Child Abuse Victim Joins Vigil in Ballarat
By Chris Johnston
John Skewes was sitting at home in Ballarat on Thursday, reading about all the allegations against and proven crimes by Catholic clergy in the regional city he has lived in all his life. As a victim of abuse himself - not once but twice, although not by Catholics or Christian Brothers - Mr Skewes, 66, decided to drive to the Nazareth House nursing home, a grand Victorian building beside Lake Wendouree. This is where former Ballarat bishop Ronald Mulkearns lies in palliative care, looked after by nuns. He is 85. Today he was giving evidence by video link to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. There John met two women, Gabby Short and Wendy Dyckhoff, holding a quiet vigil outside the nursing home. Both spent time there as children when it was an orphanage and was ruled by notorious paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale, the chaplain. The women say orphanage girls were sexually, physically and emotionally abused by him. Bishop Mulkearns shuffled priests, including Ridsdale, between parishes, where they continued to offend.
But it was too much for Mr Skewes, who says the "high level of anxiety" in Ballarat while the royal commission rolls through town triggers his own anxiety, and when he got to Nazareth House, he broke down and cried in the women's arms. He had trouble speaking and forming words. His acute anxiety - caused by the abuse he suffered as a child - literally renders him speechless.
Later, he was able to talk. Mr Skewes was sexually abused by a male teacher at Queen Street state primary school in Ballarat in 1959 and physically abused as an air force apprentice at Laverton in 1966. He was only able to work until he was 50 when social anxiety and post-traumatic stress became too much. "I wanted to give support to these women," he said. "The women who were abused as girls are often forgotten." The commission heard this week that 95 per cent of Christian Brothers' victims in Australia were boys. "I see all abuse in one context," he said. "Some victims are very isolated. I give them my heartfelt sympathy." While he and the women were outside Nazareth House, Mulkearns was appearing at the royal commission via video link, apologising for what he called the "problem with priests". He told the hearing that he retired because he wasn't "doing the job as well as I felt I should be doing". Mr Skewes said many people he knew in Ballarat didn't like royal commission time because it lowered a dark cloud onto the city. But he said the dark cloud was actually there all the time. Even though his visit to the nursing home was very hard, he's glad he went. "I couldn't just sit around," he said. "It was time well spent." [http:] Follow us: @theage on Twitter | theageAustralia on Facebook [http:] Follow us: @theage on Twitter | theageAustralia on Facebook [http:] Follow us: @theage on Twitter | theageAustralia on Facebook [http:] Follow us: @theage on Twitter | theageAustralia on Facebook [http:] Follow us: @theage on Twitter | theageAustralia on Facebook [http:] Follow us: @theage on Twitter | theageAustralia on Facebook [http:] Follow us: @theage on Twitter | theageAustralia on Facebook
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