Mary Hooker is furious the system that enabled child molesters to prey on her and her fellow wards of the state is still broken, leaving children at great risk of sexual abuse.
She became a Department of Community Safety worker in her later life, hoping to save youngsters from the horrors she endured as a 13-year-old at a Parramatta girl's home in Sydney, AU, in 1972.
But she had to quit, frustrated by a lack of change in a system meant to help vulnerable children. "It was too real for me," she said, visibly angry and upset. "I could not stop the abuse. That's too raw for me."
On Thursday the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse heard Ms Hooker and other girls at the Parramatta home were rounded-up during Saturday night's weekly film screening and taken to `the dungeon'.
There, Superintendent Gordon Henry Gilford and Deputy Superintendent Denis Jerome Monaghan "started raping us," the 56-year-old told the commission.
"If we did not let them rape us, they would bash us."
Another Superintendent, Noel Greenaway also abused girls, Ms Hooker said. Only Greenaway is still alive.
After being raped, the girls were marched to the showers by a female officer, forced to give themselves abortions and then secreted away in isolation for 72 hours.
Obviously, some female officers were aiding the male rapists to continue their dreadful abuse.
A longer stay would require the home to notify the department.
They would be returned to the home when "we had no bruises or the bruise had started to fade," Ms Hooker said.
Ms Hooker came to be at the Parramatta Girls Training School after a rough childhood in a small NSW town with negligent parents who spent all their money on booze.
She and her 12 siblings were taken from their parents in 1970 when her father was charged for raping two of his daughters.
The children, eight girls and four boys, were told they were going on a two-week holiday and taken from their Taree home.
But they ended up in Sydney and after a month and a half were dispersed throughout various foster and state-run homes, where Ms Hooker said the physical and sexual abuse started.
Ms Hooker was also told she should pass herself off as Indian and hide her Aboriginal identity.
After years of running from rapes and beatings at various homes Ms Hooker in November 1972 was allowed to live at the Parramatta girl's home, where two of her sisters were staying.
The commission also took evidence from Janet Mulquiney on Thursday.
When she was beaten and sexually abused by her guardians at the same Parramatta girls home she kept quiet, dreading she would be sent to an even harsher institution at Hay.
"All you got to do all day was scrub the asphalt quadrangle with bricks until there was nothing left of the brick. Then you got another brick and did it all over again," she said.
"Girls came back from there very bruised and beaten and swollen. It took them a long time to be able to adjust and actually look at us when they were speaking."
Both Ms Mulquiney and Ms Hooker spoke of the troubles they've had throughout their lives, including several suicide attempts.
They were applauded loudly after sharing their harrowing stories.
Please pray for Ms Mulquiney and Ms Hooker, and that more women would come forward. And please pray my 3:15 PM prayer every day.
She became a Department of Community Safety worker in her later life, hoping to save youngsters from the horrors she endured as a 13-year-old at a Parramatta girl's home in Sydney, AU, in 1972.
But she had to quit, frustrated by a lack of change in a system meant to help vulnerable children. "It was too real for me," she said, visibly angry and upset. "I could not stop the abuse. That's too raw for me."
On Thursday the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse heard Ms Hooker and other girls at the Parramatta home were rounded-up during Saturday night's weekly film screening and taken to `the dungeon'.
There, Superintendent Gordon Henry Gilford and Deputy Superintendent Denis Jerome Monaghan "started raping us," the 56-year-old told the commission.
"If we did not let them rape us, they would bash us."
Another Superintendent, Noel Greenaway also abused girls, Ms Hooker said. Only Greenaway is still alive.
After being raped, the girls were marched to the showers by a female officer, forced to give themselves abortions and then secreted away in isolation for 72 hours.
Obviously, some female officers were aiding the male rapists to continue their dreadful abuse.
A longer stay would require the home to notify the department.
They would be returned to the home when "we had no bruises or the bruise had started to fade," Ms Hooker said.
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| Parramatta Girls Training School, NSW |
She and her 12 siblings were taken from their parents in 1970 when her father was charged for raping two of his daughters.
The children, eight girls and four boys, were told they were going on a two-week holiday and taken from their Taree home.
But they ended up in Sydney and after a month and a half were dispersed throughout various foster and state-run homes, where Ms Hooker said the physical and sexual abuse started.
Ms Hooker was also told she should pass herself off as Indian and hide her Aboriginal identity.
After years of running from rapes and beatings at various homes Ms Hooker in November 1972 was allowed to live at the Parramatta girl's home, where two of her sisters were staying.
The commission also took evidence from Janet Mulquiney on Thursday.
When she was beaten and sexually abused by her guardians at the same Parramatta girls home she kept quiet, dreading she would be sent to an even harsher institution at Hay.
"All you got to do all day was scrub the asphalt quadrangle with bricks until there was nothing left of the brick. Then you got another brick and did it all over again," she said.
"Girls came back from there very bruised and beaten and swollen. It took them a long time to be able to adjust and actually look at us when they were speaking."
Both Ms Mulquiney and Ms Hooker spoke of the troubles they've had throughout their lives, including several suicide attempts.
They were applauded loudly after sharing their harrowing stories.
Please pray for Ms Mulquiney and Ms Hooker, and that more women would come forward. And please pray my 3:15 PM prayer every day.
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