AUSTRALIA
The West Australian
Annette Blackwell, AAP
November 22, 2013
This is a true story about money, power, sex and religion.
It is about a time when bishops reigned supreme in the Protestant church.
It tells of a hell-hole where decade after decade children were flogged with canes, pony whips and belts until they bled.
It is a horror story about how the very young were often raped by pastors and others and sometimes subjected to pseudo-religious sexual rituals.
For a while there was a grand entrance sign proclaiming the bleak place a Church of England home.
The story is set not in medieval Europe but in a sunny corner of NSW at a time when other Australians were listening to John Farnham singing Sadie (The Cleaning Lady) or INXS belting out Don’t Change.
Through a labyrinthine trail of documents and evidence from seemingly good-hearted professional people who work for the Anglican Church, those attending the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse are piecing the terrible tale together.
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