I was so freaked."
Cameron said he was "pretty much paralysed" while the assault took place.
"I couldn't believe what was happening, I was 12 but I can remember vividly the smell of his breath, the way he breathed, even the veins in his nose, it was just planted in my brain, it seared into my brain," he said.
"He removed my pyjama pants, and I didn't know what he was doing behind me, but it was hurting.
"In the finish, I was crying so much that he stopped what he was doing, and I realised blood running down my legs.
"He told me that no one could know what had happened because my parents had paid good money for me to come to this school and he was just doing the right thing by me and my parents."
Eoin Cameron can be heard every morning Monday to Friday on ABC 720.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.