| Royal Commission into sex abuse hears of suicide problem in Ballarat |
IT has been called a city that has a suicide rate “through the roof” and is marred by a “landscape of death”. And one old class photo illustrates it in black and white.
Ballarat is considered one of the most horrific sites of abuse in Australia after it was revealed that at one time in the 1970s all the male teachers and the chaplain at the St Alipius primary school were molesting children.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse this week moved to the regional Victorian city for hearings, and is expected to hear from one of Australia’s most vile paedophiles, Father Gerald Ridsdale.
It has also heard from sex abuse victims, who are detailing the crimes that were committed against them — and the lifelong trauma that created.
Philip Nagle was the first witness to give evidence yesterday. From the witness box, he held a black-and-white picture up of his grade-four photo from St Alipius Primary School in 1974, The Age reported.
There were rows of boys in uniform, who should all be aged in their 50s now. Instead, a third of the boys in the image are dead, believed by suicide.
It’s a graphic example of the suicide problem Ballarat has grappled with since the sexual abuse of what is feared to have been hundreds of schoolboys.
The exact number of victims isn’t known. There is no concrete evidence to link the suicides to sexual abuse, although Fairfax has previously detailed secret police reports that count at least 40 suicides by people sexually abused at the hands of Catholic clergy in Victoria.
But some are in no doubt the two are linked.
Peter Blenkiron, was 11 when he was abused at the Brothers’ other school in Ballarat, St Patrick’s College, estimates there’s been 10 suicides in the regional Victorian city in the past year alone.
He told the ABC: “Ballarat has got this hidden trauma and landscape of death about it. I believe the suicide rate is higher than the road toll and we don’t hear about it. We have to stop that.”
He said the suicide rate was “through the roof” and believed since the abuse by the Christian Brothers an “atomic bomb went off and it’s destroyed so
many lives over the years.”
Along with the suicides, there had been a number of other premature deaths linked to substance abuse.
Another victim will give harrowing evidence today of losing three family members to suicide who were abused as children by Catholic clergy in Ballarat.
The victim, who cannot be named, was sexually abused by convicted paedophiles Father Gerald Francis Ridsdale and Brother Robert Charles Best.
His brothers and a cousin committed suicide after being abused.
He is expected to tell his story to the royal commission today, the second day of a three-week hearing in the Victorian regional city devastated by decades of abuse.
A major focus of the Ballarat hearing is who was responsible for moving Father Gerald Francis Ridsdale from parish to parish, allowing him to continue to offend, and why.
Ridsdale abused more than 50 children as he was moved between nine Victorian parishes over three decades. He also abused an altar boy in Sydney.
Then Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns knew Ridsdale had abused boys, “so he was taken out of there” and again moved to another parish, the commission heard yesterday.
Ridsdale will give evidence from jail via videolink later during the hearing.
Ballarat Centre Against Sexual Assault (CASA) manager Shireen Gunn told news.com.au giving evidence would be difficult for the abuse survivors.
“They see it as really important to be able to stand up and give evidence and say what has happened in the past, and what is affecting all of them today.”
On the grim class photo Mr Nagle held up when the hearing opened, Ms Gunn said: “That’s incredible what that man talks about. But when you do talk to those guys they have a lot of contacts across Ballarat and its been documented before the high amount of suicides.”
The “cluster” was discovered when police began first investigating the allegations, she said.
“They talk about the other form of suicide. When they drink themselves to death and have negative coping ways that they end up in neglect of themselves. They’re all aware of that.”
—with Australian Associated Press
* Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467.
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