AUSTRALIA
The Australian
Dan Box
From: The Australian
November 19, 2013
A “PEDOPHILE ring” among priests at a children’s home in northern NSW performed “cleansing” rituals that involved licking naked boys, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was told yesterday.
The Anglican Church spent years attempting to deny responsibility for the North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore in which dozens of children were raped, beaten and sexually abused by priests, before finally apologising this year for what took place. The royal commission heard shocking evidence yesterday about the treatment of former residents, some of whom were aged two or three when they entered the home.
One of these men, who cannot be named, broke down describing “a pedophile ring” operating among priests at the home, which was established under licence by the church and whose managers included senior church officials.
“I remember going to the rectory and I would be made to lie naked on the floor and the minister would put this stuff on my chest like a cross and then he would lick it off, right down to my genitals,” the man told the commission.
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