NEW SOUTH WALES (AUSTRALIA)
Brisbane Times
October 28, 2017
By Rachel Browne
When Cheryl Brealey describes her childhood as tough, it’s an understatement.
The second-oldest of nine children, she was raised in Balmain, Glebe and Leichhardt in the 1950s, well before they became the gentrified inner west.
With no money, an absent father and a mother who suffered mental health problems, she was often forced to beg shopkeepers for food.
By the age of nine, she was separated from her family and placed in Burnside Presbyterian Homes for Children in North Parramatta, where she experienced unimaginable torment for two years.
“I have suffered from physical, sexual and mental abuse,” Ms Brealey said.
“It was extreme, vindictive, traumatising, sadistic violent abuse to my mind, my body, my soul and my wellbeing. They took my worth as an innocent child.”
Now 64 and living in Brisbane, it took decades for Cheryl to disclose her story and work up the strength to seek compensation.
Through her lawyer, she approached the Uniting Church, which formed in 1977 when the Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregational churches merged.
Cheryl was shocked to discover that because her abuse occurred in NSW, the Uniting Church’s redress scheme would offer her significantly less than abuse survivors in other states.
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