How Could You? Hall of Shame- Australia-Burt and Edith Gordon and Colin Gibson Updated

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Brewarrina, Australia, “a girl who was physically and sexually abused from the age of five until 15 by her foster parents[Burt and Edith Gordon] at a home for Indigenous children was also lied to and convinced to be so terrified of her biological parents she would not speak to them, the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse has heard.

Kathleen Biles and two of her siblings were made wards of the state and sent to live at the Bethcar Children’s Home in Brewarrina in remote northern NSW more than 30 years ago.

The state-funded home was run by Burt and Edith Gordon and their son-in-law Colin Gibson from 1969 to 1989.

The royal commission is examining how complaints of abuse at the home were handled, with an emphasis on the “protracted” litigation procedure when civil proceedings were brought by fifteen former residents of Bethcar against the State.

Biles told the public hearing in Sydney on Wednesday that she had learned from her department of child services (Docs) file that her mother had tried to get the children back, but her father thought they were better cared for at Bethcar, and that he “trusted” the foster parents, Burt and Edith Gordon.

Gibson was jailed in 2007 on two separate sentences of 12 years and 18 years for offences against a number of girls.

Biles told the commission her first memory of abuse was at the age of five when she went to the Gordons’ to complain of a headache.

“Before Edith could say anything, Burt held up the blanket he was under and said words to the effect ‘come under the blanket with daddy. Daddy will make it better’,” said Biles.

Burt Gordon then sexually assaulted her. Edith Gordon seemed “completely indifferent”, said Biles. When she started crying, Edith Gordon said “what’s wrong with you you naughty little girl” and Burt Gordon invited her under the blanket again.

Edith Gordon told her to go to Burt Gordon but she said no, so the woman physically beat her.

“Later I learned from experience that Edith would respond like this every time we told her that we had been abused,” said Biles.

The children were also told that their parents did not want them. Burt Gordon would tell the children their parents were evil and alcoholic, and threatened to send the children back to them if they misbehaved, said Biles.

“I was terrified of my biological parents because of what he said,” she told the hearing.

When her parents came to see her at school one day and called out to her, she was too scared to go to them.

Biles detailed numerous horrific instances of the decade-long abuse which she said made her feel “violated” and like “nowhere was safe, even if other people were there”.

No case was taken against Burt Gordon, who was old and unwell at the time of the investigation. He has since died.

The royal commission is hearing from a number of witnesses, including six former residents of Bethcar.

Another five-year-old girl was raped and then flogged when she was late for dinner after she was placed in Bethcar at the age of two or three. The abuse began soon after. The girl, given the pseudonym AIQ for legal reasons, told no one until she was in her late 30s.

Children who went to police and NSW welfare officers with allegations of abuse were returned to the home where they were beaten, the commission heard.

As the hearing began in Sydney, the commission was told the state of NSW had for years resisted accepting liability for any abuse and disputed for four years that it had occurred – even after Gibson was jailed.

When 13 former residents came forward in 2008 to sue the state, the Crown Solicitor’s office employed solicitor Evangelos Manollaras and junior counsel Patrick Saidi to handle the case.

Counsel assisting the commission, David Lloyd, said Manollaras doubted the abuse had happened and at one stage wrote “… in fact, I’m having some difficulty in having understanding how a jury convicted Gibson”.

There were years of delay and legal tactics. Saidi was highly critical of the Women’s Legal Service, which was supporting some victims, the inquiry was told.

Lloyd also said that when the plaintiffs requested an acknowledgment and a modest amount of money, Mallollaras expressed the view that “firstly I don’t ever recall the state apologising for anything, secondly as to the sexual assaults, I have a very strong doubt that anything occurred at all in most cases”.

In one email Manollaras raised the “possibility of undertaking some surveillance” on at least some of the plaintiffs and suggested an initial compensation budget of $20,000-$30,000.

The case was settled at the beginning of 2014, with each plaintiff getting $107,142 with the state to pay legal costs.

The state had spent almost $1m defending it.

The hearing continues.”

Girl, 5, raped and flogged for being late for dinner at foster home, inquiry told[The Guardian 10/21/14 by Helen Davidson]

“A child abuse victim says she deliberately broke her arm to avoid her attacker at the Bethcar Children’s Home in New South Wales.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has begun public hearings into the abuse of residents who lived at the home at Brewarrina, in the state’s far west, in the 1970s and 80s.

The home relocated to Orange, in the central west, in 1984 and closed in 1989.

The inquiry is scrutinising the State Government’s monitoring of operations and response to complaints, including why a compensation claim by 15 former residents took six years to resolve.

Bethcar was a state-funded foster care facility established in the 1970s to house disadvantaged Aboriginal children.

It was run by Burt and Edith Gordon, their adopted daughter referred to as AIT, and AIT’s husband Colin Gibson.

In his opening statement, counsel assisting David Lloyd said the commission would hear evidence about the prolonged abuse of Aboriginal children at the home.

One of the victims, Jodie Moore, was close to tears as she gave evidence Burt Gordon and Gibson abused and raped her weekly when she was aged between six and 16.

She said she wet her bed the entire time she was at Bethcar because she was in such fear of Gibson coming into her room at night.

“I also remember when I was eight years old deliberately breaking my arm so I could get a break from the sexual abuse,” she said.

She said she repeatedly reported the abuse to Mrs Gordon, welfare authorities and the police, and ran away from the home.

But she and another witness, Kathleen Biles, told the commission they learned not to speak of the abuse after repeated beatings, often by Mrs Gordon.

Ms Biles said Mrs Gordon beat her when she was five years old, after she protested about being abused by Burt Gordon, whom she was made to address as though he were her father.

Ms Biles said Mrs Gordon was sitting in the room as the abuse was occurring.

“Edith flew into a rage,” Ms Biles said.

“She got up off the lounge and began beating me wherever she could hit me.

“She said words to the effect ‘don’t you lie about your father’.”

Ms Moore also gave evidence that two welfare officers from the Department of Community Services [DoCS] took her and some other children from Bethcar to the police station, where they gave statements about the abuse.

“Afterwards, [the welfare officer] took us back to Bethcar,” she said.

“Burt and Edie flogged us with pepper tree branches.”

NSW spent $2 million on compensation fight

The inquiry heard the Gordons were given a state award for their work with children in 1980 – the same year the Government became aware of abuse at the home.

“Mr and Mr Gordon received an award from the NSW Youth And Community Service Minister Rex Jackson as Childcare Parents of the Year,” Mr Lloyd said.

He said the Minister’s department, now known as the Department of Family and Community Services, became aware of abuse at the home in the same year.

“The evidence is expected to disclose that the Department was aware of problems with sexual abuse at Bethcar at least from early 1980,” Mr Lloyd said.

The inquiry heard the NSW Government spent more than $2 million contesting the 15 victims’ compensation claim.

“The women settled for $107,000 in damages and an apology,” Mr Lloyd said.

“The evidence will disclose that by that time the state’s costs were over $930,000 and the former residents‘costs, which the state agreed to pay, were approximately $1.24 million.”

Mr Lloyd said the commission would investigate whether the Government followed the state’s model litigant policy.

Women’s Legal Services NSW represented some of the residents.

Executive officer Helen Campbell told the ABC the state’s response to the case was unsympathetic and led to many long delays.

We would like to say in such a future case the Government might take a more compassionate approach,” she said.

The victims’ compensation claim was brought in 2008 and was resolved this year.

The lawyer representing the State Government, Paul Menzies QC, said the state was re-examining its approach.

“We know that the state can do better when dealing with civil claims to deal with the particular vulnerabilities of child sexual abuse victims,” he said.

Mr Lloyd said police decided not to charge Gordon over Ms Biles’ complaint, partly because of Gordon’s age and ill health, and that he died in 2006.

In 2008, an investigating police officer wrote in a memorandum that Ms Biles’ complaints appeared to be legitimate and “there should not be a negative inference taken from the fact that police were unable to prosecute in her specific case”.

“Kathleen Biles presented as a person of excellent character and integrity,” the memorandum said.

In 2006, Gibson was found guilty of abusing Ms Moore and sentenced to 18 years’ prison.

The following year, he was convicted of abusing another another resident and given a 12-year prison sentence.

The inquiry has also heard evidence from the written statements of three other former residents.

The Secretary of the NSW Department of Justice, Andrew Cappie-Wood, and the departmental head of Family and Community Services, Michael Coutts-Trotter, are also expected to appear.”

Bethcar Children’s Home: Resident broke own arm to escape sexual abuse, royal commission told[ABC 10/22/14 by Nonee Walsh]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

 

Update:”The NSW senior lawyer overseeing part of a six-year-long sexual abuse compensation case that cost $2 million in legal fees has conceded the Crown should have gone to mediation years ago.

Senior crown solicitor Helen Allison made the concession on her second day of evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The commission is investigating the handling of a 2008 civil compensation claim by 15 former residents of the Bethcar Aboriginal Children’s home in Brewarrina in north-west New South Wales, which was finally settled this year.

In 2011 Ms Allison had backed Evangelos Manollaras, the junior Crown solicitor handling the case, who argued the case should be defended and the NSW Government should not admit liability.

Ms Allison told the commission today she got it wrong.

“Certainly in hindsight we should have gone to mediation,” she said.

The inquiry has heard the Crown Solicitor’s Office would not even admit liability over girls who had been assaulted by Bethcar worker Colin Gibson, who was convicted and jailed for the crimes.

The other sexual predator, Burt Gordon, died before the police could get him to court, but investigating police did not doubt the truth of the evidence against him.

‘Knock off as many plaintiffs as possible’

Ms Allison has now agreed that there was a serious liability issue for the NSW Government over Bethcar survivors as the Department of Community Services had failed to act on reports about problems in the home from the early 1980s.

Counsel assisting the inquiry, David Lloyd, said an email from her junior colleague showed barristers had indicated in 2010 that the only way to win was by using the time bar defence against old complaints.

 

“It was generally felt by counsel that the best bet for the defendant was to knock off as many plaintiffs as possible on the limitation question,” Mr Lloyd said.

Mr Lloyd said the Crown Solicitors Office continued to resist mediation even when another email that year showed their barrister had advised that an inexpensive settlement was an option.

“All the plaintiffs have done is indicate they want an acknowledgement and a modest amount of money,” Mr Manollaras wrote at the time.

The claim over horrendous long-term abuse in Bethcar went to mediation in late 2013 and was settled this year with the payment of damages and an apology.

The Government ended up spending more than $2 million on legal costs.

Surveillance of victims recommended

Ms Allison was unable to explain why surveillance of the victims was recommended in 2010 by Mr Manollaras.

Mr Manollaras suggested $20,000 or $30,000 be spent on surveillance, even though the claim was only for psychiatric injury.

Ms Allison said she was unable to explain the purpose of such surveillance.

“Surveillance, I think, is not often recommended,” she said.

Ms Allison did not concede that the Crown Solicitors Office’s conduct of the whole case was a breach of the state’s model litigant policies.

The policy says state lawyers must do more than acting ethically and within the law.

However she made a number of concessions that several steps taken by the office were a breach of the policy.

Ms Allison said she would not handle any similar case the same way.

“I have been in the witness box defending the action of the state in this as a lawyer but I do understand that what happened at Bethcar was horrible,” she said.

“Ms Loughman [solicitor representing former residents of Bethcar] and I put in a great deal of effort at the mediation into trying to handle that as sensitively as possible to give some sort of closure to those complainants.”

The NSW Department of Family and Community secretary, Michael Coutts-Trotter, said the Crown did fail in its responsibility as a “model litigant”.

He re-iterated the apology given in the civil litigation, and extended it to all victims at Bethcar.

“I acknowledge that the terrible sexual and physical abuse inflicted upon children and young people by those entrusted to care for them, has had devastating and lifelong impacts on many individuals,” he said.”

NSW Government lawyers in Bethcar child sex abuse case says mediation should have been attempted years ago[ABC 10/24/14 by Nonee Walsh]

Update 2:”New South Wales Government lawyers withheld information from a court as they fought a damages claim brought by child abuse victims, an inquiry has heard.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is looking at the Government’s treatment of child abuse victims from the Bethcar Children’s Home in Brewarrina in north-west NSW.

More than a dozen children were abused at Bethcar, a state-funded foster care facility established in the 1970s for disadvantaged Aboriginal children, the commission has heard.

It is investigating the handling of a 2008 civil compensation claim by 15 former residents, which took six years to settle.

The commission has heard that the names of witnesses who could have been called to give evidence were withheld from the court.

Government investigator Peter Maxwell, who prepared an affidavit for the civil case, told the royal commission he included the names of those witnesses but they were removed by Government lawyers.

“My recollection is that there was a concern that if the witnesses were named, the plaintiffs or solicitors, counsel for the plaintiff, could then call for the statements,” Mr Maxwell told the Sydney hearing.

“Now those statements, those five or six statements that all went directly to the several of the plaintiffs… would have affected the liability, I suspect.”

Lawyer won’t ‘suggest legal system is fair’

However, Peter Saidi, the lead barrister in the Government’s legal team, denied acting inappropriately.

“I’m not going to try and support the legal system and suggest a legal system is fair,” Mr Saidi said.

“I’ve spent over 35 years now in the legal system and my view of the legal system is, in many respects, it’s inherently unfair.

“But as a barrister, I operate by the rules of the legal system.”

Mr Saidi was also critical of the victims’ statements, saying they were the worst he had seen in his career.

He said that led to the six-year delay in settling the compensation claim.

Bethcar’s operators and alleged abuse perpetrators, Burt and Edith Gordon, are now dead, but their son-in-law, Colin Gibson, was jailed in 2006 for child abuse offences that took place at the home.”

Child sex abuse inquiry: NSW Government lawyers ‘withheld information’ from court amid victims’ civil case[ABC 10/30/14 by Laetitia Lemke]