National child abuse inquiry to hold first public hearings after controversy
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Version 0 of 1. The national child abuse inquiry is to hold its first public evidence session after months of delays and controversy over the way it operates. Its chair, Alexis Jay, will open the sessions on Monday to investigate the abuse of child migrants who were shipped to Australia and Canada by the British government between 1920 and the 1970s. The children were part of a programme that saw up to 150,000 youngsters, aged three and over, taken from their families. A parliamentary report in 1998 on the abuse suffered by some of the children in Australia described it as widespread, systematic and exceptionally depraved. About 2,000 former child migrants are still alive and several are giving evidence at the hearings. David Hill, who has waived his anonymity to give evidence at the London inquiry, said in his submission he was sent to Fairbridge Farm in Molong, New South Wales in 1959 with his two brothers. In his submission, Hill said: “The British government and the UK Fairbridge Society did not take sufficient care to protect children at the Fairbridge Farm school. “Both ... should have been aware of allegations of sexual abuse of children at the Fairbridge Farm school at Molong. Both ... were aware of some allegations of abuse ... neither ... took appropriate steps in response to the allegations of sexual abuse,” he said. The investigation into child migrants opens after a series of difficult months for the independent national child abuse inquiry, which has been shaken by the departures of three chairs and the inquiry counsel, controversy over the way it operates, and the announcement that one of the largest groups of survivors, from Lambeth children’s homes, will not be taking part. The child migrant programme involved the British authorities sending children to the Commonwealth for a variety of reasons, including economic and political motives. The programme was often pursued ostensibly to give children who lived in poverty a better life. Some parents gave consent, others were not asked. Children were, in some cases, told they were orphans, separated from their families and deprived of basic details about their identity. Hill, who wrote The Forgotten Children about the transportation and subsequent abuse, said in his submission the British authorities were aware of serious allegations of maltreatment and abuse at Fairbridge, but failed to act. In 2015 the Australian authorities paid A$24m (£15m) in compensation to victims of abuse at the Fairbridge school after lawyers took a claim against the state and federal governments. The payout was the largest for survivors of child abuse in Australia’s legal history. The types of abuse catalogued include sexual abuse and being beaten with hockey sticks, with one child spending three years in hospital when his back was broken at the school. One survivor, Lynda Craig, who was sent to Fairbridge Farm school when she was five years old, said young girls and boys suffered “insurmountable hardship” that could be described as slavery. A spokeswoman for the Jay inquiry said: “The inquiry will hear from a number of former child migrants who have alleged that they suffered sexual abuse in relation to their migration in a range of institutions and contexts. The inquiry will also hear evidence from expert witnesses about the history and context of the child migration programmes and from the Child Migrants Trust, which supports former child migrants.” |