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| Alleged Victim of Child Sexual Abuse in Nsw Threatened Suicide
By Ashleigh Raper
The ABC News
November 20, 2013
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-20/alleged-victim-of-child-sexual-abuse-in-nsw-threatened-suicide/5105064
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard an alleged victim threatened suicide during a lengthy compensation battle with the Anglican Church.
The commission this week began its third round of public hearings, this time to examine the alleged sexual and physical abuse of up to 200 children at the North Coast Children's Home in Lismore.
The hearing will consider what happened at the home and how the Anglican Diocese of Grafton responded to allegations of abuse.
Solicitor Simon Harrison was holding negotiations with the head of the Anglican Church, Dr Phillip Aspinall over a compensation settlement.
He told the commission he believes there was no moral imperative driving the Anglican Church to compensate former residents of the children's home in Lismore.
He said he came to that conclusion while negotiating a class action for almost 40 people who claimed they were severely physically and sexually abused at the home.
Counsel Assisting Simeon Beckett: "Was there any engagement with you from either the diocese of Brisbane or from Dr Aspinall with respect to some sort of moral obligation for him, as primate, to assist?"
Simon Harrison: "I think there was probably a PR (public relations) imperative to be seen to provide some response to me. I don't think they could have ignored my correspondence. But certainly I wasn't picking up on any moral imperative to try and settle these matters appropriately."
Mr Harrison said he found many of the dealings "inappropriate" and that the class action took its toll, with one particular claimant threatening suicide during a phone conversation.
"Certainly that was the extreme of what we were getting, but we were getting a number of calls from people who were quite clearly on the edge of self harm," he said.
"That was taking a great toll."
The class action was settled with the church paying $825,000 in 2007.
The hearing has been told this week that conditions for the children in the home were harsh with former residents telling the commission children were often hungry.
Former child residents of the home have also provided detailed accounts of the sexual abuse they suffered over the period 1944 to 1985.
Today the Royal Commission has again heard the historic abuse at the North Coast Children's Home in Lismore was horrific.
In a statement, one former resident told the Commission it was not just clergy from the Anglican Church who committed abuse.
"I was raped three times by older boys who lived in the home."
Also in a statement, another victim spoke of the lasting impact of the abuse.
"I had no confidence, no hope, no friends".
The four former residents who gave statements to the Commission today said they were angry with the church's handling of their claims.
One said, "I had people calling me and saying to me that I was lying. At the end of that case, it was like being raped all over again".
Before the hearing began this week the Anglican Church acknowledged it failed to respond properly when the class action was launched.
The church is still dealing with complaints from victims at the home, but most of the perpetrators from the North Coast Children's Home are dead.
However there are some suspects who are still alive and the Church says any allegations have been passed on to police.
The North Coast Children's Home is still owned by the Anglican Church, and it is still operated as a home for troubled youths.
The royal commission hearings into the home will run for two weeks.
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