Australia State Home: Parramatta Girls Training School

“Girls as young as 10 were raped and drugged at a state-run home in New South Wales, the child sexual abuse royal commission has been told.

The allegation was detailed on the first day of a public hearing into abuse at two girls’ homes.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is looking into abuse allegations from between 1950 and 1974 at the Parramatta Girls Training School in Sydney and the Hay Institution for Girls in the Riverina region.

In her opening address, counsel assisting the commission Caroline Spruce said the evidence would show some girls were drugged before being sexually abused by officers at the homes, while groups of girls raped other residents.

“Some girls were sexually abused in the shower room and others in the offices of the superintendant or deputy superintendant of the institutions,” she said.
Audio: Listen to Sarah Dingle’s report (PM)

“The evidence will also disclose that some girls were forced to take a drug, Largactil.

“I understand [the drug] is ordinarily used to treat severe depression and behavioural disturbances.

“There will also be evidence that on occasions this drug was used to subdue girls prior to sexually abusing them.

“There will also … be evidence that girls were sexually abused by older girls.”

In 1958, when aged 16, Fay Hillery was sent to the Parramatta school.

She told the commission an officer there, Superintendant Donald Crawford, began beating and raping her about a week after she arrived.

“At no time was I ever submissive,” Ms Hillery said.

“I fought, I screamed, I bit, I kicked, I punched. I went to the toilet – anything to stop him from abusing me.

“This would make Crawford so much angrier. He wanted to dominate. I think he wanted to beat me into submission.”

Ms Hillery says she spent eight of her 10 months at Parramatta in isolation.

She says she was too ashamed to tell anyone about the abuse and never sought compensation.

A second witness, known as OA, was sent to the Parramatta school in the 1950s because she was deemed to be in moral danger, but she told the commission it was at the school that she was exposed to moral danger.

She says she lived in fear of the officers in charge, at least two of whom raped her while she was living at the home.

“You are in constant terror there. (They are) supposed to teach you and to protect you,” she said.

OA says she had a miscarriage after being raped.

Another former resident says girls were gang raped and abused by other girls living at the facility.

Wendy Kitson, who was sent to the home in 1962 aged 15, has told the commission she was also abused twice by older girls at the home.

“I saw them attack another girl on another occasion. I made it my business not to be alone with them,” she said.

“I didn’t want to be in a vulnerable position. I tried to sit around officers or other girls I trusted so they couldn’t get at me.”

Wendy Patton, who was sent to the home in 1958 aged 13, is calling for time limits on compensation claims to be lifted for abuse survivors.

Survivors and victims’ groups say it often takes many years for a person to be able to speak out about their experiences, by which time the statute of limitations has passed.

Ms Patton was awarded $37,500 in compensation for the abuse she received at Parramatta. She was one of the few women who was sent to the home who made and was awarded such a claim.

“I believe the statute of limitations should be removed for people wanting to report child sexual abuse,” Ms Patton said.

“That’s my main motivation for telling my story to the royal commission. I want children to have a voice and to be heard and believed.”

Former residents have not been compensated for the abuse as many did not make formal complaints at the time.

Both homes were closed in 1974 after widespread protests against the horrific conditions endured by the residents.”
Child sexual abuse royal commission: Girls ‘drugged and raped’ at NSW state-run homes[Australian Broadcast Company 2/27/14 By Justine Parker]

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