QResear.ch

#21755336 at 2024-10-13 04:21:14 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #37: EVERYTHING IS AT STAKE Edition

#36 - Part 122
Child Sexual Abuse, Pedophilia, Human Trafficking and Satanism Investigations - Part 17
>>21739558 Beaumaris Primary School sexual abuse survivor reaches record $8 million settlement with Victorian government - A survivor of "shocking" sexual abuse at a Melbourne primary school has received what his lawyer has called "the biggest publicly known payment to an abuse survivor in Australia" in an extraordinary $8 million settlement with the Victorian Education Department. The man, who was sexually abused by notorious paedophile Darrell Ray, was among a generation of students who suffered abuse in the 1960s and 70s at Beaumaris Primary School in bayside Melbourne. The man's lawyer, Michael Magazanik of Rightside Legal, said his client had been fighting for justice for most of his adult life and settled the claim a week before it was set to reach Victoria's Supreme Court. "He's been on this path for decades, first pushing for a criminal prosecution for lots of Ray's victims, and then his own fight for proper compensation," Mr Magazanik said. "Of course, it's been a rocky road for him and life hasn't been easy because he's been dealing with entrenched damage. Now he's got what he deserves and we're proud to have fought for him. It's the biggest publicly-known payment to an abuse survivor in Australia. It represents the shocking damage the abuse did and the cost of starting to repair my client's life, starting to put him back in the position he might have been in had the school kept him safe." Speaking to ABC Investigations, the man said he hoped his legal victory would inspire survivors who have lost faith in the justice system. "I'd strongly recommend that victims of sexual abuse get themselves a lawyer and not go down the National Redress path," the man said. "That's the main thing I'd want to get across to other survivors. Trust your lawyer and get what you deserve, not what the government wants to give you. For me, personally, an apology was never going to give me any closure. I was offered twice and said no. Other people might get closure from an apology, but I won't. And the money does not give me closure either - I will never get closure. I wouldn't still be here were it not for finding my faith. And that's not for everyone either. But I had to become a Christian to even have a remote chance of surviving and finding a better way of life."

>>21739573 Video: British YouTuber and rapper Yung Filly extradited to Perth to face allegations of rape - He is accused of assaulting a woman in a hotel room on September 28th 2024. In 2021 Yung Filly was also accused of meeting and texting 17 year old girls when he was 26 and recently he was also seen biting women outside clubs (Allegedly). UPDATE: Yung Filly has been granted bail of $122,000, with conditions that require him to stay in Western Australia until his court appearance in December. He must also report to the police three times a week.

#21739558 at 2024-10-10 08:36:35 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #37: EVERYTHING IS AT STAKE Edition

>>21049488 (pb)
Beaumaris Primary School sexual abuse survivor reaches record $8 million settlement with Victorian government

Russell Jackson - 10 October 2024

A survivor of "shocking" sexual abuse at a Melbourne primary school has received what his lawyer has called "the biggest publicly known payment to an abuse survivor in Australia" in an extraordinary $8 million settlement with the Victorian Education Department.

The man, who was sexually abused by notorious paedophile Darrell Ray, was among a generation of students who suffered abuse in the 1960s and 70s at Beaumaris Primary School in bayside Melbourne.

The man's lawyer, Michael Magazanik of Rightside Legal, said his client had been fighting for justice for most of his adult life and settled the claim a week before it was set to reach Victoria's Supreme Court.

"He's been on this path for decades, first pushing for a criminal prosecution for lots of Ray's victims, and then his own fight for proper compensation," Mr Magazanik said.

"Of course, it's been a rocky road for him and life hasn't been easy because he's been dealing with entrenched damage.

"Now he's got what he deserves and we're proud to have fought for him.

"It's the biggest publicly-known payment to an abuse survivor in Australia.

"It represents the shocking damage the abuse did and the cost of starting to repair my client's life, starting to put him back in the position he might have been in had the school kept him safe."

Speaking to ABC Investigations, the man said he hoped his legal victory would inspire survivors who have lost faith in the justice system.

"I'd strongly recommend that victims of sexual abuse get themselves a lawyer and not go down the National Redress path," the man said.

"That's the main thing I'd want to get across to other survivors.

"Trust your lawyer and get what you deserve, not what the government wants to give you.

"For me, personally, an apology was never going to give me any closure. I was offered twice and said no.

"Other people might get closure from an apology, but I won't. And the money does not give me closure either - I will never get closure.

"I wouldn't still be here were it not for finding my faith. And that's not for everyone either. But I had to become a Christian to even have a remote chance of surviving and finding a better way of life."

'A bunch of adults in charge turned a blind eye'

Mr Magazanik said the abuse epidemic at Beaumaris Primary was a "shocking and monumental failure" and a microcosm of an education system that repeatedly failed to protect children.

"It only happened because a bunch of adults in charge turned a blind eye and the price tag for that blindness is enormous and growing," Mr Magazanik said.

The man's abuser, Darrell Ray, died in November 2023 while awaiting trial on 26 charges of indecent assault upon a male, which followed a lengthy investigation by Victoria Police.

In 2001, Ray pleaded guilty to 27 counts of indecently assaulting 18 male students at Beaumaris Primary School and the Tucker Road Primary School in Moorabbin between 1967 and 1976 and was sentenced to 44 months in prison with a minimum term of 17 months.

The rampant sexual abuse perpetrated by Ray and three other former Beaumaris Primary teachers gained greater attention in 2021 when former AFL star Rod Owen told the ABC his story of abuse by Ray at Beaumaris and in St Kilda's Little League team.

In 2023, Ray and three other paedophile teachers were the focus of the Victorian government's Board of Inquiry into sexual abuse of schoolchildren at Beaumaris Primary and 23 other government schools.

It revealed decades of glaring failures and a "culture that prioritised the reputation of the education system over the safety of children".

In June, responding to the findings of the Beaumaris inquiry, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allen announced a $48 million "truth-telling" process and acknowledged the state's "serious and systematic" failure to protect children in government schools.

"We failed to keep these children safe," Ms Allan said at the announcement.

"We failed to listen when they spoke out. We failed to act to ensure that it did not happen again."

"What should have been a happy place became a place of horror for these victim-survivors."

The government's truth-telling process, which will include the first systematic review of the Victorian Education Department's failings, will be open to survivors of sexual abuse at all government schools and is expected to conclude in 2026.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-10/victorian-government-to-pay-record-sum-to-sexual-abuse-survivor/104448654

https://qresear.ch/?q=Darrell+Ray

https://qresear.ch/?q=Beaumaris

#21252218 at 2024-07-20 14:41:05 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #37: EVERYTHING IS AT STAKE Edition

#36 - Part 101
Child Sexual Abuse, Pedophilia, Human Trafficking and Satanism Investigations - Part 3
>>20976422 An abuse victim got $50,000 through the National Redress Scheme. He fought on, and settled for $500,000 - A victim of historical sexual abuse at the former Bayswater Boys' Home has reached a $500,000 settlement with the Salvation Army, after receiving just $50,000 under the National Redress Scheme. The case raises significant concerns about the capacity of the redress scheme to adequately compensate victims of historical abuse. Under the scheme, payments are capped at $150,000 and require recipients to waive their legal rights to sue the organisation involved. Geoff, who asked for his surname not to be used because he is a victim of sexual assault, was initially sent to the former Baltara Reception Centre in Parkside, in Melbourne's north-east, which provided accommodation for boys involved in minor offending or who were wards of the state. He was transferred to the Bayswater Boys' Home in about 1971, where he was abused by three staff members over almost four years. Two of the men accused in court documents of the sexual assaults were later jailed after being convicted of assaulting other vulnerable children in their care. Geoff received a $50,000 payment in 2019 from the National Redress Scheme, which identified the state government and the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services as being culpable for the abuse. "As Baltara Reception Centre no longer exists, the state of Victoria is their representative. I found the Department of Health and Human Services equally responsible," says NRS correspondence from August 2019. The decision by the NRS to ignore the abuse that occurred at Bayswater Boys' Home allowed Geoff to launch a separate civil court action against the Salvation Army in 2022, which was recently settled before trial with a payment of $500,000. The disparity in payments casts doubt over the ability of the redress scheme to provide fair compensation.
>>21030435 FBI investigating Two by Twos for historical child sexual abuse claims, including in Australia - The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has launched an international investigation into child sexual abuse within a secretive Christian sect that has followers throughout Australia. The global fundamentalist sect does not have an official name. It is referred to by believers as The Truth or The Way, or by non-believers as the Two by Twos, or the Church with No Name. Believers of the church meet in people's homes for prayer sessions, with the group's ministers moving between the different cities and countries where followers are based. In February in the United States, the FBI launched a probe into the group after widescale reports of abuse were publicised by the BBC earlier this year. A hotline for former members who have experienced sexual abuse within the sect in Australia and New Zealand has received allegations involving about 130 separate people. The sect's Australian leaders said they had a "zero-tolerance" to "any child being harmed" and would "cooperate fully" with the FBI or other law enforcement if contacted.
>>21049488 'We failed': Victoria flags truth-telling process for child abuse victims - For Glen Fearnett, the past few years have been about hope. Hope that he would be heard. Hope that those who heard would listen. And hope that by speaking out about the sexual abuse he suffered as a child at a Melbourne bayside school, things would change. On Wednesday, the Allan government announced it would adopt all recommendations in a board of inquiry report that found a cluster of abuse at Beaumaris Primary School in the 1960s and '70s was insidious but not isolated. Fearnett had pinned his hopes on recommendation three in the board of inquiry's findings, delivered in February. Of the nine recommendations, this was the one he most wanted to see adopted: a truth-telling process that would give victim-survivors a voice. A chance to be heard in a supportive setting. "I'm now hopeful that things have changed," Fearnett said, following Premier Jacinta Allan's commitment that survivors of child sexual abuse would be given a platform to tell their stories. As Fearnett expressed hope, Allan acknowledged failure. Victoria had not kept children safe from a cluster of historical abuse cases at schools, including Beaumaris Primary School. "We make a clear and simple acknowledgement - we failed," Allan said as she stood beside Deputy Premier Ben Carroll, who is also education minister. "We failed to keep these children safe. We failed to listen when they spoke out. We failed to act to ensure that it did not happen again," she said. The statewide independent truth-telling process will hear from victim-survivors about abuse at government schools before 2000.

#21251734 at 2024-07-20 13:28:41 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #36: BADGE OF HONOR Edition

#36 - Part 101
Child Sexual Abuse, Pedophilia, Human Trafficking and Satanism Investigations - Part 3
>>20976422 An abuse victim got $50,000 through the National Redress Scheme. He fought on, and settled for $500,000 - A victim of historical sexual abuse at the former Bayswater Boys' Home has reached a $500,000 settlement with the Salvation Army, after receiving just $50,000 under the National Redress Scheme. The case raises significant concerns about the capacity of the redress scheme to adequately compensate victims of historical abuse. Under the scheme, payments are capped at $150,000 and require recipients to waive their legal rights to sue the organisation involved. Geoff, who asked for his surname not to be used because he is a victim of sexual assault, was initially sent to the former Baltara Reception Centre in Parkside, in Melbourne's north-east, which provided accommodation for boys involved in minor offending or who were wards of the state. He was transferred to the Bayswater Boys' Home in about 1971, where he was abused by three staff members over almost four years. Two of the men accused in court documents of the sexual assaults were later jailed after being convicted of assaulting other vulnerable children in their care. Geoff received a $50,000 payment in 2019 from the National Redress Scheme, which identified the state government and the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services as being culpable for the abuse. "As Baltara Reception Centre no longer exists, the state of Victoria is their representative. I found the Department of Health and Human Services equally responsible," says NRS correspondence from August 2019. The decision by the NRS to ignore the abuse that occurred at Bayswater Boys' Home allowed Geoff to launch a separate civil court action against the Salvation Army in 2022, which was recently settled before trial with a payment of $500,000. The disparity in payments casts doubt over the ability of the redress scheme to provide fair compensation.
>>21030435 FBI investigating Two by Twos for historical child sexual abuse claims, including in Australia - The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has launched an international investigation into child sexual abuse within a secretive Christian sect that has followers throughout Australia. The global fundamentalist sect does not have an official name. It is referred to by believers as The Truth or The Way, or by non-believers as the Two by Twos, or the Church with No Name. Believers of the church meet in people's homes for prayer sessions, with the group's ministers moving between the different cities and countries where followers are based. In February in the United States, the FBI launched a probe into the group after widescale reports of abuse were publicised by the BBC earlier this year. A hotline for former members who have experienced sexual abuse within the sect in Australia and New Zealand has received allegations involving about 130 separate people. The sect's Australian leaders said they had a "zero-tolerance" to "any child being harmed" and would "cooperate fully" with the FBI or other law enforcement if contacted.
>>21049488 'We failed': Victoria flags truth-telling process for child abuse victims - For Glen Fearnett, the past few years have been about hope. Hope that he would be heard. Hope that those who heard would listen. And hope that by speaking out about the sexual abuse he suffered as a child at a Melbourne bayside school, things would change. On Wednesday, the Allan government announced it would adopt all recommendations in a board of inquiry report that found a cluster of abuse at Beaumaris Primary School in the 1960s and '70s was insidious but not isolated. Fearnett had pinned his hopes on recommendation three in the board of inquiry's findings, delivered in February. Of the nine recommendations, this was the one he most wanted to see adopted: a truth-telling process that would give victim-survivors a voice. A chance to be heard in a supportive setting. "I'm now hopeful that things have changed," Fearnett said, following Premier Jacinta Allan's commitment that survivors of child sexual abuse would be given a platform to tell their stories. As Fearnett expressed hope, Allan acknowledged failure. Victoria had not kept children safe from a cluster of historical abuse cases at schools, including Beaumaris Primary School. "We make a clear and simple acknowledgement - we failed," Allan said as she stood beside Deputy Premier Ben Carroll, who is also education minister. "We failed to keep these children safe. We failed to listen when they spoke out. We failed to act to ensure that it did not happen again," she said. The statewide independent truth-telling process will hear from victim-survivors about abuse at government schools before 2000.

#21049498 at 2024-06-19 13:10:59 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #36: BADGE OF HONOR Edition

>>21049488

2/2

Other recommendations in the report include a public apology, a memorial acknowledging historical abuse at Beaumaris Primary, and potential memorials related to other schools.

The report also recommends the Education Department establish a restorative engagement program and a dedicated phone line for information, and provide help to those seeking access to records held by the department.

An independent monitor will oversee a review of the way the department responded to abuse allegations.

Once those processes are complete in 2026, the government will publish the findings and deliver a formal apology in parliament.

For Fearnett and Nicholls, the apology would be worth waiting for as victim-survivors' stories needed to be heard before one could be made.

"You have to know what you're apologising for," Fearnett said.

Liberal MP Brad Rowswell, who campaigned for a parliamentary inquiry into abuse in state schools, welcomed the government's acceptance of all recommendations, but added it had been a long campaign.

"For close to two years, my colleagues and I have called for the government to enable every victim-survivor of historical child sexual abuse in Victorian government schools to have their voices heard and their stories told," he said in a statement.

"Many of the board of inquiry's recommendations are matters that, independent of this formal process, we have been advocating for both privately and publicly."

Sam Carroll, Victorian head of abuse law at law firm Slater and Gordon, said victim-survivors were entitled to a formal apology and compensation.

"It can help provide them with the acknowledgement and financial security needed to move forward with their lives," Carroll said.

Fearnett said: "The one thing I keep coming back to is hope. That people can speak up and have their stories listened to.

"You don't want to be getting around with no hope."

If you or anyone you know needs support, you can contact the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), Lifeline (13 11 14), the Suicide Call Back Service (1300 659 467), Beyond Blue (1300 22 4636) and Kids Helpline (1800 55 1800).

https://www.1800respect.org.au/

https://www.lifeline.org.au/

https://www.suicidecallbackservice.org.au/

https://www.beyondblue.org.au/

https://www.kidshelpline.com.au/

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/victoria-accepts-Beaumaris-inquiry-findings-announces-truth-telling-process-for-child-abuse-victims-20240619-p5jmzo.html

https://www.Beaumarisinquiry.vic.gov.au/

https://www.Beaumarisinquiry.vic.gov.au/report

https://content.royalcommission.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2024-03/Executive_Summary_Digital.pdf

https://qresear.ch/?q=Beaumaris

#21049488 at 2024-06-19 13:08:31 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #36: BADGE OF HONOR Edition

'We failed': Victoria flags truth-telling process for child abuse victims

Bridie Smith and Rachel Eddie - June 19, 2024

1/2

For Glen Fearnett, the past few years have been about hope. Hope that he would be heard. Hope that those who heard would listen. And hope that by speaking out about the sexual abuse he suffered as a child at a Melbourne bayside school, things would change.

On Wednesday, the Allan government announced it would adopt all recommendations in a board of inquiry report that found a cluster of abuse at Beaumaris Primary School in the 1960s and '70s was insidious but not isolated.

Fearnett had pinned his hopes on recommendation three in the board of inquiry's findings, delivered in February.

Of the nine recommendations, this was the one he most wanted to see adopted: a truth-telling process that would give victim-survivors a voice. A chance to be heard in a supportive setting.

"I'm now hopeful that things have changed," Fearnett said, following Premier Jacinta Allan's commitment that survivors of child sexual abuse would be given a platform to tell their stories.

As Fearnett expressed hope, Allan acknowledged failure. Victoria had not kept children safe from a cluster of historical abuse cases at schools, including Beaumaris Primary School.

"We make a clear and simple acknowledgement - we failed," Allan said as she stood beside Deputy Premier Ben Carroll, who is also education minister.

"We failed to keep these children safe. We failed to listen when they spoke out. We failed to act to ensure that it did not happen again," she said.

The statewide independent truth-telling process will hear from victim-survivors about abuse at government schools before 2000.

However, Karen Walker - whose brother Ian Walker was a victim of abuse by Darrell Ray at Beaumaris Primary - said she had concerns for the wellbeing of victim-survivors who participated in the truth-telling process.

Walker said while an important part of justice, truth-telling risked compounding the trauma.

"Truth-telling is a big burden to put on survivors when, potentially, nothing will come from that," she said. "Many survivors have had difficult journeys through the legal system, and it can add to existing trauma."

Walker also described the government's response as political tokenism.

She pointed to recommendations made by the 2017 Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, although a national inquiry, as evidence of a lack of action taken by the Victorian government.

"They're coming out and saying they are going to do something when they have had recommendations for years that they've never responded to," Walker said.

Olivia Nicholls, as an adviser to then Justice Party MP Stuart Grimley, worked with victim-survivor Fearnett and uncovered the extent of abuse at Beaumaris Primary.

She said she was optimistic now that abuse survivors from Beaumaris and other schools had been listened to.

"The Education Department has been disgraceful in dealing with these claims in the past, but with these recommendations, that could change and that's really positive," Nicholls said.

"It will allow all survivors to have their voices heard."

(continued)

#20525238 at 2024-03-06 08:14:40 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #34: UNITED AGAINST THE INVISIBLE ENEMY OF ALL HUMANITY Edition

>>20525232

2/2

Around 120 victim-survivors, secondary victims or affected community members shared their experiences with the board of inquiry.

"I remember clearly [thinking] ... 'don't say anything to anyone, you'll be humiliated, you'll be embarrassed, they'll laugh at you. Why didn't you fight back? Why did you just sit there? Why didn't you do anything?'" one victim-survivor told the inquiry.

Another victim-survivor described feelings of shame and humiliation he felt for the sexual abuse they experienced.

"I remember being frozen by these actions and being barely able to breathe," they said.

"Most of all I remember leaving his office and walking back to my seat thinking everyone was staring at me, knowing what had happened, me being bright red. In later years I started calling that walk the 'walk of shame'."

Perpetrators worked at numerous schools across the state

The inquiry found the Department of Education's response to child sexual abuse from the 1960s to the 1990s represented a "catastrophic failing" that was not aligned with community expectations.

It described the department's response as "a series of repeated, systemic and self-reinforcing failures" that included a lack of policies on child sexual abuse, and a culture of prioritising the reputation of schools and teachers over the safety of children.

The report noted there had "been no systemic reviews led by the Department to understand the scope and scale of historical child sexual abuse in government schools from 1960 to today."

In the case of David MacGregor, the department gave him a three-year suspension from teaching roles in 1985, and then offered him a job back in a classroom in 1989.

He remained with the education department until his retirement in 1992, and was in 1994 found guilty of further sexual offences dating back to the 1980s.

MacGregor's victims provided personal accounts of their experiences to the inquiry, recounting how he would invite them to his home and abuse them.

On one occasion at school, MacGregor wore loose shorts and exposed his penis to students for the duration of a class, the inquiry heard.

"We just thought MacGregor was a creep or inappropriate," one witness told the inquiry.

Darrell Ray died in November 2023 while awaiting sentencing for historical child sexual abuse offences.

The inquiry heard details about how Steele was regarded as "a charismatic, suave, sophisticated bloke" who was an influential figure over the children he taught.

One witness testified that he made three separate complaints to police about Steele, and even wore a covert recording device to try and gather evidence against him decades after the offending.

"I was psychologically stuffed after that meeting," the witness said.

Steele, who is now dead, was never convicted.

https://www.Beaumarisinquiry.vic.gov.au/

https://www.Beaumarisinquiry.vic.gov.au/report

https://content.royalcommission.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2024-03/Executive_Summary_Digital.pdf

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-06/report-recommends-apology-for-victorian-abuse-victims-Beaumaris/103552184

https://qresear.ch/?q=Beaumaris

#20525232 at 2024-03-06 08:12:29 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #34: UNITED AGAINST THE INVISIBLE ENEMY OF ALL HUMANITY Edition

>>20488608
Victorian child sexual abuse schools inquiry finds teacher linked to abuse of 60 individuals

abc.net.au - 6 March 2024

1/2

A Victorian inquiry into child sexual abuse in state-run schools has found notorious paedophile teacher Darrell Ray was linked to the abuse of 60 children.

The board of inquiry recommended the state government formally apologise to victims and construct a memorial at the school at the centre of the abuse.

It examined child sexual abuse at Beaumaris Primary School in Melbourne's south-east and 23 other state-run schools from 1960 to 1999.

The inquiry delivered its findings at the end of February and the report has now been tabled in parliament.

Among its nine recommendations are that the government issue a statewide apology, delivered in parliament, in the presence of victims of abuse, specifically addressing the abuse at Beaumaris Primary School.

It also calls on the government to work with victim-survivors to construct a memorial at Beaumaris Primary School to acknowledge historical child sexual abuse in government schools.

The inquiry's other recommendations include:

- a statewide truth-telling and accountability process for survivors

- a restorative engagement program for victims who cannot or do not want to make a civil claim or National Redress Scheme claim

- improving access to information and records through the Department of Education

- a new online hub and phone line for victim-survivors to access information

- improved co-ordination and advocacy support for victim-survivors

- a formal peer support program for adult survivors of child sexual abuse

- legislative reform to protect personal information provided to boards of inquiry

Premier Jacinta Allan said the government would continue to engage with victim-survivors when considering its response to the report.

"Carrying these stories is a heavy burden, and while I know it won't undo the pain, I hope that in sharing their experience, that it has given victim-survivors at Beaumaris Primary and certain other government schools the recognition and support they deserve," she said in a statement.

Notorious teacher linked to dozens of alleged victims

The inquiry was established in the wake of revelations about four teachers who committed abuse between the 1960s and 1990s.

The perpetrators have been identified as David Ernest Keith MacGregor, Grahame (Graham) Harold Steele, Darrell Ray and another man who cannot be identified for legal reasons.

The men all taught at Beaumaris Primary School. They also had various stints at schools around Victoria, including in Melbourne's outer east, Warragul and Phillip Island.

The report said, based on evidence given to the inquiry, there were child sexual abuse allegations linked to Ray involving 60 individuals.

MacGregor is linked to the abuse of 13 individuals, and Steel is alleged to have abused eight individuals.

The fourth teacher, who cannot be named, is linked to allegations of abuse involving 28 individuals.

(continued)

#20488613 at 2024-02-28 09:23:34 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #34: UNITED AGAINST THE INVISIBLE ENEMY OF ALL HUMANITY Edition

>>20488611

3/3

Much like Reynolds in the same period, Morris rarely attempted to disguise his criminal behaviour, wandering around classrooms with an erection and rubbing his penis on boys in his primary school classes.

Morris faced unheeded parental complaints as early as his first school appointment in 1966 but would gain positions at eight other schools. In 1978, a criminal court jury disbelieved Morris's victims and acquitted him of child sex abuse charges.

The Victorian Education Department promptly sent Morris back into the classrooms of a school where he had previously abused numerous boys. Inevitably, the next year Morris was charged again and convicted. The Victorian government has so far been forced to pay his victims more than $11 million in compensation.

In the same period of the 70s, Englishman Gossage arrived in Australia and received his first Victorian Education Department posting. Gossage was a known sexual abuser of the girls he taught from that very first appointment at Bairnsdale West Primary. The response of the department's district school inspectors was to simply shuffle Gossage from school to school as the reports came in.

In 1981, when a brave young colleague of Gossage's reported him to one such inspector, Ron Ikin, Ikin's response was to offer her a transfer instead, because he'd already moved Gossage twice before. After abusing students during three further appointments around Victoria, Gossage was jailed in 1991 and finally banished from Victorian classrooms.

And in the meantime, the unprecedented admissions of the Victorian Education Department during the inquiry have been distressing to survivors.

"In the cases that we've looked at, there was - there were repeated failures on the part of the Department of Education and its staff to identify the risks that were clearly there, to take action to mitigate those risks and to support students who had been offended against," said Dr Howes during cross-examination.

"That was a result of… three things: the lack of documented and required policies and procedures to be followed; a seeming culture, at least amongst some, that downplayed the significance of those offences; and decisions taken by individual office holders that had very dire consequences.

"I want to express the deepest regret that what happened at the department by the people who held my equivalent position did not take the actions that we've just canvassed. They did not do - they fell a very long way short of doing not only everything that could be done but anything that could be done, in any real or substantive terms, to protect children. I'm aware of the damage that that has done. I apologise profoundly for that and express my ongoing regret that that was the case."

But for now, many more survivors of Victorian government school abuse await the opportunity to tell their own stories.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-27/Beaumaris-primary-inquiry-scratches-surface-of-paedophile-crisis/103503912

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHYf12mIzKo

https://qresear.ch/?q=Beaumaris

If you or anyone you know needs support call the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), Lifeline (13 11 14), the Suicide Call Back Service (1300 659 467), Beyond Blue (1300 22 4636) and Kids Helpline (1800 55 1800).

https://www.1800respect.org.au/

https://www.lifeline.org.au/

https://www.suicidecallbackservice.org.au/

https://www.beyondblue.org.au/

https://www.kidshelpline.com.au/

#20488611 at 2024-02-28 09:20:47 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #34: UNITED AGAINST THE INVISIBLE ENEMY OF ALL HUMANITY Edition

>>20488608

2/3

Gary Mitchell

Ray's brother-in-law, Gary Mitchell, sexually abused boys at government schools for his entire 31-year teaching career and beyond - despite credible complaints by students and their parents in the early 70s.

Convicted and jailed on several occasions since 1996, Mitchell has also been named as an abuser of St Kilda Little League footballers.

Between 1971 and 1973, he abused numerous students at Beaumaris Primary.

The Victorian Education Department continues to face lawsuits from survivors of his abuse.

David MacGregor

It was via the story of the fourth Beaumaris Primary offender, David MacGregor, that the inquiry revealed the extent to which paedophile teachers were enabled and protected by the Victorian Education Department.

MacGregor sexually abused children for three decades before he faced criminal charges in 1985.

But even once MacGregor was convicted of child sex crimes, the Victorian Education Department not only kept him on as an employee but granted him further teaching positions.

It was only due to the intervention of headmasters and the teacher's union that MacGregor was not returned to the classroom before his 1992 retirement.

During the Beaumaris inquiry, the Victorian Education Department deputy secretary David Howes said it was "distressing to read" the way his predecessors had handled MacGregor.

Dr Howes said "the attention of the department seems to have been primarily about where did MacGregor want to [go]" when it became clear MacGregor had to be moved away from his final school.

"It was only a question of where to move him," said Dr Howes. "Nothing about how do we immediately protect the students at that school."

But the tragedy at Beaumaris Primary was merely a microcosm of a statewide sexual abuse crisis in Victorian government schools.

Data collated by ABC Investigations from criminal and civil legal documents and via specialist abuse law firms indicates that sexual abuse of children took place in many more schools across the state.

Chilling examples of the Victorian Education Department's failings in the 60s, 70s and 80s have been provided in the stories of three government school teachers who never set foot in Beaumaris Primary.

Vincent Reynolds, Bob Morris and Michael Gossage taught at 28 government schools between them, abusing children everywhere the department moved them.

And as healing as it has been for former Beaumaris Primary students to tell their stories, there is frustration among survivors of abuse at other government schools that the board of inquiry is not examining their experiences.

Despite the sheer scale of abuse revealed in the cases of Reynolds, Morris and Gossage, none has been canvassed at the Beaumaris Inquiry.

Reynolds's story is nothing short of disturbing. By 2019, he had been convicted of offences against 45 students from his 14 government school appointments between 1960 and 1993. But lawyers for victims say he abused far more children.

In 1980, the Victorian Education Department sent Reynolds to a psychologist who deemed him incapable of controlling his urges to sexually abuse children, but it sent him straight back into classrooms.

In 1988, a student uprising at Beechworth Primary also failed to have him removed. Only in 1993, as a criminal investigation gathered pace, was he finally forced to retire.

(continued)

#20488608 at 2024-02-28 09:19:25 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #34: UNITED AGAINST THE INVISIBLE ENEMY OF ALL HUMANITY Edition

Horror stories of multiple paedophiles at Beaumaris Primary barely scratch surface of statewide crisis, survivors say

Russell Jackson - 28 February 2024

1/3

One survivor has called it "mind-boggling" and "beyond belief".

A lawyer for victims says it was "calculated" and "covered up, just like in the Catholic Church".

And on Monday, a small but important step was taken in addressing the Victorian Department of Education's historical child sexual abuse crisis.

After six months examining decades of crimes against students in state-run schools, the government-initiated inquiry leading the investigation delivered its findings to the Victorian governor.

The government has not said when it will make the report and its response public.

Warning: This story contains references to child sexual abuse

Although the inquiry has uncovered shocking evidence during public hearings that the Victorian Education Department knowingly shuffled paedophile teachers around the state and endangered children, its scope was limited to a cluster of offenders who taught at Beaumaris Primary School in Melbourne's bayside south-east.

Active civil claims and convictions suggest that more than 100 government schools may be affected.

Survivors, advocates and lawyers have claimed the inquiry was only ever going to scratch the surface of a statewide crisis that was at its worst between the 1960s and 1990s.

They say it needs to be broadened.

"I hope that the inquiry recommends that there is a further investigation so we can get to the whole truth," Beaumaris Primary survivor Glen Fearnett told ABC Investigations.

"The truth needs to be told and the community needs and deserves to know."

Beaumaris Primary, whose beachside location and close-knit community were attractive to young parents in the post-war decades, was the focus of the inquiry due to the startling amount of sexual abuse that occurred there in the 60s and 70s.

In the early 70s, four prolific offenders overlapped at the school.

But in lengthy careers with the Victorian Education Department, those teachers were also shuffled elsewhere, teaching at a combined 24 Victorian government schools between the 50s and 90s.

Grahame Steele

The oldest of the offenders was Grahame Steele, a tall and imposing former footy star who is accused of sexually abusing boys for decades on school grounds and at a holiday house in Inverloch, south-east of Melbourne.

Despite the attempts of a survivor to have Steele charged by police while he was still working in a school as a principal, his government school career spanned from 1952 to 1990 and he was never prosecuted before dying in 2013.

Evidence presented at the inquiry suggests Steele continued offending in the period after he was reported to police.

Darrell Ray

In November last year, the most infamous of the Beaumaris offenders, Darrell Ray, died while facing dozens of new charges.

Ray was the librarian and sports coach at Beaumaris Primary.

In the 60s and 70s, Ray rampantly abused boys at four state schools and in the St Kilda Football Club's little league team, which he coached for 11 years.

In 1979 and 2001, Ray was convicted of a combined total of 33 offences against 21 boys.

But the ABC's investigations and civil lawsuits against the Victorian Education Department have revealed that he likely abused many more.

(continued)

#20377117 at 2024-02-08 08:33:53 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #34: UNITED AGAINST THE INVISIBLE ENEMY OF ALL HUMANITY Edition

Premier apologises to Victorians put in orphanages for 'beatings and brutalities'

Broede Carmody - February 8, 2024

Premier Jacinta Allan fought back tears during a rare joint sitting of parliament on Thursday to mark a historic apology to children who were neglected or abused while in institutional care, as she announced redress payments for extremely ill victim-survivors will go out this year.

During the speech, the premier paid tribute to the strength and resilience of those separated from their families and revealed that her own great-grandmother and aunt were among the tens of thousands of Victorians placed in state, religious or charity-run orphanages last century.

"There are countless ways to harm a child and all of them leave a mark," Allan said as more than 100 victim-survivors watched from the public gallery and nearby Queen's Hall.

"We apologise that instead of reading, writing and arithmetic many instead learnt of floggings, beatings and brutalities. For the physical scars you bear to this day, we say sorry. We also recognise that many of you bear the emotional scars. We apologise that the burden of your experience often carries on in your relationships with your children and grandchildren."

The premier added that it was unacceptable that so many Victorian children in institutional care were kept in the dark about their family history. "Instead, you were forced to piece together your identity and history from records, documents, that were either incomplete or blacked out or littered with lies made up about you and your family. We are sorry this made the wounds even deeper."

One victim-survivor, who spoke to The Age on the condition of anonymity to protect their privacy and the privacy of their loved ones, said while the apology was the right thing to do, they were filled with sadness for those who could not witness it.

"There are people that will never hear the words of the premier," the victim-survivor said.

Sam Carroll, the head of abuse law at Slater and Gordon - a firm that has represented many victim-survivors over the years - said Thursday was a step in the right direction for those who had suffered neglect and abuse in orphanages, children's homes and missions.

"Although nothing can erase what has happened to survivors in years gone by, many consider an apology as a form of acknowledgement for their suffering," Carroll said. "We are committed to continuing to work with the state to help all survivors achieve the justice they deserve."

Before delivering the speech, the premier said her government was working to roll out a redress scheme first flagged in October 2022. The scheme will cover historical abuse cases from 1928 until 1990, during which 90,000 Victorian children were placed in care.

"There are a number of different representative organisations who support care leavers. We have commenced discussions with them," Allan told reporters on Thursday morning.

"This will be a co-designed redress scheme. It's co-designed with the people who have had that lived experience because we want to get it right."

Allan said advance payments would flow to victim-survivors' bank accounts well before the broader redress scheme was established later this year. Early payments are open for those who are extremely ill, given many victim-survivors from the state's orphanages are now in their 70s, 80s and 90s.

A separate apology for historical abuse that occurred at Beaumaris Primary will be held this year.

If you or anyone you know needs support, you can contact the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service on 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), Lifeline 131 114, or Beyond Blue 1300 224 636.

https://www.1800respect.org.au/

https://www.lifeline.org.au/

https://www.beyondblue.org.au/

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/we-say-sorry-premier-apologises-to-victorians-placed-in-orphanages-20240207-p5f37b.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hjG43dRnk4

#20092882 at 2023-12-18 10:09:28 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #34: UNITED AGAINST THE INVISIBLE ENEMY OF ALL HUMANITY Edition

#33 - Part 39
Child Sexual Abuse, Pedophilia, Human Trafficking and Satanism Investigations - Part 6
>>19978252 Video: Lebanon Board of Education hears concerns, support for After-School Satan Club at elementary school - "Parents were fired up on Tuesday night at the Lebanon Board of Education meeting over a controversial club for students. The After-School Satan Club is coming to Lebanon Elementary School on Dec. 1 but some parents are trying to prevent that. "I just can't believe I'm here talking about this," said parent Tom Buckley, whose child attends Lebanon Elementary School. "I don't think this kind of material needs to be in the hands of my 5-year-old." Everybody who spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting addressed the satanic club. The first speaker was Julie Valvo who said she requested the club move to the small town to create a more diverse balance of extra-curricular activities and is looking forward to helping run it. "The current frenzy in our community over the club's name and cartoon mascot only solidifies the need of such a rational and science-based club to exist," Valvo said. She said 12 kids are signed up so far. Despite their name, the club said they do not worship the devil. The Satanic Temple, based out of Salem Massachusetts, currently operates these after-school clubs in eight states. The Satanic Temple's campaign director June Everett said they view Satan as a literary figure who represents rejecting government cruelty and supporting the human mind and spirit." - Brittany Schaefer - wtnh.com
>>19978252 Q Post #4545 - Humanity is good, but, when we let our guard down we allow darkness to infiltrate and destroy. Like past battles fought, we now face our greatest battle at present, a battle to save our Republic, our way of life, and what we decide (each of us) now will decide our future. Will we be a free nation under God? Or will we cede our freedom, rights and liberty to the enemy? If America falls so does the world. If America falls darkness will soon follow. Only when we stand together, only when we are united, can we defeat this highly entrenched dark enemy. This is not about politics. This is about preserving our way of life and protecting the generations that follow. We are living in Biblical times. Children of light vs children of darkness. United against the Invisible Enemy of all humanity. Q - https://qanon.pub/#4545
>>19978610 The horror story of paedophile Beaumaris Primary teacher David MacGregor has finally been laid bare - "The Board of Inquiry's unsparing examination last week of David MacGregor's career as a Victorian Education Department employee achieved several valuable things. It validated, if at times infuriated, a silent cohort of brave survivors. In vivid, horrifying detail, it exposed scarcely believable negligence on behalf of MacGregor's employer, revealing the "mechanism" by which a paedophile teacher was effectively protected for his abuse of students. There is a feeling among survivors who've submitted to the inquiry, that importantly, the airing of MacGregor's dark history has shown that hundreds more tales of dangerous incompetence will remain hidden from the public until a further-reaching independent panel can compel tightly guarded evidence about every other known abuser in the Victorian government's archives. Survivors told ABC Investigations that every other survivor of state school abuse deserves the sort of answers MacGregor's victims have belatedly been given in the last few weeks. Until that happens, they say, it cannot be said that the Victorian Education Department has experienced a reckoning. And it cannot be claimed the department has fully "heard" survivors." - Russell Jackson - abc.net.au
>>20008413 Catholic Church to pay extra $850k to abuse survivor after Supreme Court ruling - An abuse survivor will receive nearly an extra $1m in compensation as a Supreme Court judge rejected a bid by the Catholic Church to have the payout slashed. In a landmark verdict earlier this month, a jury awarded $3.3m to a survivor of convicted pedophile priest Vincent Kiss - the largest payout by the Catholic Church in Australian history and the first civil trial to be tested before jurors, according to the victim's lawyers. The victim, known as TJ, was awarded $1.3m in exemplary damages, also known as punitive damages which punish a defendant for its conduct, in addition to $2.06m for pain, suffering and economic loss. The church tried to have the payout reduced, arguing it was not up to the jury to return a verdict on exemplary damages. But Supreme Court Justice Stephen O'Meara on Thursday ruled against the church, finding they were liable for exemplary damages while also awarding $852,353 interest for pain, suffering and economic loss.

#19805358 at 2023-10-26 11:33:03 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #32: YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS FIGHT Edition

>>19805347

5/5

'I'll still have those bloody feelings'

Unapologetic and unprosecuted, Grahame Steele died at the age of 80 in 2013.

Like hundreds of other survivors of abuse in Victorian government schools, Grant Holland is in the process of suing the Victorian Education Department for its failure to protect him from Steele and for the damage Steele did.

"I've been suicidal and come better and got worse, but I know my journey to be medically and psychologically better is to forgive," Holland says.

"I know he [Steele] was probably abused as a child, or something bad happened to him. I spent my whole life working in the child protection sector, with youth and disadvantaged people.

"I know that to finally release myself from this, the only way out for me, to be a bit happier with my life, is to forgive.

"But I just can't."

A measure of Holland's resilience can be found in an annual ordeal he endures.

Years ago, family friends started a summer camping trip tradition to a destination in which Holland had no say: Inverloch.

"When we were camping, my kids would always say, 'What's wrong? You've got a short temper,'" Holland says.

"I think I'm a good dad, but my mood and my emotions and my previous depression and internal anger would rise. I'd have to spend two weeks thinking, 'Am I gonna see this guy if I go to the shops? Will I go past him?'

"Now, I know he's dead and buried in the cemetery we drive past to get to Inverloch, but I'll still have those bloody feelings."

In submitting to the Beaumaris Inquiry, Holland says those bloody feelings finally found the right outlet. He hopes other survivors will follow suit before the inquiry's October 31 deadline.

"Apart from the times when it bubbled over and I tried to tell my story [to police] to protect others and failed, I had been resigned to the fact that my story was never going to be heard or told, and I had to just live with it," Holland says.

"Now I've given it a last go, and it was very beneficial and helpful. If someone is sitting on something like what I was sitting on, even if it's a private therapist or counsellor, I'd really encourage them to do it."

The interconnectedness of Holland's story and those of survivors at the 23 other government schools within the Inquiry's scope has also got him thinking of the need for a broader survey of a statewide problem.

"It's not just Beaumaris and Ormond East, and they know that," Holland says.

"There were pockets [of abusers] all over. Things get political. Governments probably say, 'This is a minefield, get it over and done with and say sorry and then move on'. I'm not sure any government would want to open the doors to thousands of others [survivors] around.

"But if there was a vehicle for people to continue to tell their stories, to be heard and validated, that would be very healing for everyone.

"You want someone to believe you and care that it happened."

Do you have more information about this story? Contact Russell Jackson at jackson.russell@abc.net.au

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-25/grant-holland-grahame-steele-Beaumaris-abuse/103009032

#19805344 at 2023-10-26 11:29:31 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #32: YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS FIGHT Edition

>>19805337

3/5

Another grounding force has been his work for The Holland Foundation, a charity providing practical support to children and families coping with complex problems.

In 2015, during the Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Holland also stood up for the children abused at Baltara Reception Centre - a remand home for boys awaiting court appearances and criminal matters.

As one of Baltara's childcare officers for nearly a decade in the 1980s and early '90s, Holland had repeatedly drawn the attention of management to the presence of sexual abusers on staff.

"There was a big cover-up," says Holland.

"I basically lagged on the system. The training was terrible. The background-checking was terrible. When we tried to report things, it got covered up and you got slammed. I had a curtailed career there because I was lagging on the managers."

What was it like giving evidence on behalf of other abuse survivors while harbouring his own painful story?

"I was focusing solely on my role as a youth worker and the experiences in that institution, trying to help uncover what happened," Holland says.

"But underneath that, in my guts, I was bursting to say, 'Hey, I want to tell you something else about myself', but I just couldn't."

A telling line concluded his 12-page statement to the royal commission: "I have decided to speak out because I think it is important that the children who were placed in our care receive justice."

He was already painfully aware how elusive such justice can be.

'Nobody listened and nobody believed me'

Indeed, it was those very experiences at Baltara, where Holland began working in 1982, which prompted his first report of Grahame Steele to police.

He did this, he thinks, either in 1983 or '84 - a fact now difficult to confirm because Victoria Police, Holland says, cannot locate that statement nor another he recalls making in 1989 or 1990.

The second was prompted by press coverage of Operation Paradox, a Victoria Police sexual abuse telethon that drew much publicity and thousands of abuse disclosures between 1989 and 1997.

Hotline calls were anonymous, but Holland says a detailed statement he subsequently gave at Parkdale CIB was not.

"I wanted to do something about the events that had occurred and, most importantly, I wanted to protect other kids," he says.

"I was 100 per cent sure that Steele was a cunning man who was doing it to others."

To Holland's dismay, on both occasions, and after multiple follow-up calls, he says he was told the officers involved had either moved on or their priorities changed.

He is even angrier now that he knows Steele's whereabouts during that time. From 1981 to 1990, Steele was the principal of Belvedere Park Primary in Seaford, following a five-year stint as principal of Aspendale Primary and a one-year return to Beaumaris Primary as deputy principal.

"I said to the cops [in the 1980s] that if he was doing it to us, he's doing it to others because he's so cunning," Holland says.

"I said, 'You've got to stop him'. And I don't think they even looked at that point. Why they didn't proceed further, I have no idea."

Yet his third experience with police, a decade later, was somehow even worse.

'I'm shaking again now just talking about it'

By 2000, historical child sex offending by former Beaumaris Primary teachers was a matter firmly on the agenda of Victoria Police's child sex crimes squad.

One day that year, such a detective called Holland out of the blue and asked what he knew about Steele.

"I nearly fell off my chair," Holland remembers.

"They explained they were investigating previous matters regarding that, so I divulged my story and that I'd tried to report him twice."

ABC Investigations has confirmed that Holland's 2000 statement contained details of his disclosure during Operation Paradox.

For Holland, a third statement was a formality. What followed was far from it.

(continued)

#19805337 at 2023-10-26 11:27:54 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #32: YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS FIGHT Edition

>>19805332

2/5

At Beaumaris Primary, Steele had lured young footballers into a makeshift medical treatment area, sexually abusing them under the guise of sports massage.

At Ormond East, they were pulled from class in groups of four and ferried around town in Steele's Valiant to set up sporting events which often didn't seem to take place.

The destinations included St Kilda Football Club's Moorabbin base - a frequent haunt of other Beaumaris Primary abusers associated with the club's Little League team - where Holland recalls waiting in the grandstand as Steele led other boys into the change rooms, disappearing for hours on end.

Naively, parents at both schools saw nothing untoward in Steele taking four boys at a time on long weekend trips to his holiday home in seaside Inverloch.

It was on just such a trip, alongside three other boys who were part of Steele's "special" group, that the course of 11-year-old Grant Holland's life drastically changed.

'I just knew this stuff was wrong'

Where Steele had previously dangled the carrot of preferential treatment, on the trip to Inverloch, Holland says, the boys saw his darker side even before they'd reached their destination.

"The abuse was horrible and traumatic and has affected my life," says Holland. "But there is also what he did on the first day we went down."

Taken to an abattoir not far from Steele's home, the boys sensed their teacher had connections with the slaughtermen whose bolt guns, knives and trails of blood scared Holland rigid.

"I can still see it now, all this blood," he says.

"They cut the sheep's throats in front of us, slashing them so the blood flowed out right near us. I'd never seen anything like that in my life. It was horrific. I couldn't say it was more horrific than what [subsequently] happened to us, but it's imprinted on my brain as a terrible thing."

To Holland, Steele's message was clear: "Don't say anything."

At length and repeatedly over the days that followed, the boys were sexually abused in the shower at Steele's home.

"I wasn't sexually aware or anything. I just knew this stuff was wrong," Holland says.

"But I was completely obedient. I kept wondering, and talked to the boys, asking why we had to have so many showers during the day - in the morning, the afternoon, at night.

"It left me pretty bewildered, thinking, 'This is wrong but I don't know what to do about it or how I do it. I can't say anything.'"

'I was just off the rails, really'

It is hardly surprising in hindsight that the once happy and bright schoolboy was a different child in the aftermath.

"I was defiant against teachers," Holland says. "I was a pretty good student up until then ... I was just off the rails, really."

An "up and down teenagehood" gave way to a restless and transient early adulthood. Career plans were constantly made and dropped.

"I was going to be a PE teacher," says Holland. "I went to uni and quit. Then I was going to be a motor mechanic, but I quit."

"I was going to do all sorts of things, but really just messed around."

The blessing and curse of Holland's work life is that he fell into child welfare and social work, which, along with family therapy and work as a mental health clinician, has occupied his mind with other people's problems - so much easier to process and rationalise than his own.

Marriage and children of his own came later than they might have, in Holland's mid and late 30s, respectively. Inevitably, he's been a paranoid and hypervigilant parent.

For decades, Holland says, he has battled emotional disturbance and suicidal ideation, including an attempt on his own life - moments of quiet desperation he now brushes past quickly, without self-pity.

"I know in my heart of hearts that I'd never do it to my kids," he says. "I don't want them to think, 'Well, if Dad can't handle adversity, how do I handle it?'"

(continued)

#19805332 at 2023-10-26 11:26:16 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #32: YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS FIGHT Edition

>>19505187
Grant Holland's story of abuse by paedophile teacher Grahame Steele is being heard after 48 years

Russell Jackson - 25 October 2023

1/5

On Monday morning, in a sleek office building in Melbourne's inner north, public hearings commenced for the Victorian government's board of inquiry into historical child sexual abuse in Beaumaris Primary School and certain other government schools.

The setting was corporate, but, for several survivors and secondary victims who were greeted warmly and submitted their stories in the past month, the validatory impact of the Inquiry's work so far has been nothing short of extraordinary.

WARNING: This story contains references to child abuse and suicide

One of them is a 61-year-old social worker named Grant Holland.

"I felt listened to for the first time in 48 years," Holland tells ABC Investigations.

"I'm happy that I was able to go to a place that wasn't tokenistic. It was genuine. I could tell my story and they were responsive. I couldn't praise them enough."

Until the Inquiry's recent decision to publicise its interest in the offending of former Beaumaris Primary teacher and sports coach Grahame Harold Steele, Holland had long suspected that nobody cared about stories like his.

Dead for a decade, never criminally prosecuted or publicly outed by survivors, Steele had sexually abused boys for decades and simply gotten away with it - although not for lack of trying on Holland's behalf.

In the mid-1970s, Holland was a student at Ormond East Primary, Steele's next Victorian Education department posting after Beaumaris Primary, just 10 kilometres away in Melbourne's bayside south-east.

Three times in the 26 years following his abuse by Steele in 1974, Holland says, he bravely attempted to have Steele prosecuted. Three times, he says, the story he told to police fell on deaf ears.

Only recently, as a result of information provided by the Inquiry, was Holland's worst fear confirmed: Steele remained a primary school principal for almost a decade after Holland's first disclosure, meaning hundreds more Victorian schoolchildren were exposed to a cunning and ruthless sexual predator.

Still, he understands the silence of other survivors of Steele's abuse. Other than police, for almost half a century Holland told no-one of his abuse, refusing to burden loved ones.

"I could never say anything," Holland says.

"My mum lost her own mum when she was little and didn't have such a great childhood, so she was the sort of mum who wanted her kids to have a great childhood. I could never divulge to her because I knew it would break her heart.

"But she passed away this year, so the door is open for me to do it publicly."

'He was a suave-looking and sophisticated bloke'

Holland grimaces to recall it now, but Steele did not conform to the cliche of the lecherous, creepy paedophile. A former star ruckman at Victorian Football Association club Sandringham and an imposing physical presence, Steele was a man's man and boys like Holland were eager to follow his lead.

"I don't like talking like this," Holland says, "but with his brown leather jacket and his brown Valiant Charger, he was a suave-looking and sophisticated bloke. He looked a million dollars.

"Boys were completely obedient to this powerful, strong-looking man with a very authoritarian voice and manner. If there was a truck coming, and he told me I had to stand in the middle of the road, I probably would have stayed there.

"But he was not a good person."

In a police statement 23 years ago, Holland described himself before Steele entered his life: "I was a bright student and was very happy at school."

He also noted the common, innocuous schoolboy interests which quickly put him in harm's way.

"I found I had some natural talent for sport and particularly I enjoyed cricket and football."

At Ormond East Primary, Steele was the sportsmaster, cricket and football coach and, in 1974, Grant Holland's grade 6 teacher. The 11-year-old found himself in a select group of athletically gifted boys who seemed to receive preferential treatment from Steele.

(continued)

#19785844 at 2023-10-23 09:57:27 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #32: YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS FIGHT Edition

>>19785838

2/2

Along with hearing from survivors, the investigation will put the education department's actions at the time under the microscope.

Speaking with reporters after testifying, Mr Courtney wondered whether parallels would emerge with similar cases in the Catholic Church, where abusers were re-located when complaints were made.

"How do you have so many perpetrators at one school? Is it by coincidence or is it by design?" he asked.

Survivor statements tell of heartbreak and struggle following school

Counsel assisting the inquiry, Fiona Ryan SC, said Victoria Police and the education department were among the agencies issued notices to produce information for the hearings.

She said several survivors had come forward to testify behind closed doors in recent months.

"For many, it was a number of years before they were able to process or understand what had happened to them," she said.

Ms Ryan read out a series of comments from those who had come forward, highlighting the heartbreak and struggle they faced in the years after they finished school.

"I've spent over 50 years burying this in my subconscious," one said.

"Don't hide, don't be ashamed of what happened. We were kids," another said.

The inquiry chair, Ms Foley, said the inquiry would examine the support services available to victims and how effective they were.

"We believe we cannot contribute to the process of healing without an open conversation," she said.

The inquiry will continue to receive submissions until the end of October, and is tasked with delivering findings by February 28, 2024.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-23/Beaumaris-primary-school-child-sexual-abuse-inquiry/103011292

#19785838 at 2023-10-23 09:55:32 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #32: YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS FIGHT Edition

>>19505187
>>19529197
Inquiry into child sex abuse at Victorian state primary schools hears of survivor heartbreak

Kristian Silva - 23 October 2023

1/2

"Why did this happen? And why did it continue for so long?"

They're the questions sexual abuse survivors have been asking for decades.

Today, the same queries were posed by Kathleen Foley SC, on the opening day of an inquiry examining the horrors that took place at Victorian state-run primary schools over four decades.

The $4.5 million inquiry - which will hear evidence from survivors, Department of Education and Training staff and others - will try to piece together some answers.

The inquiry's key focus is on Beaumaris Primary School, and four alleged paedophile teachers who destroyed the lives of numerous children.

Timothy Courtney was the inquiry's first witness.

He said he was preyed upon by Gary Arthur Mitchell and another teacher, Wayne*, who cannot be identified for legal reasons.

"I'm not sure how I managed to get through," Mr Courtney said of the abuse, which started when he was in year 3 in 1972.

"I had my trust in authority absolutely destroyed by what took place at that primary school."

More than 50 years on, Mr Courtney said he hoped sharing his story would help reduce the stigma many others feel when talking about their experiences.

"Silence is the enemy of the survivor," he said.

Four decades and 24 schools examined

Mr Courtney wants the Victorian Government to apologise to those who were let down, and also believes there needs to be wider public recognition for the children who were abused in the state's school system.

Ultimately, he said it was his hope sexual abuse would be eliminated from schools and that and parents would be equipped to spot the warning signs that were missed in his case.

The inquiry has also identified two other alleged perpetrators from Beaumaris Primary School, Grahame (Graham) Harold Steele and David Ernest Keith MacGregor.

The inquiry is examining a period from the 1960s through to 1999, and covers 23 other schools where the men worked.

They range from nearby schools in Melbourne's bayside suburbs, to others in the outer east, Warragul and Phillip Island.

(continued)

#19529197 at 2023-09-11 11:03:23 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #32: YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS FIGHT Edition

>>19505187
The case of paedophile William Landman shows why Daniel Andrews's inquiry won't 'go where it needs to go'

Russell Jackson - 11 September 2023

1/3

"The person who's running the inquiry ... we've given to her the power to go where the evidence takes her."

So said Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews last Thursday, explaining the role Kathleen Foley SC will play in leading the government's recently-launched Board of Inquiry "into historical child sexual abuse in Beaumaris Primary School and certain other government schools".

Warning: This story contains details of child sexual abuse

In the case of Beaumaris Primary, where a cluster of paedophile teachers abused alarming numbers of children in the 1960s and 70s, the evidence is likely to take Foley and her inquiry on hellish journeys that sometimes end in cemeteries.

And to be clear, those who survived, the loved ones of those who didn't, and the brave few who ensured this inquiry is even taking place, certainly deserve its fullest attention and respect.

But on launch day, even the inquiry's title, trailing off into vagueness, already begged uncomfortable questions. "Certain other government schools"? Which ones? Any and all to which, using the premier's description of Foley's role, "the evidence takes her"?

To be blunt, probably not.

Even a cursory glance at the terms of reference, which Premier Andrews misidentified as "very broad", spelled out Foley's limited remit with crystal clarity. Presently, her inquiry is solely an examination of abuse perpetrated by the Beaumaris Primary offenders - at that school and 17 other government schools they were shuffled through - and the contemporaneous institutional responses to that particular abuse.

Never mind the painful, often traumatising legal ordeals such survivors have faced in recent years when they've sued the Victorian Education Department. The inquiry won't tackle those present-day indignities.

And never mind that the Beaumaris abuse represents a small fraction of the degradations inflicted on blameless children by the incalculable number of paedophile teachers who infiltrated Victoria's state school system in the 20th century. As it stands, those will go unexamined too.

On Thursday, Premier Andrews was asked about that bigger picture.

"They [the inquiry] can go where the evidence takes them," he repeated. "That's the way it was structured. But again, I just want to make this point, it was not for us to be naming a whole bunch of other schools. There needs to be evidence led, there needs to be a process."

Unfortunately for the premier and his education department, a mountain of evidence has already shown that child sexual abuse was rife in that "whole bunch of other schools". One law firm alone, Arnold Thomas Becker, says it is currently pursuing claims related to 70 Victorian government schools.

'It will go where it needs to go'

Two weeks ago, ABC Investigations revealed that the Victorian Education Department not only knew about the widespread sexual abuse of children in its schools in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, it spent at least three decades covering it up and enabling abusers.

It was a system personal injury lawyers have likened to the worst excesses of the Catholic Church.

The ABC's investigation revealed that recidivist child abusers often enjoyed 30-year teaching careers, being shuffled from school to school by the Victorian Education Department's district inspectors - even when whistleblowers begged for the horror to end. Instead, the so-called "boundary riders" of the system knowingly exposed generation after generation of children to life-changing abuse.

Even when paedophiles were removed from classrooms, we found, their employment terminations were often not accounted for in official statistics reported to the Victorian parliament. This means it is almost impossible to know how many sexually abusive teachers were sacked for their crimes. Hundreds of civil law suits suggest the true figure would be alarmingly high.

Since these details were revealed in their full depravity two weeks ago, ABC Investigations has been flooded with disclosures from survivors of government school abuse dating back to the early 1950s.

One was dismayed to learn that her abuser had enjoyed a 50-year teaching career. Many more wrote of emotional breakdowns, incurable addictions and lifelong traumas that have accompanied the loss of siblings and friends.

Others - the sort of people who never command media headlines - have simply soldiered on in silence. They are our parents, grandparents, siblings, neighbours, and friends.

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#19505187 at 2023-09-07 10:53:34 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #32: YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS FIGHT Edition

Child sexual abuse inquiry to investigate three teachers and 18 schools over historical offences

abc.net.au - 7 September 2023

An inquiry into historical child sexual abuse at Beaumaris Primary School will investigate whether abuse was also committed at 18 government schools in Victoria.

The Board of Inquiry was set up to investigate abuse committed by a cluster of Beaumaris Primary offenders including former teacher and principal Gary Arthur Mitchell.

Mitchell is a convicted paedophile who taught at numerous Victorian primary schools from the 1960s through to the 1990s.

The investigation will also look into alleged abuse committed by two other teaching staff who are yet to be named by the Board of Inquiry.

Legal proceedings are currently underway against one of the persons yet to be named.

In all, the allegations relate to 18 schools across Victoria, including:

- Beaumaris Primary School

- Moorabbin (Tucker Road) Primary School, now Tucker Road Bentleigh Primary School

- Mount View Primary School

- Warragul Technical School, now Warragul Regional College

- Dandenong North Primary School

- Dandenong West Primary School

- Beaconsfield Upper Primary School

- Mirboo Primary School, now Mirboo North Primary School

- Emerald Primary School

- Cranbourne Primary School

- Bunyip Primary School

- Tarwin Lower Primary School

- Hampton Primary School

- Aspendale Primary School

- Belvedere Park Primary School

- Ormond East Primary School, now McKinnon Primary School

- Tarraville Primary School (now closed)

- Moorabbin West Primary School (now closed)

The chair of the inquiry, Kathleen Foley, said the allegations related only to historical abuse.

"I want to reiterate that the scope of this inquiry is to inquire into, report on and make recommendations regarding historical child sexual abuse from the 1960s until the end of the 1990s," she said.

The inquiry is now open to submissions from people who want to talk about their own experiences of abuse at the schools in question.

There will be private hearings from September until November, and public hearings will be held from the end of October until December.

The Board of Inquiry will deliver its report to government by February 28, 2024.

"I recognise how difficult it can be for victim survivors of child sexual abuse to come forward and the time that this can take. I also understand the courage and resilience that this requires," Ms Foley said.

"I also hope that in listening we all begin to better understand the impact this type of abuse has on victim survivors, their families and friends, our community and society."

Ms Foley said the inquiry would "closely review" the response from the Department of Education at the time of the alleged offences.

A website has been set up where people can make submissions to the Board of Inquiry.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-07/inquiry-to-investigate-abuse-allegations-at-victorian-schools/102825382

Board of Inquiry into historical child sexual abuse at Beaumaris Primary School and certain other government schools

https://www.Beaumarisinquiry.vic.gov.au/

#19188953 at 2023-07-16 09:47:37 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #31: MAGIC SWORD - IN THE FACE OF EVIL Edition

#30 - Part 81
Child Sexual Abuse, Pedophilia, Human Trafficking and Satanism Investigations - Part 7
>>19103576 Video: Glen was sexually abused at Beaumaris Primary School. For 50 years, he thought he was the only one - Glen Fearnett joined Beaumaris Primary School in 1971, as a knock-kneed grade 4 kid. By his first school camp, Fearnett had been sexually abused by one of a number of teachers who preyed on students, operating at the school with seeming impunity in the 1960s and '70s. He thought he was the only one. It took him 50 years -- until other survivors began to come forward - to realise there were dozens of other victims who had suffered like he had. Fearnett believes at least 50 other children were sexually abused during the '60s and '70s at Beaumaris Primary School, and perhaps as many as 100 children. "It's bigger than people could possibly imagine," he said. "There's three people [victims] I know who aren't here with us anymore, for all sorts of reasons, and others whose lives were wrecked ... And I think we needed some people needed to stand up and go, 'Hey, this wasn't okay'." On Wednesday the Victorian government joined that chorus, announcing a Board of Inquiry into what Premier Daniel Andrews described as "vile, evil and incredibly damaging abuse" at the school in Melbourne's south-east. Andrews said the investigation would acknowledge the "unique and evil goings-on" perpetrated in the past by at least three teachers at the school. It will also examine abuse by the same employees at other government schools.
>>19103632 Lack of apology spurred action on decades of school child abuse - It was the lack of an apology that spurred the action. When Beaumaris Primary School victim-survivor Glen Fearnett shared his story about historical child sexual abuse at the school with then Justice Party MP Stuart Grimley, his adviser Olivia Nicholls couldn't believe the government hadn't acknowledged what had occurred. Then Fearnett's story snowballed. The more Nicholls scratched the surface, the more distressing stories she found: other accounts of historical abuse at Beaumaris Primary; evidence of accused teachers being shuffled from school to school; widespread claims of teachers abusing children in other state schools. Nicholls and Grimley spent a year working with Premier Daniel Andrews' office to seek justice for victim-survivors before the MP lost his seat in the November state election. The government committed to an apology in February. But this week, it went further. Andrews on Wednesday announced a board of inquiry to examine what he described as "vile, evil and incredibly damaging" historical sexual abuse of children at Beaumaris Primary School in the 1960s and '70s. At least three teachers were involved in perpetrating abuse at Beaumaris and other schools. More than 50 children are believed to have been abused.
>>19104755 Video: 'I don't get another chance to get justice': Leifer accuser - Malka Leifer's conviction was the triumphant culmination of an international campaign by three sisters - Nicole Meyer, Dassi Erlich and Elly Sapper - to extradite their former principal and teacher from Israel and bring her to trial in Australia. But as the three sisters held hands in the court listening to the jury's verdict, there was a terrible sting in the tail. The 18 guilty verdicts against Leifer related only to the abuse of Dassi and Elly. For each of the five charges of rape and sexual abuse relating to Nicole, the jury found Leifer not guilty. The three sisters, so united in their marathon quest for justice, suddenly found themselves landing with a thud on different sides of the law. Nicole had fallen through the cracks, her legacy separated ?forever from her sisters by a jury verdict that had to be respected even if it didn't pass the pub test given what Leifer did to Dassi and Elly. "I keep hearing 'not guilty' looping around in my head," Nicole says. "I think the verdict has changed everything for me. It's a very different journey to the one I expected." Nicole says she now wants to focus on getting her life back on track. She plans to study law next year and hopes to one day become a criminal prosecutor as well as helping victims of sexual abuse. But mostly she just wants to move beyond the shadow of Leifer and the verdict. "I am 37 and she has been in my life since I was 16; that's more than half my life," she says. "I wanted so badly to move past having Leifer in my life but it is a lot harder now. I have to figure out a life without her in it. That is the hardest part for me. "But I know my truth and I'm grateful for the support from those who believe me."

#19188951 at 2023-07-16 09:47:14 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #31: MAGIC SWORD - IN THE FACE OF EVIL Edition

#30 - Part 80
Child Sexual Abuse, Pedophilia, Human Trafficking and Satanism Investigations - Part 6
>>19087827 'Echoes of trauma' as Malka Leifer victims detail impact statements in court - Persistent nightmares. Crippling mental health fallout. Possibly a lost pregnancy. These are three of many consequences Malka Leifer's sexual abuse victims say her offending and criminal trial has had on their lives during impact statements given to Victoria's County Court on the first day of the former principal's plea hearing. Leifer, 56, watched remotely from a room in the Dame Phyllis Frost prison as sisters Elly Sapper and Dassi Erlich delivered summaries of the way her abuse had cast a shadow over their lives, including their relationships, mental health and ability to work. Ms Sapper and Ms Erlich's sister Nicole Meyer also delivered a victim impact statement outside of court after the jury had acquitted Leifer of allegations made by her. "The scars both visible and invisible persist, no matter the verdict delivered by a jury," she said. "Her manipulation, control and violation of my body and mind has had profound and devastating consequences in shaping the person I have become. The physical impact remained long after the abuse and continues to be present, with chronic pain, eating disorders and sleeping issues and PTSD."
>>19087883 Video: 'Leifer stole my body': Sisters reveal lasting legacy of abuse by former principal - With the court lectern turned to address her rapist - former ultra-Orthodox school principal Malka Leifer - Elly Sapper stood up, gathered her courage and revealed that just six days before her abuser was convicted, she lost her unborn child. She didn't know whether it was linked to her abuse, or the stress she had endured at the trial, but it was part of a story of exploitation and loss that began two decades ago and continued in the Melbourne County Court on Wednesday. "What can I do? Nothing," Sapper told the court. "Because this trauma was done to me, and I am forced to inherit its pain and consequences for the rest of my life." The miscarriage of her little girl is another cost that forms part of the decades-long fight that has cost three sisters - Sapper, Dassi Erlich and Nicole Meyer - an impossible toll for seeking justice, and one they are still paying.
>>19087902 Dassi Erlich Tweet: Today, was empowering and difficult. It was important to share in our words, the pain and trauma we endured. However, we also heard about the 'hardships' Leifer faces where she attempted to paint herself as a victim of her own consequences.
>>19094002 Inquiry to look at allegations of 'vile' historical child sexual abuse at Victorian state school - Allegations of "evil and vile" historical child sexual abuse at a Victorian state school in the 1960s and 1970s will be investigated by a special inquiry that will hear the testimonies of victim-survivors. The premier, Daniel Andrews, announced the board of inquiry on Wednesday morning and pledged to deliver a formal apology to recognise abuse victim-survivors who attended Beaumaris primary school, in Melbourne's south-east. The apology will be separate to a wider apology the government is due to deliver later this year that will recognise historical child abuse in institutional care settings like orphanages.
>>19094129 Leifer faked mental illness and should be denied sentencing discount, prosecutor says - Malka Leifer should be denied a significant sentencing discount for her time in prison and under house arrest in Israel because she was feigning mental illness to frustrate her prosecution, a court has heard. Prosecutor Justin Lewis also told County Court Judge Mark Gamble that attempts by the former principal of a Jewish ultra-Orthodox school to thwart extradition to Australia may have been intended at preventing her trial for sexual crimes entirely. Leifer, a mother of eight, was found guilty by a jury in April of 18 charges including rape and indecent assault against two sisters, Elly Sapper and Dassi Erlich, who were former students of Adass Israel School. After a six-week trial, she was cleared of all charges relating to a third sister, Nicole Meyer.

#18288470 at 2023-02-05 08:55:11 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #27: THEY ARE IN FULL BLOWN PANIC MODE Edition

>>18187134
>>18269401
>>18269420
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews set to formally apologise to child sexual abuse survivors in parliament

Andi Yu and Phoebe Hosier - 4 February 2023

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is set to make a formal apology to survivors of institutional sexual abuse, including that which occurred in state government schools.

The government said the historic apology will be delivered in parliament later this year.

It said the apology will include all forms of abuse in institutional settings.

The premier is also expected to meet survivors who attended Beaumaris Primary School, where a number of students were abused by teachers in the 1970s.

It comes amid renewed calls for a government apology to survivors of abuse in state schools, following the death of Cardinal George Pell.

Victoria remains one of few states in Australia that is yet to issue a formal apology to survivors from government schools.

"When survivors of sexual abuse come forward, we respond compassionately and sensitively to their circumstances," the government said in a statement.

"With personal apologies and acknowledgements, direct personal responses when survivors access the National Redress Scheme, and written personal apologies when a formal claim is resolved."

Mistakes must be owned so people can move on, survivor says

Glen Fearnett, 61, from Melbourne, who was abused in 1972 at a Beaumaris Primary School camp, said he would be part of a small group of survivors to meet the premier about the apology on Monday.

For him, a formal apology will be vindication that what so many have known for years has come to light.

"I'm hopeful that from this we can get absolute, full acknowledgement and understanding of the scope of what we know," he said.

Mr Fearnett believes there are still a lot of people keeping their childhood abuse "buried inside".

"They haven't reached out, they haven't shared their burdens," he said.

"Anything that we can do to try and alleviate that is a good thing.

"For a lot of us, if we get an apology and get people to understand how significant the offending was ... it will help us move forward."

The current government, on behalf of successive state governments, owning up to mistakes rather than being defensive, will help, Mr Fearnett said.

"You're always told that if you make a mistake, put your hand up, own it," he said.

Apology must be backed by action, advocate says

Karen Walker, whose brother died in a tragic accident after suffering long-term mental ill-health following childhood abuse at Beaumaris Primary School in the 1970s, said an apology on its own would be "hollow".

The Ararat resident and advocate for her brother and survivors said a sincere apology would be backed by action to support healing.

"Just an apology in and of itself can actually do more harm if the survivor or their family or their community are still desperately needing help," Ms Walker said.

Ian Walker died aged 30 in 1997 following long-term battles with depression and anxiety, including suicidal ideation beginning from the age of 13.

His sister said he was an "exceptional" and "gifted" person, but struggled with substance abuse issues, unemployment and homelessness because of the abuse he suffered.

Ms Walker said a state government apology would be an acknowledgement not just of harm done but how it impacts people through their lives.

She said there was still a number of changes recommended in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which the government was yet to act upon.

The premier's promise to make an apology comes after the government implemented reforms in the wake of the landmark 2013 Betrayal of Trust report, which followed after a parliamentary inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious and other organisations.

As a result, Victorian schools have been required to implement policies and procedures to better manage the risk of child abuse and respond to allegations.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-04/vic-daniel-andrews-to-apologise-to-child-sexual-abuse-survivors/101930260

#18187139 at 2023-01-21 12:00:05 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #27: THEY ARE IN FULL BLOWN PANIC MODE Edition

>>18187134

2/2

"They'll either drag their feet for so long that you end up wasting six months waiting for them to respond ... And if they do, they come along and make offensive offers or make no offer.

"It just ends up being a total waste of time and it upsets the client unnecessarily."

The department is bound by model litigant guidelines, which includes a responsibility to "act fairly in handling claims and litigation brought by or against the state'", "deal with claims promptly and not cause unnecessary delay" and "pay legitimate claims without litigation".

The Victorian government has also developed non-binding guiding principles for how departments should deal with civil claims involving allegations of child sexual abuse.

Rule said the department of human services (DHS), which now forms part of the department of families, fairness and housing, closely follows both. He attributes this to the reckoning the department faced during the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse.

"They were forced to grapple with how they were going to be better moving forward and how they were going to fairly engage with people who have been harmed," Rule said.

"The education department has never been looked at in that way. There were no case studies about Victorian state schools [during the royal commission]. There's never been an inquiry or an investigation into child abuse in Victorian state schools."

A spokesperson for the education department said it responds to matters of alleged sexual abuse consistent with Victoria's model litigant guidelines.

The department invited any legal representatives of abuse survivors to meet and discuss any concerns relating to the model litigant guidelines - and say they have also done so previously.

"When survivors of sexual abuse come forward, we respond compassionately and sensitively to their circumstances - with personal apologies and acknowledgments, direct personal responses when survivors access the National Redress Scheme, and written personal apologies when a formal claim is resolved," the spokesperson said.

"We encourage anyone who has experienced any form of abuse as a current or former student at a Victorian government school to report it to both the department of education and Victoria police so we can support them and take appropriate action."

'They just want to be heard'

In September 2022, Justice party MP Stuart Grimley called for the premier to publicly apologise to victim-survivors of child sexual abuse within government schools between the 1960s and 1990s.

His motion, which also urged the government to comply with its model litigant guidelines, passed the Victorian parliament's upper house before Grimley lost his seat at the November election.

Liberal MP Brad Rowswell, whose electorate of Sandringham also takes in Beaumaris, has met with Fearnett and other victims from the school and has written twice to the attorney general, Jaclyn Symes, urging her to do the same.

"If she took the time to do so, she'd soon realise that these victim-survivors simply need help; they just want to be heard," Rowswell said.

"As it currently stands, they don't feel seen, heard or believed by the Andrews Labor government."

Symes has been approached for comment.

Before November's election, the government announced a redress scheme for victims of abuse in Victorian orphanages, children's homes and missions, which will be accompanied by a formal apology delivered by the premier.

The premier's accompanying statement made no mention of those who suffered historical abuse in government schools.

Fearnett has nothing but respect and admiration for people who were abused as a child while in institutional care, some of whom have been fighting for decades for recognition from the government. His fight began a little over a year ago, but he similarly won't stop until he gets an apology for government school students.

"I'm not doing this for me. I'm doing this for the others. Because I continue to feel like I let a lot of people down," Fearnett said.

"Perhaps if I had said something, others may not be in the position that they are. We'll never know, we can't wind the clock back. I live with that every day."

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jan/21/no-one-wants-to-talk-to-us-victims-of-child-sexual-abuse-from-victoria-state-schools-fight-for-justice

#18187134 at 2023-01-21 11:58:53 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #27: THEY ARE IN FULL BLOWN PANIC MODE Edition

'No one wants to talk to us': victims of child sexual abuse from Victoria state schools fight for justice

'We believe you, we support you,' Daniel Andrews said after George Pell's death, but those abused in the state's government schools are still waiting for an apology

Benita Kolovos - 21 Jan 2023

1/2

Following the death of George Pell, Victoria's premier, Daniel Andrews, issued a message to victims of child sexual abuse that was widely praised: "We see you, we believe you, we support you."

But this hasn't been the experience of Glen Fearnett, who has been fighting for recognition from the government for the abuse he says he and other children suffered at the hands of paedophile teachers at state schools in the 1970s.

During Fearnett's time at Beaumaris primary school, in Melbourne's south-eastern suburbs, it is believed three teachers on staff were abusing children. The number of former students coming forward is still rising, with police currently investigating allegations.

Despite this, the government and department of education have never publicly apologised to victims. Instead, it has pursued what has been described as an "aggressive" defence of civil claims, dragging out proceedings and upsetting victims in the process.

"I absolutely 100% support the sentiment of the [premier's] statement but it was frustrating, as we've been trying to get some sort of recognition for what we've been through for months and months and haven't received it," Fearnett told Guardian Australia.

"We've been trying for a very long time with pretty much no response. Silence.

"No one wants to talk to us."

Locking the pain away

Fearnett was 10 when he says he was abused by teacher Gary Mitchell in 1972.

He didn't tell a soul until four decades later, when he saw an ABC article in which former classmate Rod Owen, who went to play football for St Kilda, detailed allegations of abuse by Mitchell's brother-in-law and fellow teacher, Darrell Ray, and St Kilda Little League team manager, Albert Briggs.

"My wife came up to the kitchen and saw me - I'm a blubbering mess - and asked me what was going on, and it was the first time I'd ever told anyone," Fearnett says.

"It was in a compartment in my brain ... I knew what was in the box and I never went near it. I didn't open it.

"As soon as I started to talk, I couldn't put the lid back on it. It just spilled over. It was a bit of a shock."

Fearnett is one of several Beaumaris victims currently pursuing legal action against the department of education. The Guardian spoke to two others who asked not to be named, who also came forward after the ABC report.

"When I look at our grade 6 class photo, at those young, smiling faces and I think of how many of our lives have been affected by this, some ruined by it, it just breaks my heart," one said.

Since the late 1990s, Mitchell has been sentenced five times for child sex offences stretching from 1967 to 2001.

Ray, his brother-in-law, pleaded guilty in 2000 to 27 counts of indecently assaulting 19 boys at two schools between 1967 and 1976.

Mitchell and Ray's time at Beaumaris primary overlapped with a third teacher, Graeme Steele, now deceased, who is also accused of having abused former students.

Offenders not confined to one school

The horrors at Beaumaris primary were not isolated. Lawyer Grace Wilson helped win millions of dollars in compensation for victims of two other paedophiles who were knowingly moved between Victorian schools.

"The state has a long sordid history of shuffling paedophiles from post to post, prioritising the reputations of abusive teachers at the expense of the children they were supposed to educate and protect," Wilson told Guardian Australia.

"The only way to make the state pay proper compensation is to build a strong legal case and force it out of them."

In addition to the private civil claims made, hundreds of victims have applied to the national redress scheme. Of the 1,639 applications made to the scheme as of May 2022 concerning abuse in Victorian government settings, 318 were related to schools.

Lawyer John Rule from Maurice Blackburn is handling several cases against the department on behalf of Beaumaris primary victims. He said the education department had developed a reputation for being "aggressive" in defending claims.

"They run these cases like an insurance company would and they use all sorts of strategies and gamesmanship," Rule said, adding that his firm has given up trying to resolve matters outside of court.

(continued)