Abuse victim wants govt explanation

Australian Teacher Magazine
April 30, 2014

http://www.ozteacher.com.au/news/wa/abuse-victim-wants-govt-explanation/27977

PERTH, April 30 – A man who was left for weeks without treatment for broken bones while in the care of Christian Brothers at a Western Australia orphanage says the federal government neglected its responsibility to child migrants.

Giving evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Edward Delaney says he was told by a priest he would be forgiven for being raped by a brother if he said three Hail Mary’s.

When Delaney was 14, he fell while working at St Joseph’s Farm and Trade School, Bindoon.

“For two weeks I cried with the pain and finally when we were staying at Moore River (the Christian Brothers holiday home) I was crying so much I was taken to Royal Perth hospital.

“It was discovered I had a broken arm and broken leg. I was patched up in plaster and sent back.”

Delaney – a child migrant from England sent to Australia without his mother’s consent – said in his years at Bindoon, from age nine to 16, he never once saw a welfare worker.

“I believe that the Australian government neglected their responsibility to find out – they dragged us from a country, with the permission of the English government,” he said.

“They dragged us here, they placed us there to make this a bigger country, and then they don’t care about us.

“I want to know why.”

Delaney was raped by a Brother Parker while at Bindoon “about once a month for 18 months”.

When he notified the resident priest, Brother Parker was shipped off to Tasmania and Delaney – aged 13 – was told to say three Hail Marys and his sins would be forgiven.

The senior Brother at Bindoon – Bruno Doyle – told him not to tell anyone.

“The matter has been dealt with,” Doyle told Delaney, the commission heard.

“If I hear that you’ve told anybody, you’ll be punished.”

The commission was told Doyle once broke the fingers on both of Delaney’s hands by beating him with a leather strap with a hacksaw blade sewn into it. Delaney was left with a permanent disfigurement by the attack.

After successive attacks, Delaney snapped.

“Something in me just broke,” he said.

“I pulled a knife and held it to Doyle’s throat and yelled at him ‘if you ever touch me again I’ll run this through your throat’,” Delaney said.

“Brother Doyle never bullied me again.”

In a final insult, Delaney was told when he left Bindoon he would never amount to anything.

At the time, the now retired investment broker took it as a challenge.

“(I) educated myself and have gone on to live a successful life,” he said.

The hearings continue.