Suicides and decades of activism led to Royal Inquiry into child sex abuse in Australia

One pedophile priest survivor in Toowoomba, Queensland, gives City of Angels Blog his take on the Royal Inquiry.

"When the suicides were disclosed was the prompt for the Victorian Inquiry.  At about the same time in New South Wales a policeman who’d been investigating this stuff about 30 years, got up and said, No! The police don't have it under control."

Reverberations went around the world when the Prime Minister* announced on November 12 a Royal Inquiry into sex abuse of children in institutions and churches nationwide across Australia.  The Royal Inquiry was sparked after thousands of pedophile priest survivors sent submissions to The Victorian Inquiry which began last spring at the same time a police investigation in another state, New South Wales, was producing similar alarming results. 

John Brown from Facebook

All last week, blogs and news stories acknowledged that the Royal Inquiry is a result of two decades of activism on the part of victims and their families in states all over Australia as well as around the world.  City of Angels Blog talked with John Brown, one of the Australian survivors who have been lobbying for pedophile priest victim justice for twenty years.  We've also run excerpts from his submission to the Victoria Inquiry, of which we have run excerpts 

We asked Brown  in a recent phone conversation for a local viewpoint on the Royal Inquiry as it begins in Australia:

“The reason Victoria looked into it was more than 40 suicides in two dioceses, the number since 2011 is now at 50 suicides, all of them male and all related to sexual abuse by a small set of pedophile priests all friends of [Cardinal] George Pell in the Ballarat Diocese in Victoria. 

“A Royal Commission is the most extensive investigation that we can have in Australia.  It has a great deal of power, to command witnesses come in and seize documents “

The Royal Inquiry may uncover long hidden crimes of pedophile priests and the bishops who protected them all over Australia. 

MORE FROM MY TALK WITH JOHN BROWN: 

JB:  When the suicides were disclosed, that was the prompt for the Victorian Inquiry.  At about the same time in New South Wales in Newcastle south of Sydney, a policeman, Peter Fox, who’d been investigating this stuff about 30 years, got up and said, the police don't have it under control. 

Calls for royal commission into institutional abuse have been going on here for some time.

The press picks up something, it lasts a day or two, then there’s nothing.  The press couldn't even keep it rolling, very piecemeal in that, news is very regulated and controlled here. 

Until the pressure becomes too great and they have to report the story.

It could have gone on another ten years like it was going on, politicians didn't want to know about it, people were lobbying everywhere about it and politicians were being silent, and police were being silent. 

Then a policeman in Victoria disclosed the suicides. 

************************
(John relays a part of his own story that is also mentioned in his submission below.)

I started Catholic school weeks after my fourth birthday. 

The abuse started day one, 

I found myself in a room facing a nun who I know has done stuff to me. 

It continued until age eight

Four years

Sexual things

(Some of John’s story is difficult to listen to.  That's been my experience in producing City of Angels Blog since 2007.  A lot of the stories I've heard are so horrible and so extreme, but the extent of the crimes committed against children isn't realized unless some of the survivors can publish their stories and make the evil known.  John recollected more in a recent conversation:  )

In John Brown's own words, continued:

The woodshed at the convent was horrible, also being tied up and being a part of sex games between a priest and a nun.  I was made to observe a lot

Physical sexual abuse took place in the convent almost exclusively but also in the presbytery I was made an observer.  I was put in a chair to observe.  The same people, but they never engaged me while in the presbytery or at least I have no memory of that.  It all happened between age four and eight. 

(Okay, I have to ask my readers now to stop.  Before you say, oh balderash, it couldn't have been that bad, I have to say, yes it could have.  I've talked to enough different clergy sex crime victims from different cities and different countries to know it did often get this bad.  As outrageous as what John Brown is saying in those words above, that's how bad it did get for thousands of children in Catholic school and orphanage care. )

Kevin O'Donnell ties into John Brown's story as well

Me:  I noticed that Rev. Kevin O’Donnell, who perpetrated on numerous children in Catholic schools in Australia, was named in your submission.

JB:  He was the priest who abused me when I was eight.  At eight he raped me a number of times in one day, it was violent

He was a visiting priest and I had to go with him because he needed an altar boy and someone to show him the way.  Even though I’d never been to the place he was going in my life, I had to go with him.  He wanted to leave early.  He needed time to stop along the way and rape me. 

When your family has this belief, they don't question these people.

I pleaded with my mother.  I didn't want to go, I knew what this bloke was about. 

I was eight years old now and starting to realize I was being used differently from other kids. 

[On another occasion] my older brother tried to burn the church down and the school, apparently he had several goes at it.  I turned angry quite young and early and I kicked and bit and threw stones through the church windows.  I rebelled so my dad beat me, bang I'm off.  Then at school they’d be saying all the good works they're doing, but they’d shut up about what they were doing to me. 

***********

I asked John Brown, tell me about your dad.

John Brown said “He was religious.  He believed that stuff and once you believe that stuff, you're subject to all the blackmail that comes along with it.  You have to accept that as being part of the Catholic way, blackmail becomes communication. 

(Here are excerpts from John Brown's Submission to the Victoria Inquiry, which has now morphed into the Royal Inquiry into sex abuse at institutions all over the nation of Australia.)

Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and Other

Organisations

Submission – John Anthony Brown, Toowoomba

I am a survivor of sexual abuse by multiple nuns from before 4 years of age through to 8

years of age and of violent rape by pedophile priest Kevin O'Donnell at age 8.

The problem of being referred to by the Queensland Government inquiry to TASC

(Toowoomba Advocacy Service) when I know that my previous dealings with them, my

counselling, government job services have all been tainted with the problem of having full

knowledge that Toombs as an ex Jesuit has sworn an oath to a foreign country and to his

religious order and to his religion that authorises him to act first and foremost in the interests

of the church and that he can be authorised to use mental reservation,

This is the cover up in action and it functions fully and completely within government and

community services

The following information is questions answered from page 4 from the Submissions Guide.

BROWN:  I pulled out questions and rewrote some used their questionaire as template.

Reporting the abuse:

1. Could you tell anyone about what happened?

I did tell my mother at the time the abuse occurred and I have been able to tell people about

the incidents that occurred to me and have done so since they first occurred.

2. Did you feel discouraged from reporting the abuse?

Yes, I was excluded from local sporting groups and received physical beatings in front of

Nun’s, by Nun’s and local parishioners. Beatings were also given by older kids that I went to

school with when I didn’t keep my mouth shut about my abuse.

5. Did you tell the religious body or other organisation about the abuse?

Yes, I was very vocal about the abuse to anyone that did or didn’t want to listen but there was

no support from anyone in the local parish.

6. If you delayed in telling or reporting what prevented you from disclosing earlier?

There was a delay in reporting up until I was 8 years of age as my mother didn’t know how to

go about it. Mum was scared of what would happen to us and she had no support from

anyone. Looking back at what things were like, I totally understand the way my mother

handled it.

Response to the disclosure;

7. What was the initial response?

There was no positive initial response to the disclosure from the Catholic Church or

Parish/local community.

One incident after the initial disclosure was a beating that was ordered by the local priest by

my dad. My dad was ordered to whip me with a stock whip, as I was ‘the spawn of Satan’

which he did.

8. If there was an investigation of the abuse, how was it conducted?

There was no initial civil investigation as the policeman at the time was not Catholic and

could not be trusted according to Catholic neighbours, nuns and clergy. The Church

supposedly removed the priest Kevin O’Donnell from service at the time but my mother was

informed that he was working in another area.


HERE ARE MORE
Quotes from John Brown submission to the Victoria Inquiry:

Attempting to disclose led to being branded as a sinner that would spend eternity in hell; the

spawn of the devil, the child of Hitler. I was deemed accident prone by clergy as this allowed

them to account for any physical signs of injury and gave them the ability to blackmail by

saying that they would beat me and no-one would believe me as I was accident prone.

I was belittled and humiliated publicly from the pulpit before the entire Catholic congregation

((((((((((((((

Notes were often delivered to my home from nuns by older family members or other classmates instructing my father to beat me for made up misbehaviour 

***************

I was forced to carry bread, groceries, alcohol and other wants such as

filling wood boxes, empty bins, sweeping up, lighting and stoking fires and acting as an altar

boy by nuns and priests as a daily punishment for my evil behaviour.

**************

Disclosure of these crimes has simply overwhelmed their ability to maintain this form of

hypocrisy in the public forum.

*****************************

lifelong commitment forced onto those others in the classroom and community to continue the cover up of these abuses

************* *************
*************

ELSEWHERE ON THE INTERNET

Something Related

The Church is frustrating police attempts TODAY to prosecute pedophiles

From Australia video below: 

“You could have an allegation against a priest today, and they would investigate and not tell you?

Deputy Commissioner of Police: “Potentially yes.”

“What if it's proven, do they then come to you?

“Well, they haven’t yet, Neal.”

More on Father Kevin O’Donnell

Evil priest shielded by Catholic Church | Herald Sun 

www.heraldsun.com.au/news/.../story-e6frf7kx-1225911347731

Aug 29, 2010 – Kevin O'Donnell. Priest Kevin O'Donnell was jailed in 1995. Source: Herald Sun. THE Catholic Church denied a pedophile priest sexually ...

anna maria: Paedophile priests run for cover as Royal Commission ... 

annamariacom.blogspot.com/.../pedophile-priests-run-for-cover-as.ht...

November 13, 2012 – Paedophile priests run for cover as Royal Commission announced ... Then they discovered that her spiritual protector, Kevin O'Donnell, had ...

Hell on the Way to Heaven: An Australian Mother's Love; The Power ... 

books.google.com.au/books/.../Hell_on_the_Way_to_Heaven.html?i...

 Rating: 4.5 - 6 reviews

Father Kevin O'Donnell, a long-term paedophile, lived and worked there. Two of their young daughters became victims of O'Donnell. And once the truth was

More on Royal Inquiry:

Australian leader orders national inquiry into childsex-abuse claims 

Washington Post‎- November 13, 2012

*

HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN

In Australia

And not in the USA? 

Australia's New Prime Minister Is An Atheist - YouTube
► 2:49► 2:49	www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hMgY8z96dEJun 30, 2010 - 3 min - Uploaded by JesusSavesAtCitibank PM Julia Gillard Speaks to Jon Faine (ABC Melbourne) "Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard says she has ...

Posted by Kay Ebeling

Producer of City of Angels Blog

Which is operating in different platforms these days.  

Click on

Faster Than the Speed of Life

Or

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To Keep Up

-ke

Background:

"VoicelessVictim" Australia writes on her blog: http://voicelessvictim.wordpress.com/2012/11/15/why-did-you-make-us-wait-so-long/ 

"And there is pride.  Pride that in this highly flawed country, in this far from perfect world, Australian politicians took the high moral ground to address and eradicate real evil in our midst".

And about the cop leading an investigation in New South Wales that also sparked the Royal Inquiry: 

“PETER FOX, NSW POLICE (Sept. 2012): I've been on the police force for 34 years. I'm not a kid that just joined yesterday. I've been involved in investigating the clergy for about 20 of those. There are very good reasons, let me tell you, that we need a Royal Commission.”  Continue Reading: 

http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2012/s3629020.htm

ALSO FOR BACKGROUND READ: 

http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/fcdc/article/1785

POSTED November 17, 2012
By Kay Ebeling

.
The City of Angels is Everywhere
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ADD ON:

((((((((((((((((((((-------- Original Message --------

Subject

: re: Inquiry into the handling of Child Abuse by Religious and Other Organisations II

Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2012 14:59:13 +1000

From: contact@tfyqa.biz

To: Ingrid.Johnson@parliament.vic.gov.au

The Inquiry into the handling of Child Abuse by Religious and Other

Organisations

I declared my life open in 2002 in an attempt to control what was

happening as a result of my disclosure in Toowoomba of being a survivor

of childhood sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.

Since that time I have developed what I believe to be the largest piece

of continuous documentation of the experience of myself and many others

in their dealings with the entire spectrum of the Catholic church, its

charities, education and health services across Australia as well as in

person contact with each of the provided restitution or compensation

processes provided by the church as well as interactions with church

lawyers, the Catholic laity, assorted scammers and scoundrels. I believe

there is no other set of documentation like it or as extensive as this.

I would like to present to the people of Victoria and the people of

Australia as well as the Victorian inquiry.

((((((((((((((((((((((((

.