The Darkness Is Compounded When Boys Are Groomed
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
L A W BREAKING DOWN THE WALLS words penelope debelle picture mike burton fully how dark and complex was the legacy occurred in 1991 but was discovered by like being listened to, having counselling of sexual abuse. These were ordinary boys chance a decade later, was unspeakably and being paid compensation. Money can from solid families in Adelaide’s eastern exploitative and involved the rape or improve a life but it is also a marker of suburbs who attended CEBS as part of abuse by a bus driver of profoundly acknowledgment, guilt money, if you like. a normal, fulfilled childhood. For many, intellectually disabled children who “If the compensation is so large that it their lives were ruined. attended a Catholic special school. Locked hurts the organisation then even better,” “They were, as are all victims of in their own worlds, they could not even he says. “It’s probably not an exaggeration sexual abuse to a greater of lesser degree tell anyone. to say that if they could break the traumatised by it and it impacts on their Humphries says the response of the organisation, they would not be unhappy, lives forever,” says Humphries. Catholic Education Office when they first that’s how great is the anger.” The boys – and most institutional sexual heard of it was to pretend it didn’t happen. abuse victims are male – were typically The abuse came to light when a tip-off lowly and painfully the institutions OMETIME in 2008 Adelaide prepubescent and inexperienced when the led police to discover photographs of most at fault are being dragged lawyer Peter Humphries had a abuse first occurred. some of the abused children during a raid into the light. In the Families SA call from a Melbourne lawyer “If a boy is getting abused when he’s 16 on the driver’s home. The parents of those Scases, compensation is still two who was acting for the Catholic or 17 or 18, it’s only because he was getting children were notified, but no one else. decades away because only then can a Church. Humphries was abused back when he was 13 or 14,” says Humphries still thinks the Church had a meaningful assessment of its individual representing families whose Humphries. “It doesn’t start when they’re duty of care to inform the parents of other impacts be made. The firm’s principal Sdisabled children were abused on the bus 17. They can say no. They know what’s children on the bus that their child might role will be to guide the families through as they travelled to and from St Ann’s going on.” also have been abused. the unfolding process, starting with the special school. The lawyer was coming to The darkness is compounded when “That never happened,” he says. “So Nyland Royal Commission. Personally, Adelaide and wanted to meet. It seemed boys are groomed. The Brandenburg these parents of the other children were left Humphries despairs of Families SA and a good sign. offences didn’t involve institutional rape. in the dark and this is with a background its apparent failures of common sense. “I somewhat foolishly thought this Instead, the boys were slowly seduced of some of them independently going to “There’s no bloody intelligence, they indicated that we could have a discussion into sexual activity – through porn of the school and saying ‘my son has started never bloody think,” he says, exasperated. and maybe sort something out because by increasing intensity often combined with behaving in the most inappropriate At 65, Humphries is coming to the end that time these claims were six or seven drugs and alcohol – which provided a way and we’ve been racking our brains of his working life. His wife, Kate, is a years old,” says Humphries. veneer of superficial consent. This is hard thinking of something that might have retired social worker and they increasingly The lawyer told Humphries that he for the victims to live with. “They feel happened to him that would trigger this’.” spend time in Bern in Switzerland where was instructed by the Catholic Insurance incredibly guilty, as if it’s somehow their The abuse of disabled children seemed one of their three children lives. Office to take every legal point in court, fault they’ve done it,” Humphries says. like rock bottom. Yet the latest horror Some things still niggle him, like the including the statute of limitations. involves the alleged rape of children as way the Catholic Insurance Office tried Disappointed, Humphries told him to exual abuse cases don’t run as young as six months by a Families SA to play hard ball in the St Ann’s case. go ahead because in South Australia a a class action because each one care worker about whom danger signs Humphries pursued this during a tense plaintiff with a disability had a 30-year is based on individual events. It were either ignored or missed. The exchange with Archbishop Philip Wilson window in which to bring a proceeding. Sis a form of mass litigation with children, taken into care because of their during the South Australian sittings of the It signalled to him that in the eyes of the victims lining up against a common already disadvantaged backgrounds, were Royal Commission into the Institutional Catholic Church, more than a decade accused, in this case the Anglican Church. subjected to this. Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in after the release of their Towards Healing This was the first public exposure of March this year. In a revealing exchange, protocols, the suffering of victims was still large-scale sexual abuse in South Australia umphries says he can’t answer he asked the Archbishop whether coming a poor second. and for Humphries a sense of reality only whether being exposed to so the insurance office – which runs the As a partner at Duncan Basheer entered the frame when former Anglican much darkness has affected church’s cases for them – was bound by Hannon, Humphries has been at the Archbishop, Ian George, left and was Hhis view of human nature. the principles of the Catholic Church’s cutting edge of the institutional calling replaced by Archbishop Jeffrey Driver. He doesn’t think so but he knows that Towards Healing protocols, which were to account that in the past 15 years has “They have never been easy to deal nothing surprises him anymore. introduced in the mid-1990s in response with but they became willing to deal with “My wife says to me, ‘don’t you think to claims of sexual abuse. us,” he says. it’s terrible?’ Yes, but I’m so inured to it, “Do you know whether or not the named after the controversial former The Mullighan inquiry into the abuse I don’t think I can be shocked anymore,” Catholic Church Insurances office Labor Attorney-General, Peter Duncan, of South Australian wards of state put the he says. “I don’t think I expect the worst subscribes to the Towards Healing lawyer and long-time administrator of THE state ahead of the nation in formalising of people but I’m not shocked when I protocol?” Humphries asked. Peter Humphries says he never set out to be a crusader for the the SANFL Max Basheer, and a former a structure to manage widespread hear it.” “No, I don’t,” said Archbishop Wilson. labour lawyer Peter Hannon. Only DARKNESS IS institutional abuse. Humphries’ firm The damage caused by sexual abuse is Humphries says abuse is a never-ending underdog, so how did this Adelaide lawyer become the first choice for Basheer still has a relationship with the would see clients and refer them to the profound. It is generally accepted, he says, story. Only one of the seven St Ann’s firm, which has become known for its COMPOUNDED Mullighan inquiry, headed by retired that people struggle to talk about it for 20 cases has settled and there are six more to many frustrated abuse victims facing an institutional wall of silence? class actions, including representing 37 Supreme Court judge, the late Ted to 30 years after the event. In cases like go. Just as the Anglican cases were dealt people who were injured when the Spin WHEN BOYS ARE Mullighan, who would send clients Brandenburg, where the victim has been with and the Salvation Army claims were Dragon ride at the Royal Adelaide Show needing legal representation to them. groomed to consent, the long-term impact coming to an end, Families SA blew up in collapsed in 2000. “Ted personally spoke to all of these seems to be worse. the government’s face. Class actions are complex and GROOMED people and it took its toll on him,” says “There is a very deep-seated sense of The law is a blunt instrument when it swept like a tidal wave through the South There has been no shortage of cases. complain that her Church was being demand extraordinary co-ordination Humphries (Mullighan died in 2011). guilt, and I think that is particularly so of comes to fixing the pain and the long- Australian branches of the Anglican and Just as the church and charity scandals unfairly singled out over the systematic and management. Humphries fell into it the compensation case against Nippy’s “Everyone we acted for thought it was very those who have been groomed and have term suffering caused by sexual abuse. Catholic Church, and the Salvation Army. started tapering off, Families SA began abuse of 70 or more boys by a trusted almost by accident when in 1993 he acted juice company over salmonella poisoning.