AUSTRALIA
The Australian
SEPTEMBER 24, 2014
INDIGENOUS human rights campaigner Tom Calma was told of horrific allegations of sexual abuse at a Darwin missionary home that were not followed up, a royal commission has heard.
Some of the allegations concerned a “house parent” called Don Henderson. The commission has heard Mr Henderson adopted two children from the home and was later seen acting suspiciously around shops and schools in Darwin.
In surprise revelations yesterday, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard that Dr Calma was informed about some of the abuse in the 1970s while working for the NT government.
The alleged abuse occurred at Retta Dixon Home for children and women, run by Australian Indigenous Ministries (formerly Aboriginal Inland Mission) in Darwin’s Bagot Aboriginal Reserve between 1946 and 1980.
In the second day of hearings in Darwin, former RDH residents described being routinely beaten, chained and subjected to extraordinary punishments. One child was allegedly stabbed with a can opener, another was said to have had faeces rubbed in her face.
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