AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun
Harrowing evidence against Anglican Diocese in Grafton given at royal commission into child sexual abuse
MATTHEW BENNS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH NOVEMBER 19, 2013
YOUNG children would chant prayers in their dark church dormitory while an Anglican Minister fondled one of them under their bed clothes, the royal commission into child sexual abuse heard today.
One of the victims from the former North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore wrote a harrowing letter, years later, to the Anglican Diocese in Grafton to tell how children would say special prayers “and then have a Minister fondle your little body.”
“He would hear our prayers in the dark dormitory at the end of the home. A chair pulled to the chosen child’s bed and as all chanted the prayers his hands would wander over the small budding body,” wrote the victim, who can only be identified as CA.
“His mouth on lips that had never known a gentle human touch whilst the tongue explored a mouth that needed to scream,” wrote the female victim, now aged 58.
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