AUSTRALIA
7 News
ANNETTE BLACKWELL
June 30, 2014
Men and women who survived childhood rape and beatings in a NSW Anglican home were told to go away when they asked for help, the third hearing into child sexual abuse was told.
In October, 2013, the commission sitting in Sydney examined how the Anglican Diocese of Grafton handled complaints of extreme abuse at the North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore. Up to 200 children passed through the home from 1944 to 1985.
Children were malnourished and flogged with canes, pony whips and belts. Staff, pastors and other inmates raped young children.
Tommy Campion, a 67-year-old former resident, and about 40 others came forward in 2006 to seek an apology and redress. The diocese denied liability and challenged the group’s assertion that it was liable for the home.
Evidence was the diocese, which was $12 million in debt because it had built a loss-making private school, took a hard line on compensation.
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