Salvation Army officers on child-sex charges, by Dan Box, Australian (April 06, 2017)

Four former Salvation Army officers and one soldier have been charged with dozens of physical or sexual assault offences, leading to two of the men being recently convicted while the others are due to face court next month.

That follows the revelation of horrific evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse about the treatment of children at boys’ homes run by the church across NSW and Queensland.

The Salvation Army said yesterday it was “deeply sorry for the profound impact this abuse and trauma has had on their lives. We also acknowledge we have broken the trust placed in us, which we must now seek to rebuild”.

A spokesman for the church’s eastern territory said it had “implemented significant changes to our protection policies and procedures” since the commission’s hearings and was “not aware” of any other officers or staff currently facing criminal charges.

The commission heard 19 Salvation Army officers and employees had allegedly abused children over decades. A dedicated strike force, run by the NSW police Sex Crimes Squad and which has charged two of the men currently before the courts, is ongoing.

The royal commission found the Salvation Army “did not investigate allegations of excessive corporal punishment” against one of those two men, who is facing 12 charges of alleged physical and indecent assault.

The man, who The Australian is not naming, was the manager of two boys’ homes in the 1970s, during which time the church had reports about his behaviour from other officers and the NSW Department of Children’s Services.

He was subsequently promoted and later retired in 2004. He was dismissed as a Salvation Army officer 10 years later, after the royal commission’s public investigation into the church. Like the others now facing charges, he has not entered a plea and is on bail.

Another former Salvation Army officer, Colin Haggar, was convicted of three counts of sexual assault last December and given a 12-month suspended sentence.

The royal commission found “Haggar admitted to sexually abusing an eight-year-old girl” in 1989. The girl’s parents met representatives from the Salvation Army’s divisional office “who indicated they would handle the matter”, the commission found.

Haggar was dismissed, but allowed to return to the church three years later, and was subsequently promoted to lieutenant-colonel and made assistant director of Sydney Samaritan Services, with responsibility for two women’s refuges.

The church’s former eastern territory commissioner James Condon told the royal commission he and Haggar attended a police station in 1990 to report the sexual abuse. The commission found “the information given … was insufficient for the police … to commence an investigation”.

The Salvation Army terminated Haggar’s position in 2014, after fresh allegations against him came to light following a review of child-abuse matters after the royal commission was announced.

Another former Salvation Army soldier, Maurice Press, was sentenced in November to 5½ years’ jail on 11 counts of sexual assault on a child.