Ballarat Orphanage: Digging resumes for children's bodies
Ballarat is south of Sydney, in Victoria .. "approximately 105 kilometres (65 mi) west -north-west of the state capital, Melbourne" .. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballarat
Date April 15, 2015 - 10:51AM
Marissa Calligeros and Chloe Booker
Excavators at the site of the old orphanage. Photo: Kate Healy
The search has resumed for children's bodies believed to buried in the grounds of an old Ballarat orphanage associated with historic sexual and physical abuse.
The orphanage closed in 1968 and the site has since been bought by a developer, but former residents raised concerns with Ballarat City Council two years ago that children's bodies may be buried there.
The former orphanage was built in the mid-1860s and was home to more than 4000 children during its tenure.
The search for children's remains resumed on Wednesday morning. Photo: Kate Healy
More than 25 children, aged between two and 15, are suspected to have died as a result of abuse or neglect there.
Frank Golding, who lived at the orphanage for 11 years, said children would often disappear with no explanation.
"If children died of explicable causes, they were buried in the cemetery. I could only imagine that children would be buried at the orphanage without formalities if somebody was trying to conceal a crime," he told radio station 3AW.
Police at the site of the old orphanage. Photo: Kate Healy
He and other former residents are concerned about how the remains of children buried there would be respected if the site was redeveloped.
Police began searching the grounds of the orphanage earlier this week and returned on Wednesday morning with large excavating equipment. Forensic investigators have established a command post at the site, where they are expected to remain for up to 10 days.
Former residents have alleged horrific sexual, physical and emotional abuse took place at the orphanage. Allegations include that Catholic nuns "procured children" for notorious paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale. [see post this one replies to]
Mr Golding said about 10 to 15 per cent of children at the orphanage were members of the stolen generation.
"If children did die and they were Aboriginal children, there would be very few questions asked because parents wouldn't know where they were," he said.
Mr Golding's two aunts attended the orphanage, where one of them died from a neglected medical condition.
He said it was important the allegations were tested and, if found, the children given proper burials.
"It will clear the air once and for all," he said.
Superintendent Andy Allen said police had been investigating the allegations on behalf of the coroner since they were first raised at the council meeting in 2013.
"It's been a process since 2013 and it's been a matter of going through a legal framework and identifying what [the] location [of the bodies] might be," he told reporters at the scene on Wednesday.
"There was some previous testing done at the site which led us to commencing the excavation in the last couple of days. There were indications that took us back to the coroner and as a consequence of that we're now excavating an area on the site of the Ballarat Orphanage."
Victoria police are working with the coroner and forensic scientists to search the orphanage grounds.
Child sexual abuse in a highly exclusive Presbyterian school in Sydney, Australia.
Victims of sex abuse at elite school say cries for help ignored
Date February 28, 2015
Damien Murphy and Rachel Browne
Knox Grammar School was more worried about its reputation than its pupils' plights when sexual abuse was alleged, a royal commission has been told.
Knox Grammar School is the latest Australian institution to be exposed for covering up paedophilia.
It might be an exclusive school but there is nothing exclusive about how Knox Grammar School dealt with allegations of sexual predatory behaviour by teachers towards its students.
Since public hearings at the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse began 17 months ago Australia has become used to seeing a regular pattern to how it plays out:
A lone victim speaks out against an institution.
A cover-up is put in place to protect the institution's reputation at the expense of the victim.
Frustrated, crushed, shocked, betrayed, the victim seeks to be heard by bashing down a door - either through police, inquiry or media.
Only when another institution draws near is a public apology made.
For more than a year the nation has watched as some pillars of society, including the Catholic and church, the Anglican churches, Jewish centres and schools in Sydney and Melbourne, the Salvation Army, the YMCA, and various state governments, have been exposed as providing opportunity and shelter to paedophiles.
The culture that permeated Knox revealed in the royal commission this week has shocked many out of their faith in the school's tradition and its promise to enable boys to succeed and grow into young men of faith, wisdom, integrity and compassion.
Sexuality is hard country for teenagers but many students at high net worth private schools live with a morbid fascination about it, their discomfort and longing to belong often expressed through showy displays of revulsion towards sexual ambiguity.
A throwaway insult for generations of Sydney private school boys runs:
"Tiddlywinks, young man
Run as fast as you can
If you can't get a girl
Get a Cranbrook man"
The rhyme was readily adapted to Grammar/Riverview/Barker.
For decades, Knox had been the target of gossip, lies and innuendo along the North Shore Line.
And then in 2009, something far more serious erupted from these nudge nudge, wink wink cultural undercurrents when numbers of former students alleged they had been sexually abused by teachers at the school between 1970 and 2009. It was the ultimate breach of the trust they and their families had placed in the school.
Police established Strike Force Arika to investigate the allegations. Five teachers were convicted of child sex offences against students. The royal commission was given evidence of abuse by another three. One, art teacher Bruce Barratt, died in the mid-1980s, and was remembered on a school gate with the droll epitaph, "He touched us all"." The plaque has been removed.
For more than three decades boys were subjected to the teachers' predations, the school failed to notify police of any incident of child sexual abuse.
Tim Hawkes, the headmaster of The King's School, Parramatta, was a former teacher and boarding house master at Knox when one of his young boarders was groped in the dormitory just before dawn in 1988 by a man wearing a balaclava and Knox tracksuit. Hawkes told the commission he did not call the police because he believed it the responsibility of the then headmaster, Ian Paterson. He said he was then unaware of the legislative requirement to report sex abuse to the Department of Family and Community Services.
"I think in those days, authority structures in schools - we're talking about over a quarter of a century [ago] - were very much more hierarchical than they are today. They are very much more horizontal today and, I think, thankfully so," he said.
"And I think today, not only aided and abetted by changes to the law but also by social custom, I think the empowerment of people at all levels and seniority within schools is such that, today, the initiative to notify police would be unquestioned."
Such buck passing outrages Lesley Saddington, whose son, Tony Carden, died of AIDS aged 33. She says he was nine at Knox preparatory school in 1971 when he was "groomed" by teachers. She believes the abuse continued at senior school.
"One can only arrive at the conclusion that over the past several decades Knox, as a school run by the Uniting Church, has lost its moral compass," she says.
There is no doubt that the five convicted Knox paedophiles, Craig Treloar, Damian Vance, Adrian Nisbett, Barrie Stewart, and Roger James, chose their targets with precision.
They picked the weak and vulnerable with boarders the easiest of prey. Day boys with troubled home lives were vulnerable to grooming.
Victims told the royal commission of feeling so ashamed they could not tell anyone, let alone complain to someone in authority.
A 52-year-old former boarder given the pseudonym ARY recalled Stewart's opportunistic groping in the school's hallways. "Often in passing in the hallways he would grab a boy's genitals," he said. "This happened so casually it was like a handshake."
Those who spoke up were shunned by peers. "They became victimised and ostracised in the boarding house," ARY said. "They were seen as weak and they became everybody's bitch."
Former student Scot Ashton could see no point reporting abuse, which included an incident where music teacher Stewart inserted a finger into his anus.
"I felt very isolated because I was the victim of abuse and had this terrible shame and secret which I could not discuss and I was intimidated by the general bullying culture of the school which preyed on the vulnerable and weak and I could not afford to be vulnerable by complaining about the abuse and I felt that it would be pointless," he told the commission.
And then there were constant reminders of how privileged they were to be at such a good school and who would want to bring that into disrepute?
"Everyone was expected to keep up the reputation of Knox," ARY said.
He told the commission he would find it "astounding" if staff weren't aware of the extent of the abuse, a sentiment echoed by many.
Coryn Tambling, who boarded during the 1980s, sheeted the blame home to then headmaster Paterson.
Tambling was 13 and a boarder from the Northern Territory when Treloar showed him hardcore pornography featuring bestiality and paedophila before propositioning him for sex. His behaviour deteriorated and his parents asked what was wrong.
"I said that 'one of the teachers in the boarding house had showed me pornography and asked me to suck his dick'," Tambling said. "My mother didn't believe me. She said, 'you would have told us in one of your letters home if it was true'. My mother had continued to hold a very high opinion of the school."
When his father said there wasn't much to worry about, "I went back to Knox, heartbroken and angry".
Other students, whose behaviour and academic performance plummeted in the wake of abuse, were simply asked to leave school.
A man given the pseudonym ARG, molested by art teacher Barratt and English teacher Nisbett, told of being forced out but being unable to tell his parents why.
"They were beautiful people and churchgoers," he said. "I was scared, embarrassed and didn't know whether anyone would believe me. I had horrible emotions going."
Meanwhile, the behaviour of the paedophile teachers continued largely unchecked.
The commission is yet to hear evidence of Stewart being sanctioned in any way. Treloar kept his job after admitting to watching pornography with boys. Vance was allowed to "resign" to spend time with his sick mother in 1989, despite the commission hearing the school was aware he had indecently assaulted a student underneath the Knox chapel.
Religious education teacher Christopher Fotis was never charged over sexual abuse at Knox but allowed to "resign" after being arrested for masturbating outside a school in North Ryde in 1989. Fotis failed to appear at the commission and an arrest warrant was issued on Wednesday.
Fotis and Vance were provided with glowing references about their professional skills by Paterson.
Treloar was still teaching at the school when arrested over multiple sex offences in 2009.
John Rentoul, a former assistant headmaster of Knox, told the commission that it was "extraordinary and reprehensible that these men continued to teach at Knox and abuse students.".
"I believe the school was more interested in protecting the reputation of Knox than ensuring the safety and welfare of its students," he told the commission.
In heartbreaking testimony, Rentoul told the commission his son, David, was abused by Stewart, something he believes led to David's early death from multiple organ failure.
The 80-year-old, who left Knox in 1981 to teach in New Zealand, told the commission that private school students may be more vulnerable to abuse by teachers.
"In my view, private schools may be more susceptible to instances of sexual abuse because of more opportunities for the development of close relationships between teacher and students."
Speaking outside the commission, Independent Education Union general secretary John Quessy agreed this was an issue for independent schools.
"Where you have situations where students and teachers are interacting extensively outside of a classroom situation it would appear there are more opportunities for impropriety to take place," he said.
Some former students have received six-figure compensation payments from the school and the Uniting Church but say the money will never fix the damage done.
For others, the legal process was unnecessarily gruelling.
"It made me feel like I was being screwed all over again," former student Adrian Steer drily observed of his experience with Knox's lawyers.
Counsel assisting David Lloyd lamented lack of documentary evidence about the abuse which complicated the redress process.
"A difficulty has arisen in investigating these questions because of the paucity of contemporaneous documentary records which record allegations of abuse and the school's response to them," he said.
The commission has been told that Paterson kept all documents regarding allegations of abuse in a black folder in his office.
When new headmaster Peter Crawley took over from Paterson in 1999 he was told the folder contained the sensitive information but was stunned to see just a few snippets of notes and nothing of substance.
"In my view it was a very unprofessional folder," he said. "I remember just being aghast at what I was looking at."
Former head of the Knox Grammar Preparatory School Robert Thomas was similarly surprised when he looked at Treloar's file and saw no mention of his six-month suspension for watching pornography with students.
The commission heard that files of students who made complaints have also gone missing,
Lloyd said the hearing would examine the fate of these missing documents, "whether they were deliberately destroyed in order to eliminate evidence which might adversely affect the school, and who from the school might have been involved in and/or aware of any deliberate destruction of relevant documentary records"."
This culture of cover-up only adds to the trauma of those who have suffered abuse, according to Craig Hughes-Cashmore, co-founder and director of Survivors and Mates Support Network
"Sadly, many feel that they won't be believed and even if they do speak up, there is that constant fear that it will just be swept under the rug," he said.
Watch live .. Australian Royal Commission into child sexual abuse live hearing
"How the church concealed Father Ridsdale's crimes"
Live hearings webcast
Case Study 28, May 2015, Ballarat
The Royal Commission will hold a public hearing in Ballarat from Tuesday 19 May 2015 at 10:00am AEST. The first public hearing commences on Tuesday 19 May 2015 and the second will commence on a date to be announced.
Please be aware that the content of the public hearings can be distressing for viewers. Visit support services to find services near you, or for immediate support call the Royal Commission on 1800 099 340 or Lifeline on 13 11 14.
Notorius paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale jailed for eight years
.. old news, surprised it wasn't posted, and now just to wrap Ridsdale up here .. for now ..
Date April 8, 2014
Mark Russell
VIDEO: Paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale sentenced Notorious paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale has been sentenced to a further eight years in jail and is expected to die behind bars. Nine News.
Gerald Ridsdale, one of Australia's most notorious paedophile priests who admitted abusing at least 53 children between 1961 to 1982, has been sentenced to eight years in jail.
The jail time will, however, be served concurrently with an existing sentence, which effectively means he will serve an additional three years for crimes against 14 children.
County Court Chief Judge Michael Rozenes said Ridsdale's "unfettered sexual deviance" had been a blatant breach of the trust existing between priests and parishioners.
Gerard Ridsdale is expected to die in jail.
Judge Rozenes said Ridsdale had preyed on his vulnerable victims under the guise of being the 'friendly priest'.
Ridsdale's position in the church involved a high degree of trust and some degree of power and his offending had had a devastating impact on his young victims.
The Catholic Church had unfortunately allowed Ridsdale's criminal behaviour to go unchecked for so long, Judge Rozenes said when jailing Ridsdale for eight years with a non-parole period of five years.
Ridsdale, who has been in prison since 1994 and is in poor health, had been due for release on June 29, 2019, from his previous jail sentences when he would be 85 before Tuesday's sentence was handed down.
He will now not be released, unless granted parole, until 2022 and is expected to die in prison.
Judge Rozenes said it was disturbing that one of Ridsdale's victims believed another priest was present when Ridsdale had been abusing her.
"This complainant believes another priest was present for a short time while you were sexually assaulting her and must have been aware of the assault but did not intervene," the judge said.
"I raise this merely to make an observation: namely that this behaviour appears to be demonstrative of the church's approach to sexual abuse at the time which ultimately – and unfortunately for your victims – allowed your criminal behaviour to go unchecked for so long."
Judge Rozenes said the contents of the victim impact statements detailing the effect of Ridsdale's offending could only be described as powerful.
"Collectively they shared some common themes: a feeling of being exploited; feeling trapped, powerless, worthless and humiliated; anger at, and distrust of, the Catholic church; loss of faith and innocence; loss of the enjoyment of childhood; a sense of bewilderment and disbelief; and the fracturing of family relationships.
"Tragically, many thought that they were to blame for your actions. To me, one of the most tragic comments I heard was that "if I had ‘taken my turn’ maybe my little brothers would have had happier lives"."
The judge said the mothers of some of the victims "conveyed an understandable, but unjustified, guilt at having failed to protect their children".
"Mr Ridsdale, I sincerely hope that you now understand how your offending has not only affected your victims, but created a ripple effect that has touched upon all aspects of their lives."
Ridsdale's victims were as young as four years old and many were altar boys whose lives had been destroyed by the evil predatory priest.
When one boy dared to resist him, Ridsdale told him his conduct was "sinful" and he must go to confession to repent his sins. He abused another victim in the confessional box after ordering the young girl to say the prayer, "Forgive me Father for I have sinned".
Ridsdale told one nine-year-old boy that the abuse was "the Lord's work", described a four-year-old girl he was abusing as "God's little angel" and gave another victim a piece of communion bread as a reward for being abused.
He was moved from parish to parish after complaints and later admitted he could not have been as active as he was as a paedophile if he had not been a Catholic priest.
At one stage in 1994, he offered to be chemically castrated to try to have his then 18-year jail term reduced.
Ridsdale, 79, who has been in prison since 1994, was jailed on Tuesday for eight years with a non-parole period of five years after pleading guilty to 39 new charges involving sex offences against 11 boys and three girls.
He was first jailed for three months in 1993 after admitting to sexually abusing eight boys; jailed for 18 years in 1994 for sexually abusing 20 boys and one girl; and jailed for another 13 years in 2006 for sexually abusing 10 boys.
Ridsdale, who had been due for parole in August last year, was charged with these latest offences after more victims came forward to give evidence against him to the parliamentary inquiry into child sex abuse.
The Broken Rites victim support group believes the total number of Ridsdale's victims could be several hundred but many people have been reluctant to come forward.
When Ridsdale appeared for the first time in the Melbourne Magistrates Court in May 1993 to face sexual abuse charges, the now Cardinal George Pell was by his side for support.
Ridsdale had shared a house with Dr Pell for about a year from early 1973 at the St Alipius Presbytery, next door to the primary school, at Ballarat.
Dr Pell, then an auxiliary bishop of Melbourne, said at the time that Ridsdale "had made terrible mistakes". He said: "It was simply a gesture on my part."
Three years later, on the eve of his swearing-in as archbishop of Melbourne, Dr Pell said he had had "no idea" about Ridsdale's activities when they lived together.
"I lived there with him and there was not even a whisper," Dr Pell said then. "It was a different age, it was never mentioned."
Dr Pell, who has been been appointed the Prefect for the Economy of the Holy See, one of the Vatican's most senior roles responsible for reforming its administration and finances, has admitted he made a mistake supporting Ridsdale in 1993 but continues to insist he had 'little idea of the full extent and gravity of his crimes".
Cardinal George Pell will give evidence to the child abuse royal commission this morning, with his testimony delivered via video link from a Rome hotel.
-- Key points:
* Cardinal Pell arrived three hours before the hearing, due to begin at 10:00pm local time (8:00am AEDT)
* His sister said he had spent the day resting and praying
* Up to 160 people expected to witness Cardinal Pell's appearance
* Abuse survivors travel to Vatican to hear evidence, hoping it will lift the "darkness" lingering over the town of Ballarat, where abuse took place --
Australia's most senior Catholic arrived at the Hotel Quirinale three hours before the hearing, which is due to begin at 10:00pm local time (8:00am AEDT).
His sister told reporters Cardinal Pell had spent the day resting and praying ahead of his appearance.
About 160 people are expected in the room to witness Cardinal Pell's appearance where he'll be asked about Catholic abuse in Ballarat and Melbourne.
Speaking near the Vatican, survivor Dominic Ridsdale said he hoped their visit would help lift the "darkness" lingering over the town of Ballarat, where decades of abuse took place.
"We want the truth. We want to be able to save more lives from too many suicides in Ballarat," he said.
"Hopefully by us being here it'll lift a dark cloud off Ballarat, we don't want anybody looking at it as a dark place."
This morning Cardinal Pell released a statement in which he said he was making arrangements to meet survivors who have travelled to Rome, saying private meetings would be held after the hearing concludes.
Pell tied ribbon on Vatican 'Loud Fence'
Over the weekend photos appeared online of Cardinal Pell tying a yellow ribbon to the Lourdes Grotto in the Vatican Gardens in solidarity with the 'Loud Fence' movement, a grass-roots movement aimed at acknowledging the lasting affects of abuse.
In a statement, the Cardinal's office confirmed the gesture was a show of support for the people of Ballarat.
Loud Fence founder Maureen Hatcher said it was a positive development but Cardinal Pell's evidence at the Royal Commission was more important.
"I think it's fantastic that he's made that gesture. I suppose we can only hope now that he backs it up with some action," she said.
"I think the survivors really need to hear the truth, and hear exactly what did happen and what he did know about the abuse that took place.
"It's more important about what his words will be. I'm also hoping that this will make a bit of a statement to those churches and schools that have been taking ribbons off their fences."
Commission to hear Ballarat, Melbourne case studies
Cardinal Pell has been called to give evidence about two case studies — number 28 about the Diocese of Ballarat and number 35 about the Archdiocese of Melbourne.
The time frame for the case studies stretches from the 1960s through to the 1990s.
Case Study 28 deals with the response of the Christian Brothers in Victoria to allegations of child sexual abuse involving six brothers — all of whom spent time working at schools in the Diocese of Ballarat.
The inquiry has already heard about the impact of abuse on survivors and the knowledge the Bishop and priests of Ballarat had of allegations of church abuse.
It has also heard about the practice of moving offending priests from one parish to another.
His nephew David Ridsdale told the royal commission he phoned Cardinal Pell in 1993 to tell him that his uncle was abusing him, but that the priest tried to silence him.
Bishop Ronald Mulkearns had ultimate responsibility for the Diocese during much of the period of time being considered in Case Study 28.
For part of the time he was a priest in Ballarat, Cardinal Pell was one of the consultors to Bishop Mulkearns.
That involved giving advice to the Bishop on various matters, including the appointments of priests to particular parishes.
Cardinal Pell was a consultor at a time when some of the priests who have offended against children were serving in the Diocese.
Case study 35 deals with the response of the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne to complaints and allegations of child sexual abuse — including during Cardinal Pell's time as an Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne.
Cardinal Pell had responsibilities as an Auxiliary Bishop for areas of the Archdiocese where at least one offending priest was located.
He was a member of the Archbishop's Personnel Advisory Board, and a member of the Curia — both bodies assisted on the placement of priests.
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