Hundreds of children ***ually abused
By Jamie Walker and Jeremy Roberts
April 02, 2008 03:27am
Article from: The Australian
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HUNDREDS of children in state care in South Australia were ***ually
abused by their carers and exploited by pedophile rings in a "foul
undercurrent" laid bare yesterday.
Former Supreme Court judge Ted Mullighan warned that his three-year
commission of inquiry had uncovered only the "tip of the iceberg" of
the shameful abuse.
His re****t, tabled in the South Australian parliament yesterday,
details how the most vulnerable children have been failed yet again by
a system that was supposed to protect them.
"Ted Mullighan has given me a lot of confidence and ... hope for
justice."
Mr Mullighan found that children taken into state care were ***ually
abused by government staff, priests, teachers, doctors, social workers
and other "outsiders", including pedophiles who operated in organised
groups to prey on them.
Most of the 242 potential victims identified by Mr Mullighan were
taken into state care in South Australia between the 1950s and 1970s
and sent to state or church-run homes.
Many of the children were assaulted by a number of different abusers,
the inquiry found.
Some cases were re****ted as recently as 2004, at the time Mr Mullighan
launched his investigation.
He described yesterday how pedophiles became so emboldened in the
1990s that they contacted the state-run Lochiel Park centre in
Adelaide's northeast, naming boys to be "allowed out".
In other harrowing evidence, witnesses to the inquiry described how
they had been brutally abused as children.
In one case, a 10-year-old boy who had been sick in his dormitory bed
thought he was being comforted by a hostel worker who instead raped
him.
The victim remembered being told by his abuser: "Only sooks cry".
Another witness said he been repeatedly raped when he was sent to the
"little boy's ward" of the now de****t Glandore Home in Adelaide, aged
six.
He was later told that one of his abusers was a policeman, who had the
"right to ... have a boy" whenever he wanted.
A woman who was 12 when she went into care in 1980 said she was
***ually abused so many times she became emotionally "numb".
Mr Mullighan said he was appalled and horrified at the way state wards
had been ***ually exploited after being taken into care.
"Nothing prepared me for the foul undercurrent of society revealed in
evidence to the inquiry," he said.
"I had no understanding of the widespread prevalence of the ***ual
abuse of children in South Australia and its frequent devastating and
often life-long consequences for many of them."
Mr Mullighan's bombshell re****t comes on the heels of inquiries in
Queensland and Western Australia that exposed gaping deficiencies in
child protection.
His findings also add to concerns raised by the 1997 Bringing Them
Home re****t into the Stolen Generations, and last year's Little
Children Are Sacred re****t, which prompted the federal intervention
into the Northern Territory's troubled Aboriginal communities.
South Australian Premier Mike Rann immediately promised an official
state apology to victims, and $2 million to step up prosecutions of
their abusers.
But the state Government was last night resisting calls for statutory
compensation, despite Mr Mulligan's recommendation it examine such
schemes in Tasmania, Queensland and Western Australia.
Mr Mullighan said the inquiry had uncovered evidence that South
Australia's child protection system - like those in other states - was
in crisis.
One of the most disturbing revelations was the existence of a "very
close-knit community" of pedophiles who exploited run-aways from
foster homes and other care facilities.
Evidence by child protection officials and police had confirmed that
children were being exploited by pedophiles operating in Adelaide, he
said.
Children were taken to parties at private homes that involved ***,
drugs and alcohol.
"The problems still exists," Mr Mullighan found.
"In July 2007, the department (of Child Protection Services)
identified 16 children living in residential units as frequent
absconders, who are considered to be at high risk of ***ual
exploitation."
Mr Mullighan recommended that persistent run-aways be held under lock
and key in "therapeutic secure care" for their own protection.
But he would not respond yesterday to questions about whether
pedophile groups he had uncovered were linked to the reputed 'Family',
claimed to be responsible for a series of brutal homo***ual killings
in Adelaide in the 1970s and 1980s.
In the course of the $13.5 million inquiry, which was progressively
widened as it uncovered growing evidence of abuse, Mr Mullighan and
his team of 57 staff took evidence from 792 people who said they were
victims of child *** abuse, many telling their stories for the first
time.
The inquiry found that 242 were actually in state care at the time
they said they were assaulted. A total of 826 allegations were made
against 922 alleged abusers.
Of these, the inquiry has so far referred allegations from 170 people
to the police, involving 434 alleged perpetrators.
Mr Rann said 14 cases had been referred to the South Australian
Director of Public Prosecutions, two suspects had been arrested and a
further 13 had been re****ted for possible action by police.
The Premier said he had been physically sickened by the accounts of
abuse contained in Mr Mullighan's re****t.
Prosecutors should now moved speedily to bring outstanding cases to
trial, Mr Rann said.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23469481-2,00.html
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