Claims a Paedophile Ring Operated out of Salvos Home at Bexley

By Mark Colvin
ABC - PM
February 2, 2014

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2013/s3935110.htm?site=sydney

[with audio]

MARK COLVIN: As if the harrowing accounts of routine sexual and extreme physical abuse at the Salvation Army boys homes weren't bad enough, the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse today heard that boys at the Bexley home in Sydney's south were 'rented out' to strangers who sexually abused them.

Today, the public hearing heard serious allegations that a 'network of paedophiles', including women, were able to get to boys in their dormitory and take boys to their private homes in the 1970s.

The inquiry has also heard that police investigations in the 1990s came to nothing - and that one alleged offender, who was a Salvation Army captain, is still alive.

Emily Bourke has the story - and a warning that some of the material in this report is distressing.

EMILY BOURKE: The Salvation Army's home for boys at Bexley in Sydney's south operated from 1915 to 1979. It took in boys who were abandoned or relinquished by their families, but care and comfort were rare.

Today, the Royal Commission was told that the perpetrators of child sexual abuse were inside and outside the home at Bexley.

The manager of the Bexley home in the early 70s was captain Lawrence Wilson. He's been described as the Salvation Army's 'most serious offender'.

Former Bexley resident, 'ET' explained how Wilson arrived at the home claiming to be a nurse.

ET: And often under medical examination captain Wilson would ask me to go and get one of the young boys from the playground so that Wilson could conduct a 'full medical examination' on them. I was told which boy to get from the playground. Wilson would ask me to get different boys on different occasions. They were all young; they were never high school boys, they were all primary school boys.

Wilson would take the boy into his office, close the door. I could hear the young boy crying or begging for Wilson to stop…

SIMEON BECKETT: How many times… how many boys do you think you went and led up to Mr Wilson's office?

ET: I took many boys. I lost count, I was… every Saturday, I would get them for him because I had to answer the phones and answer the doors for him so that the boys that were going away with their parents could take them. It was the ones that were left behind that Wilson would 'examine'.

EMILY BOURKE: ET himself has served five years in prison for child sexual assault.

The inquiry has been told that a 'bear pit' mentality prevailed in the boys' dormitories. A victim impact statement from EP was read by counsel assisting Simeon Beckett.

SIMEON BECKETT: You were on the defensive all the time. You were on the lookout all the time. You could never sleep through the whole night. You'd lie there waiting for somebody to come and get you. Even now I still can't sleep. There, you'd get visited in the night, so you were scared; you couldn't fall asleep. I'd force myself to stay awake.

Wilson got me out of bed at night times. Sometimes it was strangers who came up the fire escape.

EMILY BOURKE: Another witness, known as 'FV', told the inquiry that captain Wilson introduced him to a woman in Salvation Army uniform who was accompanied by a man, and both took him back to their home and abused him.

His statement was read by counsel assisting Simeon Beckett.

SIMEON BECKETT: I was still wearing my shirt, which I kept trying to pull down over my genitals, but he kept pulling my shirt away. I was so upset I grabbed my pants and ran out of the room. I caught a train back to Bexley, and walked back to the home. By the time I arrived it was dark. Wilson was waiting for me, and he took me to his office. I tried to tell him what had happened, but he just kept saying to me, 'These are good people I sent you out to'. He then caned me about 18 times, and sent me to bed.

EMILY BOURKE: FV sought legal advice and received a $100,000 settlement, but his lawyer took half the compensation money.

Detective inspector Rick Cunningham investigated the allegations of abuse at the Bexley home. He was part of a police strike force set up in the wake of the Wood Royal Commission in the 1990s. The lawyer representing the Salvation Army, Kate Eastman, asked inspector Cunningham if he was aware of a paedophile network operating through the home.

KATE EASTMAN: In the course of your inquiries, did you form any form that Wilson officiated over a paedophile network? And I should clarify that: of the kind described here, 'renting' boys at the weekend.

RICK CUNNINGHAM: I probably wouldn't use the word 'rent'. Information from various former residents that they went to homes on weekends, that there were visitors to the Bexley home, but as to who sanctioned or organised if that occurred is difficult to say.

KATE EASTMAN: Were there any charges laid against Captain Wilson with respect to an allegation of officiating over a paedophile network, renting out boys at the weekend?

RICK CUNNINGHAM: No, there weren't.

KATE EASTMAN: In the course of your investigations, did you put that specific allegation to Captain Wilson at any point in time?

RICK CUNNINGHAM: No.

KATE EASTMAN: And in the course of your investigation, did you put that particular allegation to anybody in the Salvation Army at the time?

RICK CUNNINGHAM: No.

KATE EASTMAN: You didn't raise it with any of the officers you may have spoken to from time to time in the Army, and said to them, well, this might be something that we need to follow up further?

RICK CUNNINGHAM: No.

EMILY BOURKE: Captain Wilson was committed to stand trial in 1997 on 19 charges, but he was acquitted and died in 2008.

A separate police investigation into Salvation Army captain Russell Walker has also stalled since the 1990s, when the state DPP decided not to pursue charges because of Walker's ill health. He is still alive.

And today the Salvation Army has issued a statement saying that it has suspended retired officer John McIvor, who also worked at the Bexley home

The hearing continues.