AUSTRALIA
Christian Today
By: Francis Sullivan
CEO Truth Justice and Healing Council
Monday, 12 May 2014,
Over the past two weeks Australians have heard stories from 11 old men who endured the worst physical and sexual abuse as young boys in orphanages and farm schools run by the Christian Brothers in Western Australia from the late 1940s and into the 60s.
Most of the boys, some as young as four, were in care before being shipped off to Australia from homes in England and Malta as part of UK and Australian Government sanctioned child migration schemes. Some were sent without the knowledge of their family.
They came on the promise of a life in Australia they could never hope for in post-war Europe: a warm bed, a full belly, an education. Some were promised land. All were promised a better future. But many got years, sometimes decades, of misery.
What these men told the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse was for many in the hearing room beyond belief; stories of forced labor, of torture, of beatings and rape – experiences no one, anywhere, should ever have to endure.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.