Child migrants subject to ‘unacceptable depravity’

Vulnerable British children shipped overseas in a controversial migration programme were victims of “unacceptable depravity” including torture, sexual abuse and slavery, an inquiry has heard.

Thousands of children were relocated to distant corners of the British empire, often against their will, over hundreds of years, it was claimed.

The long-awaited Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse heard on its first public session of evidence that many of the institutions which housed them were plagued by “widespread and systematic sexual abuse”.

One former child migrant broke down as he recalled the “endemic” problem of sexual abuse at Fairbridge Farm School in Molong, Australia.

David Hill, his voice often breaking, said: “Many never recover and are permanently afflicted with guilt, shame, diminished self-confidence, low self-esteem and trauma. We will never be able to undo the great wrong done to these children but what is important to survivors of sexual abuse is, where this inquiry is satisfied with the evidence, to name the villains. Many of them are beyond the grave and are therefore beyond the law but it would bring a great deal of comfort to the people who as children were victims of these people if they were named and shamed.”

A case study of the “shameful history” focusing on the post-war period until the scheme’s end in the 1970s, is being examined as part of the inquiry’s protection of children outside the United Kingdom investigation.

The far-reaching probe, which has been beset by criticism and delays, is to scrutinise 13 institutions, ranging from local authorities to the army, for child protection failings.

It was claimed yesterday that the UK government was complicit in the “systematic and institutional problem” of abuse spawned by the migration scheme.

“Plagued by widespread and systematic sexual abuse”

Former child migrant David Hill broke down