15 Christian Brothers beat and raped me
A PENSIONER has told how he was beaten and raped as a child at the hands of 15 Christian Brothers at orphanages in Australia.
Frederick Wooltorton Smith, now 81, said ‘brutality and violence’ were part of life at four children’s homes.
Dundee-born Mr Smith told the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry he had been shipped to Australia, where the homes were run by ‘evil’ members of the order, at the age of nine after the death of his parents.
He said years of abuse began within weeks of his arrival and culminated in him being raped three times a week, beaten over the head and plucked from his bed like ‘prey’ for abuse in one home’s sweet shop. Mr Smith also said he was made to wear a dress and make-up.
At the hearing in Edinburgh yesterday, Mr Smith said: ‘The whole 15 of them were off the top shelf for brutality and sexual abuse.’
Mr Smith said his abuse began when he arrived at St Joseph’s Farm orphanage in Bindoon in December 1947. He said there was ‘much pain, horror and brutality’ there.
He said he was made to work eight hours a day on a farm where he was raped by one staff member in the home’s piggery.
Mr Smith said the abuse escalated at Castledare Boys’ Home in 1948. He said of his attacker there: ‘He was the only brother who could make me wet myself just by looking at me.’
At the age of 12, Mr Smith was moved again, to Clontarf Boys’ Home, where he said ‘the violence was horrendous’.
After he witnessed an incident in which a boy was thrown into a tub of scalding water, he said he attempted to take his own life but ‘didn’t have the guts to complete the act’.
In 1952, aged 14, Mr Smith was moved to St Mary’s Agricultural School in Tardun, where he said he was raped twice a week.
He said the abuse only stopped when he reported his ordeal to a doctor after he fell ill with rheumatic fever.
Mr Smith left care at 16, joined the army, then worked in the oil industry but was ‘held down’ by his lack of education. Despite marrying, Mr Smith said his experience as a child meant he refused to have a family.
He added: ‘I wanted the story to come out.’
Meanwhile, Lady Smith, who is leading the inquiry, said it will extend its investigation to include nine new institutions, including four young offenders establishments, as part of a probe into boarding schools.