Positive Stories in the War on Child Sexual Abuse - Episode XXX

Forgotten Australians rewrite childhood trauma through power of storytelling

ABC Capricornia / By Inga Stünzner, Megan Hendry

Tania says listening to other people's stories has made her feel that she belongs.
(ABC Capricornia: Megan Hendry)

Tania was just eight months old when she was removed from her parents and placed in the notorious Neerkol Orphanage near Rockhampton in central Queensland.

She spent the next five years there until it closed its doors in 1978, but the rest of her childhood was spent bouncing between her "cruel, horrible" parents, institutions, and the streets.

"It's hard to be normal in society after the trauma," Tania, who preferred not to use her last name, said.

She is one of the more than 500,000 so-called Forgotten

Australians who suffered abuse and neglect while

living in out-of-home care over the past century.

Since then-prime minister Kevin Rudd made an apology more than 10 years ago, many Forgotten Australians have been trying to rebuild their lives and come to terms with traumatic childhoods.

One form of healing has been through a storytelling project that helps participants reimagine their past and invent new ways to see their stories.

Lotus Place has been holding storytelling workshops throughout Queensland, which have continued over the phone during the COVID-19 pandemic.(ABC Capricornia: Megan Hendry)

Tania is one of a dozen or so participants at a writing workshop at Lotus Place in Rockhampton.

She has already written her story and presented it to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse last year.

"It was easy to write, but reading it out later on I had a bit of a panic attack and it hit home," she said.

A couple years ago I assisted a survivor who was a witness at the Royal Commission in writing her story. It is 97% complete, but she is unable to bring herself to finish it. Survivors have very difficult lives more often than not and frequently find themselves in very dark places. 

"It's something that I will probably put away and my kids and family will probably read it later on and know a little bit about me, which I haven't discussed."

The Neerkol Orphanage was run by the Sisters of Mercy for about 100 years, before it closed down in 1978. But the scars remain.

"I've seen photos and then things come back, like playing there," Tania said. "My brother told me quite a lot just before he died, and that's where his problems started."

Her brother, four years older, lost his life-long struggle with drug addiction 10 years ago. For Tania, stumbling across support agency Lotus Place five years ago has been a godsend.

"As soon as I started coming here and listening to other people's stories, I felt like I belonged, and I actually met someone who was in Neerkol with me as a child and we've formed a bond," she said.

Finding light in the darkness

Edwina Shaw is a published author and used creative writing as a means of dealing with her own childhood trauma.

Four years ago, she had been working with migrants and refugees when a friend asked her how to teach creative writing to Forgotten Australians.

"I said it would be easier if I just come along and show you," Ms Shaw said. And that was that.

Edwina Shaw used the power of writing to deal with her own childhood trauma and is sharing this method of healing with Forgotten Australians.(ABC Capricornia: Megan Hendry)

"Once you meet them and realise the horrors these people have been through, you can't level, so I've been there ever since," Ms Shaw said.

"They were starved, abused and in some cases even murdered."

The storytelling project, funded by the Queensland Government's redress scheme in response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, is to confront the memories and the stories.

"What I know from working with these people and also from my own experience is that by repeating these stories over and over, it only embeds them," Ms Shaw said. "And you don't want that; you want to get them out."

The project focuses on what a person knows.

"It is about finding moments of joy within the darkness," Ms Shaw said. "It's the happy moments when they might have caught a fish on the sly that they could cook up to feed themselves.

"It's about getting into somebody's head, the fun of using your imagination, and then you can give that trauma to someone else and it separates it from you."

Melody Collins was eight years old when she was placed in an institution in Brisbane and says finding Lotus Place and other Forgotten Australians has kept her from being homeless.(ABC Capricornia: Megan Hendry)

The workshop creates a safe space for participants to tell their stories and it involves a variety of different exercises including taking a random picture and creating a backstory for that person.

The sad stories still come through, even when focusing on the positive, so the group is also completing a booklet with affirmations.

"So you can have something that you can put in your pocket and pull it out to read a positive statement and it helps stop you from going to that very dark place, because these are people who have suffered awful trauma and it impacts their whole life," Ms Shaw said.

Coronavirus pandemic does not stop help

The workshops have been running throughout regional Queensland and have been modified during the coronavirus pandemic.

Katie McGuire coordinates the project through Lotus Place and over the past three months has continued to run one-hour phone sessions with participants.

Once restrictions further lift, the workshops will continue across the state including Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

Lotus Place was set up in response to the Queensland Government's redress scheme to institutionalised child abuse and offers support to those who are often rejected from other services because of their level of trauma.

UK Family courts: 'Major overhaul' aims to protect domestic abuse victims

By Emma Ailes
BBC News

Four children were killed between 2014 and 2019 by a parent given access to them by a court,

BBC research found

Domestic abuse victims will get greater protections in an "overhaul of how the family courts deal with the horrific crime", the government has announced.

Under new plans, more victims will have access to separate courtroom entrances, waiting rooms and protective screens to shield them from their alleged abuser.

A number of reforms will be included in the upcoming Domestic Abuse Bill.

It comes after an expert-led review of the family courts' handling domestic abuse, following a BBC investigation.

Research by the Victoria Derbyshire programme found that within five years at least four children were killed by a parent with a known history of domestic abuse after a family court granted access.

The BBC also learned of cases where a parent with convictions for serious crimes relating to domestic abuse - including rape and serious violent offences - were granted unsupervised access to their child.

The government review, led by experts from charities, the judiciary, family law practitioners and academia, took the views of more than 1,200 organisations and individuals, including parents and children with experience of the family courts.

It heard concerns about a "pro-contact culture", in which courts placed undue priority on ensuring contact with the non-resident parent, resulting in "systemic minimisation of allegations of domestic abuse".

The panel heard evidence about potential long-term harm to children as a result of courts ordering continued contact with an abusive parent.

It also found that an "adversarial system" in the family courts, including in cases involving child sexual abuse, often worsened conflict between parents and could re-traumatise victims and their children.

"Sweeping reforms" of the system aimed to better protect domestic abuse victims in the family courts, the Ministry of Justice said.

They include:

Automatic entitlement to separate waiting rooms, entrances and screens in court for victims of domestic abuse, to be included in the upcoming Domestic Abuse Bill

More powers for judges in the form of "barring orders" to prevent abusers repeatedly dragging ex-partners back to court and re-traumatising victims

A review of the presumption of "parental involvement" and the balance between risk of harm to children and victims, and the right of the child to have a relationship with both parents

A trial of a new domestic abuse court with a "problem-solving approach" where a judge explores evidence rather than parents presenting their cases against each other

A commitment to improved training for professionals in the family justice system

=====================================================================================

Impartial journalist Rodney Edwards wins UK award for child sexual abuse investigation

By Mark Conway

Impartial Reporter journalist Rodney Edwards is the Weekly/Sunday Reporter of the Year in the UK after picking up the accolade at the coveted Regional Press Awards on Friday. 

Organised by the Society of Editors, the awards ceremony is the Blue Riband event in local journalism in the United Kingdom. Nearly 700 entries were received from across the UK covering all aspects of local journalism, including sports, data, social media, campaigns and photography.

Due to the coronavirus crisis, a planned awards gala was replaced by a live online YouTube video event.

Impartial Reporter:

Rodney’s success is the latest accolade for the deputy editor of The Impartial Reporter having previously won the Northern Ireland Weekly Journalist of the Year in 2013 and in December 2019, Rodney was a finalist at the British Journalism Awards.

Rodney’s body of work comprised his fearless investigation into the allegations of historical child sexual abuse in Fermanagh. That investigation unearthed 70 victims of child sexual abuse perpetrated by 70 alleged abusers in this area going back decades. Rodney’s hard hitting but sensitive and empathetic handling of the victims’ stories resonated throughout the country and was picked up by many other media organisations, a fact not missed by the judges. A major police inquiry was set up to examine the allegations and is currently ongoing.

Award-winner Rodney commented: “I am delighted to accept this award for an investigation that would not have been possible without the bravery of a huge amount of victims who agreed to bear their souls in the hope of helping others.

“I have been fortunate to receive much support from my colleagues, including editor Mark and my family, friends and very many people across Fermanagh and further afield, all of whom made the sleepless nights, unnecessary intimidation, pressure from the PSNI and criticism from a select few that bit easier to manage. In particular, I am grateful for the unwavering support of my wife during such a challenging time.


He added: “In my 10 years at the Impartial the past year has been the most difficult personally and professionally but it does not compare to the anguish felt by the victims for many years. I am proud of all that we, collectively, have achieved but this work is not yet over. While accolades are humbling the most precious prize of all will be the day when, hopefully, some of these victims finally get closure. I dedicate this award to them.”

Congratulations Rodney and God bless you. Please keep it up.

Germany to increase penalties for

sexual violence against children

As authorities piece together evidence of a pedophile ring that may have included tens of thousands of people, Germany has moved to raise jail time for perpetrators. Possession of child abuse images is also in focus.

Deutsche Welle

Germany announced plans to toughen child sex abuse and pornography laws on Wednesday. The move comes less than a year after authorities uncovered a vast online child abuse network.

German Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht said she wants to increase the minimum punishment of perpetrators and improve methods to combat pedophilia.

"The terrible injustice of these acts must also be reflected by the level of penalties," Lambrecht said during the announcement of her reform packet. Until now, the minimum prison sentence for child sex abuse crimes was six months. In the future, the sentence will be raised to one year. Similarly, the minimum sentence for possession of child pornography will be raised to one year.

The maximum sentencing for both crimes has been increased to 15 years.

That's not enough for some perverts. Some should never be allowed to walk the streets ever again.

Key among Lambrecht's reforms is also the renaming of the crime in question. Currently referred to as "Kindesmissbrauch" in German, which directly translates as "child misuse," Lambrecht said this must change as it "suggests there is a correct 'use' of children." Instead, the crime will be called "sexual violence against children."

'Unimaginable pain for the children'

Authorities first found evidence of a widespread network of child abuse in German-speaking countries last October in the city of Bergisch Gladbach in western Germany.

Earlier this week, German police said they had evidence that up to 30,000 people may have been involved in the ring, which included the sharing of images and videos shared online.

Vast amounts of electronic evidence and devices suggest that members of the pedophile network exchanged tips on how to commit abuse.

"The shocking sexual crimes that we uncovered have created unimaginable pain for the children," Lambrecht said. "We have to send a clear signal that the protection of children is the highest priority."

Lambrecht also plans to increase programs for families, teachers and youth workers to recognize signs of sexual violence against children.

And what about teaching 'safe/unsafe touch' etc., in schools?