Salvation Army Officers Abuse of Children 'Violent and Extreme'

The Australian
January 28, 2014

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/in-depth/salvation-army-officers-abuse-of-children-violent-and-extreme/story-fngburq5-1226812097775

DOZENS of children suffered "violent and extreme" abuse at the hands of five Salvation Army officers who worked together at boys' homes in Queensland and NSW over several decades, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard.

The men swapped jobs, shared victims and in at least one case helped each other move to new positions within the organisation in order to avoid jail, the commission has heard.

Some of the children under their care were also sexually abused by other Salvation Army officers and staff, as well as members of the public, including two pensioners allowed to live on the site of one boys' home and others who were given access to the children's dormitories at night.

Other deeply traumatic evidence before the commission alleges boys were raped until they bled, were beaten and kept in cages for days when they attempted to report their own abuse, and were on occasion forced to eat their own vomit.

"This hearing will bring to light the greatest failure in the history of the Salvation Army in Australia," the organisation's barrister, Kate Eastman SC, told the hearing.

"The Salvation Army admits that hundreds of children entrusted to its care endured horrific experiences in its boys' homes ... Knowledge of these events causes the army profound regret."

One 11-year-old victim, Raymond Carlile, was dragged from his bed and raped by a Salvation Army officer, Captain Lawrence Wilson, who the commission heard was an allegedly prolific offender and whose victims have since received a total of $1.2 million in compensation from his employers.

Giving evidence by video-link, Mr Carlile also described how, during the 1950s, he and other boys at the Riverview Training Farm near Brisbane would suffer brutal beatings at the hands of Salvation Army officers, including the then-Lieutenant Wilson.

"I've seen young fellows with their hands, fingers bleeding and still getting the cane from the sadistic people there. I've even seen one boy passing out from the punishment," he said.

"Lieutenant Wilson he used to glorify punishment and sometimes used to froth at the mouth when he was punishing people. He just seemed to be really enjoying what he was doing, that was my opinion as a child," Mr Carlile told the commission.

Mr Wilson, who in 1994 was acquitted of sexual and assault offences relating to his time at one of the boy's homes, died in 2008.