AUSTRALIA
The Morning Bulletin

Austin King | 14th Apr 2015

UPDATE 3.15PM: Former Neerkol Orphanage resident Mary Adams has taken the stand to retell her harrowing experience when she was a resident in the 1950s and 1960s.

She has told of the severe physical and sexual abuse she endured from a Father John, who was relieving at the orphanage during a Sisters of Mercy retreat.

The commission also heard of the emotional evidence by a witness who said she was raped “well over 100 times” by a priest at St Joseph’s Neerkol Orphanage Rockhampton in central Queensland.

EARLIER: EIGHTEEN witnesses, including Neerkol Orphanage survivors and Sisters of Mercy representatives, will share their stories at a public hearing as the Royal Commission into the institution gets underway.