Man Charged with Raping 7yo Girl at Christian Mission in 1970s Appears in Court

By Laura Gartry
ABC News
March 10, 2016

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-10/man-faces-rape-charge-christian-mission-wa-7yo-girl/7235736

Roelands Christian Mission in the WA South West town of Collie

PHOTO: Roelands Christian Mission near the WA South West town of Collie. (ABC Local: Meghan Woods)

A man charged with raping a seven-year-old girl at a Christian mission in West Australia's South West in the 1970s has faced Bunbury Magistrates Court.

Philip Howard Street, 74, was charged last month by a specialist police taskforce.

It is alleged Street, who is from Albany, sexually assaulted the young girl multiple times while he was employed at the Roelands Christian Mission in 1974 and 1975.

The man made a brief appearance in court charged with two counts of rape and four counts of indecent treatment of a child under 14 years of age.

He was not required to enter a plea and was granted bail to reappear in court on May 23.

The Roelands Mission near Collie was once home to hundreds of Stolen Generations' children.

About 500 Aboriginal children were taken to the Roelands Mission from the 1940s to the 1970s.

Street was charged by the taskforce after it investigated allegations stemming from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.