Child abuse victim told he was an orphan and sent to Australia in the 1950s
A CHILD abuse victim who was sent to Australia believing he was an orphan has told of sexual abuse and “brutal beatings” at the hands of paedophile priests.
The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry witness, known as Harry, left care in Aberdeen and was sent by boat to Australia in the 1950s, growing up in two orphanages where boys were subjected to years of public floggings and sexual abuse.
Harry told the hearing, chaired by
Lady Smith, about his experience in the care of Christian Brothers and how he was forced to perform sex acts by three of the brothers in the boys’ dormitory.
Speaking via video link from Australia, the 75-year-old witness said the sexual abuse at Clontarf in Western Australia lasted “four or five years, on and off”, with the threat of punishment if he did not go along with it.
Recalling the abusive Christian
Brothers, he said they should have been “shot and hung”.
“If you, in Scotland, knew what happened in Australia you would have started a Third World War,” he said.
The inquiry also heard about the physical punishment at the institution, including boys being lined up on a stage to be flogged in front of their peers.
Describing himself as “thick as two short planks sometimes”, he said he was not a good pupil, struggling to read and write.
Throughout his time in care at Castledare and Clontarf, Harry said he received “brutal beatings” if chores were not done properly and once had a plate smashed over his head for refusing to eat his food.
“We were wild kids,” he said, adding: “They used to flog the hell out of me.”
Now in its fifth phase, the inquiry is looking at evidence about abuse involving thousands of children who were overseas through child migration schemes that ran until 1971.
Although he found out as a teenager that his mother was alive and had been writing to him, Harry only ever spoke two words to her – telling her to “f*** off” when she once phoned the care home.
“I’m sorry I did that now,” he said, revealing she had died by the time he managed to return to the UK.