CLOSURE FOR SEX ABUSE SURVIVOR
MORE than four decades after Wayne Clarke was abused by Puffing Billy sex offender Robert Whitehead, he feels like he can finally move on from the traumatic experience.
Mr Clarke was among Whitehead’s victims to receive a formal apology from the Victorian government in state parliament yesterday over the abuse.
“It’s the end of the whole 44 years for me now,” Mr Clarke told reporters on the steps of parliament after the apology.
“So hopefully I can get on with my life and enjoy it – the rest of it.”
Whitehead had used his position at the much-loved Puffing Billy steam train in Melbourne’s Dandenong Ranges to abuse children for decades, while the tourist attraction’s board repeatedly failed to report complaints to police.
He was first convicted and jailed in 1959 for child sex abuse and when released, was re-employed as a rail worker and volunteered with Puffing Billy before going on to assault six children between the 1960s and 1980s. He died in jail in 2015 after pleading guilty to 24 charges.
“People knew. People knew and they did nothing. Some of our most trusted institutions and individuals not only failed to speak up, they even tried to cover it up,” Premier Daniel Andrews said.
“If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village as well to utterly fail a child.
“On behalf of the parliament, the government, and the people of Victoria, for every childhood that was stolen … we are sorry.”