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“I lost faith and trust in everything,” one victim told reporter Ross Coulthart.“If this man is the boss of this place and he’s not willing to even check out the stories of complaints, what’s the use?”Situated in north-west Sydney, Daruk Boys Home or Daruk Training School was established as a government training school teaching young offenders new skills.Boasting a corrective military-style discipline, thousands of boys - some as young as 12 – were sent to Daruk with the hope that they would gain of an education and the skills needed to improve their lives.
However once inside the gates of Daruk, these troubled teens were preyed upon by those responsible for their care.
They were subjected to abuse that ranged from verbal intimidation to sexual assault. One victim claims he even had to suffer an illegal botched circumcision.It has taken 40 years for these boys, now men, to come forward with their accounts of the shocking physical and sexual abuse they say they suffered at Daruk Boys’ Home.Speaking to Coulthart about their ordeal for the very first time, Australian men Daryl Stanton, Carl Orme, and Gordon Parsons, confronted the terrors of their childhood.“We were caged children at the mercy of a major serious paedophile ring,” Mr Stanton revealed.Subject to a brutal regime of abuse, the young boys were often punished days at a time in an isolation cell nick-named ‘The Boob.’But sadly that wasn’t the extent to their suffering.At just 14, Mr Stanton alleges he was sexually assaulted in the public bathroom by Daruk staff carer, Christiaan Beullens.Daryl escaped Daruk after the abuse but was soon found and delivered back to Mr Webster.After notifying Mr Webster of the abuse, Daryl was taken directly to The Boob and was beaten by older teenage boys.“He [Webster] was standing in the doorway of The Boob, of the cell… He's ordered them to strip me down,” Mr Stanton told Coulthart.“All of a sudden there's this [older boy’s] hand being forced right up my rectum… Then he [Webster] turned on his heels. The door slammed and I was left there.”The abuse has left Mr Stanton with lifelong medical and emotional problems.The second victim to speak out, Gordon Parsons, was just 12 years old when he was first sent to Daruk.Soon after he was sexually assaulted by one of the most notorious paedophiles at Daruk, medical officer John Munger.As other boys did, Gordon reported the abuse to superintendent Webster, but says every time he complained he was punished with more solitary confinement in The Boob.“He [Webster] did nothing to protect us,” Mr Parsons said.“His job was to oversee the people looking after us and it just never happened.”In fact, Munger’s sadistic sexual obsession with the 12-year-old was allowed to continue in the most horrific form.“He [Munger] said, ‘We’re going to circumcise you, we have permission to do that',” Mr Parsons revealed to Coulthart.Munger wasn’t qualified to do the circumcision and botched the operation, which has resulted in Mr Parsons never being able to have an adult sexual life.Third victim, Carl Orme was 14 when he was sent to Daruk. He said one of his tormentors there was a welfare officer, Robert Barracluff.“He used to punch me, slap me,” Mr Orme told Coulthart.“One time he slapped me, right across the side of my head.Mr Orme said he reported Mr Barracluff’s violence and sexual assault to Alasdair Webster and was ignored.“I told him everything. And he just wasn’t interested. He didn’t care.“He virtually said to me, ‘It’s not the first time I’ve heard this mate. You’s are always complaining. You expect us to look after you, then all you do is whinge about us'.”Mr Orme also alleges he was taken out of Daruk, plied with alcohol and raped by staffer William Thomas Wright.What is alleged to have gone on in Daruk Boys Home is only now being uncovered by a NSW Police investigation headed by Detective Sgt Ben Hallam.On 60 Minutes, Detective Hallam revealed his plans to begin charging alleged abusers very soon, telling Coulthart “charges are imminent.”“They were extremely vulnerable boys. I think the tragedy of this is that the people that were entrusted to care for them and help them were alleged to have abused them,” Detective Hallam said.For decades the lost boys of Daruk kept their silence about their alleged abuse. It’s only now as men they’ve found the courage to come forward and seek justice.They also want the man the government entrusted with their care, Alisdair Webster, to explain his failures.As the 60 Minutes investigation went to air, the Daruk Boys Home alleged abusers - now all men in their 70s - are on notice by police.Of all the men accused in Coulthart’s investigation, only William Wright and Alasdair Webster responded to written questions. They both deny all the allegation made against them.If you have any information about abuse at Daruk Boys Home, please contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.Source : https://www.9news.com.au/national/daruk-victims-of-government-run-home-expose-federal-politician-who-ignored-alleged-child-abuse/f4bcb1dc-73a3-4690-8a56-c8d172bbe489?fbclid=IwAR2WUbBTCxiS2ZkIr4RQcr-m18eCi9_TQSNT3c3e709jHaQznHcF6RdwiO8#_=_
Verbal abuse, sexual assault and a botched circumcision: Victims of government-run home expose federal politician who ignored alleged child abuse
- Type of protection : Granting release
- Details
- Category: Paedophile Rings
- Created: Sunday, 11 March 2018 18:14
- Written by Liz Little - 60 Minutes
Federal politician Alasdair Webster has been exposed as the man in charge of a New South Wales government-run home, where an appalling child abuse scandal against defenceless boys allegedly took place decades ago.
In a 60 Minutes exclusive investigation, the 84-year-old politician, who has been honoured with an Order of Australia Medal for his services to politics and education, was last night revealed to have turned a blind eye to the physical and sexual assault that took place at Daruk Boys Home in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Three men allege that when they complained about the abuse they had suffered at Daruk to Alasdair Webster, he ignored them and often punished them instead.
Alasdair Webster, an 84-year-old politician, has been honoured with an Order of Australia Medal for his services to politics and education. (60 Minutes) (60 Minutes)