AUSTRALIA
The Australian
DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN JANUARY 28, 2014
DOZENS of children suffered “violent and extreme” abuse at the hands of five Salvation Army officers who worked together at boys’ homes in Queensland and NSW over several decades, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard.
The men swapped jobs, shared victims and in at least one case helped each other move to new positions within the organisation in order to avoid jail, the commission has heard.
Some of the children under their care were also sexually abused by other Salvation Army officers and staff, as well as members of the public, including two pensioners allowed to live on the site of one boys’ home and others who were given access to the children’s dormitories at night.
Other deeply traumatic evidence before the commission alleges boys were raped until they bled, were beaten and kept in cages for days when they attempted to report their own abuse, and were on occasion forced to eat their own vomit.
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