Salvo admits burning child with a cigarette

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN FEBRUARY 01, 2014

A SALVATION Army major suspended this week “in light of evidence tendered to the royal commission” is alleged in reports dating back to 1974 to have sexually and physically abused children.

Several years before the current commission hearing, the army paid compensation to two men who alleged they were sexually abused by Major John McIver, who has denied these claims.

Confidential correspondence tendered to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse shows Mr McIver criticising the army’s response to allegations of child abuse. “Every Tom, Dick and Harry who was ever unloved by his mother and ended up in an Army institution now feels emboldened to shift the blame because he/she thinks there might be money in it,” Mr McIver wrote.

The 2009 letter, sent after the Salvation Army received two separate allegations of sexual assault, concludes: “I have a rather satisfying and enjoyable life to lead and you won’t want to be troubled by me making any premature responses.”

The commission is investigating the alleged abuse of dozens of children by five Salvation Army officers at homes in Queensland and NSW between 1957 and 1975.

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