in Australia and USA
too similar to be coincidence
(More Parallel Hells Here and Here )
By Kay Ebeling
“Hello,
John it's C from the Royal Commission here, how are you. John: Good, thanks.” John Brown agreed to let me transcribe and
publish his submission to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
in Australia.
The
commission report released last week shows that when a nation looks into child sex abuse at an institutional
level, "well over half" took place in Catholic Church properties. Why
Can't the USA do an inquiry like the one just completed in Australia?
As I transcribe John’s testimony, he says, "“I found myself in a school that the teacher happened to be the nun who sexually interfered with me before ... and I was groomed by Kevin O’Donnell who’s a pedophile priest.” I realize that's eerily similar to Ted’s story from the USA, which I'd been working on in Chicago, but then he'd said, don't publish it. In that case the perpetrator was Gilbert Gauthe, who like O’Donnell, is a prolific and now-infamous pedophile priest in his region. Both boys were sexualized by nuns who then were party to the crimes of the priests. I got back in touch with Ted Lausche, said, you have to let me publish your
story along with John’s, because they're so much alike. Ted said, yeah
okay go ahead.
So below
is John Brown's story from Australia, in the form of a transcript of his Royal
Commission testimony, illustrated with memes John created about the subject. Next month City of Angels Blog will publish Ted’s story from Louisiana (Ted
now lives near Chicago) and because the two men’s stories are so alike, this
project is titled:
Parallel
Hells: Crimes of pedophile priests in Australia and USA too similar to be
coincidence, Parts One and Two.
Thank you.
Similarities in these two stories is, to me, more proof that rape of children is an inherent product of the secrecy and power of Catholic Church practices, many of which still have not changed, but instead as these crimes have been revealed past two decades, the Church has successfully found ways to deflect guilt, bypass accountability, thwart most efforts by victims to publicize the crimes, and manage public opinion of themselves.
So we bloggers plod on.
*****
TRANSCRIPT
(edited
a bit for clarity)
Q : It's
Tuesday January 7 2014 and I'm an officer with the Royal Commission into
Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Also
present is [DELETED] another officer for the Commission, can you state your
full name and date of birth.
J : John
Anthony Brown, 27 December 48.
Q : Is
this the way you want to engage with the Royal Commission?
J : Yes
it is.
Q : You
can come in person and speak to a commissioner in private.
J : I
understand that yeah.
[TRANSCRIBER:
WHY CAN’T WE DO THIS IN THE USA????? ]
Q : At
first, tell us the story from the beginning.
J : Okay.
I was born into a very Catholic family who lived directly across the road from
the Catholic Church and I was inculcated into that religion without any choice
in the matter. In hindsight, I realize that
I was a sexualized little boy at three and a half years of age. I realized that that had come from being used
by people of religion to satisfy whatever their ills appeared to be. And that included rape and- and just
[HESITATION] in that early period I see it- to me it's just insane. And it's insane to get back into somewhat,
still today.
Q : If
you're getting emotional we can stop.
J : I'm
well aware of that, I understand that and I'm okay. [OVERLAPPING] that's right, I understand, the
emotions. They're there and they happen.
. . . As a four year old I found myself in a school that the teacher happened
to be the nun who sexually interfered with me before I’d been of school
age. And I had some issues on the day my
mother took me to school and gave me a hiding and forced me back into
there.
The
culmination of that I suppose came when I was eight years of age. I was groomed by Kevin O’Donnell who’s
a pedophile priest who was, from what I understand, located in Seymour, and he
came across to my home town of Yea on occasion, to fill in. He groomed my family. My mother fed him,
because he was the local priest and that was part of her responsibility being
married to a Catholic. She wasn’t born
that way. She converted for the sake of
my father.
Q : Oh,
okay, yep.
J : My
mother took on the obligation of raising her children within the Catholic
Church. So she was blackmailed, in
effect, to hand over her children to this cult.
[TRANSCRIBER:
Hmm, THAT'S ONE WAY TO PUT IT]
J : I
wasn’t the first of her children to be sexually abused by Catholic clergy and I
wasn’t the last in my family. My own
experience with Kevin O’Donnell set off [SIGHS] I have a horror period between starting
school and reaching eight years of age.
There's a lot of stuff went on in there. [TEARS]
But,
I've got to go this way.
I was
raped by Kevin O’Donnell [LONG PAUSE] and I had been, I had a refuge. My mother arranged for me to go to a friend’s
house named H, I even live there at times.
That was my safe place, safe from my brother predominantly, to begin
with.
My
mother went to H when I came home from being raped by O’Donnell that day. H intervened with the church on my behalf or
on behalf of my mother, because he was a member of the Knights of the Southern
Cross, which were a secretive men’s organization that's part of the
Church. [PAUSE]
That
entailed H making some sort of arrangement to have my experience documented
with the church with the Bishop in Melbourne at the time.
*****
When I
was fourteen, there was a new priest there, a fellow by the name of Des Cameron
a newly ordained priest, came to Yea.
And on St Patrick’s day in 1972 around eleven or twelve o'clock in the
morning my sister came running home from across the street and this Cameron in
his black robes was standing there across the road.
She
ran in to my mom and she was crying. I ran in after her, and she told mom what
had happened. I headed out and I pitched rocks at this bloke and I hit him with
a couple. Mom went to H about it and he
spoke with the priest. He came back and
mom talked and he went back several times.
At
some point the local police were involved, there were four or five cars parked
on the street by that stage. H tried to
go into the presbytery and it finished up in a fight. He was a seventy two year old man. And [TEARS] they hit him and kicked him and
they dumped him on the veranda at that presbytery and left him there for a long
time.
Q : Hmm.
J : They
took him to hospital and he spent eight days there and he was taken to
Melbourne by that priest, Cameron. And
he died in Melbourne that day.
With
regards to Cameron, I found his number several years ago and I spoke to him.
And he remembered me and he remembered H and he told me that H left all
his money to the church. He began to lie
to me so I just hung up.
*****
I took
another whipping off my father, I’d already taken a whipping when I was eight
from my father at the direction of, uh, uh, of, uh, oh I can see the bloody
face, um, my own abuser O’Donnell who instructed my father to whip me with a
stalk whip.
I was
whipped because I was the designated spawn of the devil. I was the son Hitler had spawned as
well. Because I spoke out or I simply shouted
about what they were doing to me. And at
that age, I didn't understand what the hell they were doing but anyway [SIGHS]
um, [SNIFFS] I know that my mother spoke to the policeman and he ceded
everything back to the church.
My
father was threatened with excommunication and there were other threats, I only
heard that. My mother took it seriously
though, and I don't know what it was the threat that was made against my
father.
*****
 |
| Meme by John Brown |
At
school I was, as I said, the designated spawn of the devil. I was the one who was taken by the ear up to
the front of the class and in the church, in front of the entire congregation
as the example of a child who is designated for hell. I was fourteen and this was not long after H
died.
At the
school I was set up for special attention, because of what I’d been saying
about H’s death and my sister and the priest and what had happened to me and
what I’d experienced with the nuns in the convent. On one day the nun directed three or four, I
can’t recall, of the bigger kiddies- we were in mixed grades so some of those
kids were pretty big boys- they were to catch me in the classroom, so that this
nun could beat me with a T-square.
I
punched her in the stomach and knocked her down and I clambered up over the
desk and kicked the window out and took off.
They
transferred me, made the arrangements for that, to transfer me to the high
school, and to ensure that I was given a regular beating, to keep me in line,
and to inform the school of quote bullshit that I was talking.
[AGAIN:
Watch here for Ted’s eerily similar story from the USA here next post at City
of Angels Blog]
*****
In the
rape by O’Donnell, I injured my foot. I
had my right foot slammed repeatedly in the locking mechanism of the car
door. And that was not to be spoken of
publicly or directly. It was to be
spoken of as my being pigeon toed. It
entailed me wearing special boots made by the local boot maker, and H paid for
them. But I took a beating every time referred
to that day I was abused by O’Donnell.
And I
still every day of my life, I wake up and the first thing I do, before I step
up, is to see how that foot’s going to treat me. Gets to piss me off sometimes [LAUGHS] I tell
you.
Q : Do
you recall the names of those nuns?
J : No. Not in that way. I only recall a few names of nuns. And I don't- I've never closely explored that
period to [STAMMERS] to that extent to where I could try and identify someone.
Q : If
you feel uncomfortable answering a question, please let me know.
J : That
is to my knowledge the only part of my life where I have that. And if need be with the right support I'll go
there [VOICE SHAKES] if it becomes important.
Q : What
actually happened with the nuns?
J : I
have more recollection about events where I was abused. I did detail with a counselor that I saw here
in Toowoomba events about being tied and raped by- tied by a nun and raped by a
priest in the convent. [VOICE SHAKING] I
have an experience of being tied and buried in a woodshed to silence me
again. Buried under wood and having to
promise to be silent and being given cigarettes when they let you out to make
sure that you were going to shut up and don't say anything.
[AGAIN:
Next month you will read similarly horrible details of Ted’s life in a Catholic
orphanage in Louisiana)
Q : Did
these incidents occur before your experience with Father O’Donnell?
J : Yes,
before. [SHAKING] I have- that is one of
my horror moments, and the other was, I was the chosen one to do the eternal
chores. They were the daily things you
went and you toted their groceries and their grub from the shops. You collected their eggs. You dug the garden, you watered the garden,
you lit their fires in the winter time, you stoked the fires, you carried the
wood in. And much of this is done during
school hours as well. Once while carrying
an armful of wood into the convent, I bumped a handle of the sauce pan on the stove and splashed it and the nun took
to me with a block of that wood and beat the shit out of me.
I,
well I have a way of laughing about it now.
I fell and knocked most of the bloody pots off the stove, and so I then
didn't get any dinner. But they made me
kneel on the blocks of wood for hours.
Q : This
was while you were living across the street from the church and convent but
before the incident with Father O’Donnell?
J : Yes.
Q : Any
other incidents from that early period?
J : I
have a couple of sort of glimpses of a priest in the nuns’ sleeping areas. And nothing- that's not- no, not like
that.
Q : You
said you were tied down by a nun and raped by a priest, did you tell anyone
about that?
J : I
don't know. I don't know. I know that I shouted about them touching me,
but I, in looking back, I didn't have the words.
Q : How
old were you at this time?
J : In
the five six seven bracket.
*****
FATHER
KEVIN O’DONNELL
C ; You
were eight when you met Father O’Donnell?
J : Yes.
Q : Are
you able to tell us a bit more about that?
J : He
was a visiting priest and he had arranged to have me show him the way to a
little church called Cheviot, or Caviot, in the Cheviot Hills, which was sort
of in the similar direction from Yea.
He
told my mother that he had never been that way before, and it still just-
Driving
has been my livelihood for a great deal of time. There’s a difference when somebody drives and
they know where they're going. That trip that day I never gave O’Donnell any
direction as to where he was going. And
so that was bullshit that he had never been that way before.
 |
| Meme by John Brown |
He
drove out about two miles to what's called the Gin-Gin turnoff and from there
he began to masturbate, and he stopped at
the Reserve, at the- [TEARS] river crossing and then he raped me on the
side of the road, not that far from the church.
He then drove to the church and did his ceremony thing and when they
were coming out, I took off and ran into the bush. Oh- [SIGHS] They sent other kids after me to
bring me back and they dragged me back, and then as soon as they let me go, I
ran again. And they pulled me back and I
ran again, and then the men came and I got away from them, and I hid in what
they call a grotto thing. It had a
statue in it and I hid behind that.
They
pulled me out of there, I lost my shoes there, and three or four men pulled me
out of there, and they kicked me and punched me and kneed me and forced me into
the car. I hit and tried to get out, and
that's when they kept just slamming the door on my foot. [TEARS]
He
drove away from there and he came back a different way. When the car was coming down towards the
river flats, it had to go slow, and I jumped out of the car. I ran across the road and tried to hide, I
was a little kid.
[OH,
MAN this sounds, again, so much like Ted’s story from Louisiana, coming in August
at City of Angels Blog]
I went
back and realized there was nowhere to hide. But I tried to run away, and I
tripped and nose dived into the road and knocked myself out, or I got knocked
out, I don't know which.
I came
to in the car in the little lagoon park in Malswroth another couple of miles
further on across the river and he was forcing me to give him oral sex. [LONG PAUSE] Are you there?
C ; Yes
I'm here.
J : Sorry. There was a person came and talked with him
and then he waited there- I don't know how long, it seemed to be a long
time. He stopped again at the little
entrance park to Yea, by the Yea River.
The trees there were planted in the Second World War to spell out the
town name, Y-E-A.
*****
O’Donnell
was running on about what I should say.
And then he drove me home, and it's a steep little hill, when we got up
there I jumped out of the car again, while it was going. I tried to hide in a culvert that ran under
the road and he threw rocks into the culvert to try and drive me out. Eventually he put my shoes on the road and
left. I grabbed my shoes and ran home
and told my mother.
Q : What
was he telling you you should say to people?
J : [SIGHS]
[LONG PAUSE] uh, it was about just going a different way in driving all the time.
Q : To
explain the time?
J : I
guess so. I, I, I guess so. [TEARS]
Q : Like
I said if it's getting to be too much.
J : I
don't know, I don't know, I never thought about that before, so I have no- I'm
only guessing.
Q : Did
you tell your mum everything that happened?
J : Yes,
ah yes, I was, I was bleeding and she put me in a bath. And even though it was summertime, I know- I
was shivering, I must have been in shock.
And she wrapped me up in a blanket and set by the kitchen stove and
talked to me.
Q : Did
she believe you?
J : Yeah,
yes.
Q : What
happened next.
J : Well
that was- she- she she went and talked with- [NAME DELETED] and that's when he
got involved and it was all quote taken care of by the church. O’Donnell was to not be in touch with
children again, the church was going to see to that.
I know
my mom was shocked later to learn that he was in another parish near
[INAUDIBLE] or somewhere like that not long after, he was there. And I know she went back to –NAME DELETED and
that caused issues for a while.
I know
that a bishop came up to Yea because of it and he took away boxes of documents,
from what I understand, for him to take care of.
Q : Do
you know who this bishop was?
J : Oh
yes. Yes, There have been a number of
meetings. They met through the Knights
of the Southern Cross.
Q : I'm
not aware of this group, were they attached to the church?
J : They
were just another one of their secret men’s organizations doing their quote
good work is the myth. They were all
probably people inspired to do good. And
yeah been deceived by the system of it, what it was, into protecting the good
name of the church, that was part of their role.
It was
all very secret.
*****
Q : In
1962 at age fourteen the situation occurred with your sister and Cameron? Can you tell us what happened?
J : Not
a great deal. I know she spoke to mum
and I wanted to know what was going on.
And she pushed me out of the kitchen and closed the door on me.
Q : How
old was she?
J : I
don't know probably nine or ten, something perhaps.
****
FEAR while
hiding from his perpetrator:
It was
a gutter that had eucalyptus saplings growing in it. I hid in there and I ran
down the hedge line between the church and the presbytery, there was a gate
there and I could look quickly, keep running, go over the bank, under the fence
and hide in a big cypress tree.
That's
where I heard the fight. I could hear
them punching H [TEARS]
Later
when it got quiet I ran past to have a look and they were dragging him onto the
tile veranda of the presbytery under the window of the first room there. That's all I saw and I kept running.
Q : After
all this what kind of contact did you have with the Catholic Church, something
in Melbourne?
[DELETED
PARTS ABOUT JOHN’S MARRIAGE]
*****
When I
went to the police [about another issue in the 1990s], what set it off the
rails was the fact that I had acknowledged that I was a survivor of abuse by
Catholic clergy. That was the first of I
don't know ten or fifteen attempts at taking up this and other stuff with
police here in Toowoomba.
Somewhere
in that process I had realized that my own abuse hadn’t been properly addressed
and I sought out counseling. It was a
bit of a journey.
I
finished up with a psychologist in Toowoomba and I began to see her on a weekly
basis and did so for several years.
It was
during that time I learned that the fact that the Catholic Church was
effectively advertising healing and compensation, and I was advised to- I went
to see a fellow, the precursor to the Toowoomba Advocacy Service Cast TASC and
I explained some of my life to him, and he was about to retire and hand the
organization over to someone else.
He was
a lawyer I think of some sort and he offered to take my case on for me in his
retirement, he had an interest in doing that.
But it didn't really get off the ground, because in the process of doing
that, his own childhood abuse at the hands I believe of an Anglican priest
surfaced and brought him problems and he also encountered health problems.
Some
years later, I encountered him in the local Kuala store and I made a point of
walking across in front of him and nodding to him and he just, he didn't
recognize me at all.
I made
the contact with the church Melbourne thing, Peter O’Callaghan from there came
to Toowoomba and he acknowledged that I had been abused and claimed that he
would expedite my case through the system and that he would seek to get me the
maximum, whatever.
He
tried to get me to see a psychiatrist and I'm not sure if my research is right,
it showed that he was part of the [SOUNDS LIKE]
Deep Sleep fiasco.
Q : Oh
yes.
*****
ACTIVISM
J : By
that stage I’d started to have contact with other survivors around the world
and getting a bit of a picture of how the system operated, I suppose, little
snippets of it anyway.
O’Callaghan
came and there was a lengthy time and then S came to Toowoomba and identified
herself as a psychologist for the Catholic Church Care Link system. She was going to expedite this really bizarre
conversation.
I've
only been suicidal on three occasions to my recollection in life, bordering that
on several occasions, and she was the cause of one of those. I had a copy of the recording, they promised
me a transcript. The tape was more than
half an hour and the transcript only took three pages. It read predominantly in brackets ‘UNDECIPHERABLE’
that word was repeated over and over again.
I don't know what went wrong.
I rang
and tried to ask for a transcript as they’d promised and they deemed me to be
off my meds, a threat, I was a danger and risk to her.
Whatever.
That
effectively derailed any process that I was doing with the Church, although
around that time I’d written to O’Callaghan and I’d asked him a number of
questions, and he wasn’t forthcoming with answers. My questions were mostly to do with his
independence and what the qualifications and experience was of S and a number
of things that are important to know when you're dealing with this sort of
stuff on a personal level.
I’d
begun to publish a little bit of stuff online and that was causing O’Callaghan
a great deal of concern. I wasn’t able
to get any information on which to progress through to a solution or
whatever.
S when
she arrived in Toowoomba, if you listen to the conversation, she's very good in
the beginning, this was about dealing with the stuff in my way, how I needed to
deal with it, blah-blah-blah, but when you got down to the nuts and bolts, it
was this way or the fucking highway and you can piss off. [LAUGHS] They only
did it one way.
Q : Anything
else about how the Church representative dealt with you?
J : I
was- I didn't like being put into a position of take it leave it. And I didn't like the fact that despite me
having identified who my abuser was by name, and despite her supposedly having
that information that she hijinked some sort of story about trying to think who
it possibly was for a while in the conversation.
And I
realized how she asked me whether the guy was circumcised or not. I realized
what sort of impact that had on me, having to journey there in that, and what
pissed me is my recollection of the smirk on her face while she was doing
that.
To the
point where it stuck in my head and I had to even that score and I know that I
played a stupid game, but I sent her an email saying to the effect that it's
very difficult to tell whether an erect penis is circumcised or not.
[JOHN
WAS 8 YEARS OLD, THAT'S NOT A DETAIL AN 8 YEAR OLD SEES]
I
suggested that I had a friend who would like to put evidence in her hand and I
followed that up with an email to say that I hoped she didn't mind that he had a
show and grow tattoo on it as well. I
thought, fuck you, to beat me up psychologically like that.
*****
Q : And
the Melbourne response?
[Refers
to Melbourne Response and independent
commissioner, Peter O'Callaghan, QC ]
Background: ]
J : My
relationship I suppose you could call it with the Care Link system was
chaos. My wife was involving her
extended family. My abuse became her
gossip and that went to her extended family and it went to neighbors. With the neighbors, one was a designated
hitter after a little meeting of righteous Christians got together and
determined I was not being a good Christian, so he was designated to set me on
the right track.
They
had issues with the fact that I wasn’t raising my son as a Christian and that
it was because I had a tiff with the school over giving them the official note
to say that he was not to be in religious instructions and they put him in the
back of the classroom. That culminated
with a row with the headmaster on another occasion.
*****
[STUFF
ABOUT WIFE’S FAMILY LEFT OUT]
[Back
to John’s problems with the designated Christian assigned to save him. ]
He
stormed into my office one day, I told him to fuck off. They quite openly told me that they would do
everything that they possibly could to destroy me and my business and I've had
similar stuff from my wife’s extended family.
[because
he didn't want to raise his son Christian]
I had
a thriving business that was sabotaged largely from the inside. There's a fellow who will be able to tell you
his views at the time, a computer programmer I hired. We sought to go into a partnership as a way
of stabilizing my circumstances. My
business had won a small grant from the government, my business was going to go
global.
Q : What
was the business?
J : I
developed a contact management system and I was selling it to premier research
organizations here in Australia called CRC’s, community research councils. They were the premier research organizations
in Australia, an ideal long term niche market, high value, and yeah.
Q : Your
business suffered because of the threats?
J : Badly,
yes.
Q ; What
happened with Melbourne?
J : With
the Melbourne response? Really that had come to a standstill, I wasn’t getting
any response from O’Callaghan and I received a phone call from a fellow who
identified himself as a private investigator who was brother or uncle or some
such of H from a crowd called In Good Faith and Associates in Melbourne. And he in that conversation convinced me that
these people had a very-very good knowledge of my circumstance, and I never
questioned how they came about that.
I
think I had sold my business, because I was just not able to deal with it, I
might be out of sequence there, this might be before I got to that point.
But,
well, I was- it must have been after I sold my business, because I went to work
for the people who bought my business.
I had
a lot of conversation with a therapist and the major part of that conversation
was that I was not a believer in religion in any way and in fact I was probably
the Church’s world’s worst enemy.
 |
| Picture ID of "Buggered" |
I
think at that time I was identifying myself online at Buggered by a
Priest. [LAUGHS] I think that's the
name, I was the world’s most despised Catholic for talking about the clergy
abuse issue.
[OH MY
GOD! THAT'S when I contacted John, I know it, I remember seeing that
identification and thinking, I've got to see who this is]
There
was supposed to be no religion involved with this organization In Good Faith and
the program was entirely separate.
That effort
started to come apart when they had a teleconference meeting. During the
introduction to that meeting that H introduced a priest from [INAUDIBLE] who
was part of the program. During my
conversations with H she disclosed to me that she was employed with the
Melbourne Catholic Archdiocese prior to 1996, her role was dealing with
survivors of abuse, and that she had access to a large number of what she
referred to as victims’ records.
She
told me that she had done a settlement with the Catholic Church for wrongful
dismissal, though it wasn’t until sometime later that I came to understand that
there was in fact truth to what she said with regards to leaving that
Archdiocese program with the private confidential records of many abuse
survivors, which she claims to have photocopied before being- having to return
the originals, I believe that's the way it would have worked.
I
didn't realize until later that somehow I don't know how she found details to
connect, so that her brother, a so-called private investigator, could contact
me. The only place I'm aware of, I don't
know whether this is right, potentially my records would have been from H’s
time would have been part of files on survivors. I don't know.
Otherwise,
the only other way that they could have found my details was through, I believe
she had at that time a relationship with S in dealing with other
survivors. And it was one of those on
again off again relationships, she belonged to a different sect within the
church. They're all working for a common
cause, looking for more victims.
It
gets messy there, I know.
Q : We
need to go into this further.
J : We
need to, because this woman has spoken to me of dealing with people attempting
suicide and the like. And my dealings
with her, as I said, I've not very often been suicidal in relation to this and
I can recount occasions.
On another
of those occasions was after a phone call with H, and I had given this woman
every piece of knowledge and information and ability to abuse me, or use it
against me, and she did.
[HMM:
Reminds me of some in the “survivor movement” in the USA]
Q : This
is an issue that we maybe need to come back and speak to you about again
J ; Yes,
this is incredibly important because it goes to people being, the way I see it,
people who have lost any faith in the religion side of it being introduced to
this thing [CONTACT WITH THE CHURCH FOR HELP] by people who want to bring them
back into the religion. And that's a
case of come back here and let’s abuse you with this stuff again.
Q : Were
the group In Good Faith separate from the church but still faith-based?
J : Well
I was in Queensland, I was under the impression that they were not. As I said, when I took part in that
teleconference and this priest was there involved and we had prayers, then H,
for probably the longest period of my life I've been silent-
H rang
me here to apologize for whatever she might have inadvertently done wrong
[LAUGHS] which is a good my hands are tied Catholic response. My case according to her was pivotal, she had
a so-called class action that was going to take place, and that's what drew me
in to be involved. I had a discussion
with her and I turned off the web services when I realized how much religion
was involved.
I had
up until then I’d really not gotten myself involved with local Australian
survivors, I’d mostly done quite a bit of stuff in the United States, doing
phone calls from Australia. My thing was
to try and understand how the thing works.
In
Good Faith was going to put my case through the Melbourne process and that was
going to entail going through their lawyers.
I didn’t progress that, some of it I didn't feel good with the fellow who
ran the service, P, and then I had an unfortunate experience with R and not her
fault in that.
She
was going to do a timeline of my experience and she was in Brisbane and I drove
down to stand with her. I walked in the
door and it took me weeks to work out what the hell happened to me.
And
all I can explain is that she had a reasonably, not low cut, but she had a- I
think it ran straight across, I don't know.
But she had a complexion that reminded me of one of these nuns. Moreso there was a small- the skin on the
bone part had a wrinkle that moved and I was just locked onto that and that was
taking me back into the abuse as a kid in the convent. [TEARS]
Q : That
triggered your memory?
J : Yah. And it didn't go well there, because, yeah it
didn't go well.
Q : Was
this group charging people?
J : Oh,
these are the only organization I know together with P who are lawyers, they'll
turn around and write off a thirty-fifty thousand dollar debt, never heard of
one. I don't know.
One of
the things I had done, as I said, I used to do phone calling to the United
States and I came to understand that there was a considerable amount of double
dipping going on between lawyers over there.
Q ; Was
there discussion about what In Good Faith would provide you?
J : It
started out as being my case was to do with this proposed class action, which
appeared to fizzle off.
[HMM: That
happened in the USA too]
Then
it was in the production of a document called- what do they call it, it was
Always Forward, or Always Toward, it was another towards healing sort of name
thing. And this was a major production,
it was whittled down to I think around fifty five pages and then it went to the
lawyers and came down to fifteen pages, I think. But it was going to be the fait accompli and
my support was sought because I had- they had an understanding or whatnot.
I had
contact with other survivors and I had a group.
And I had never gone that way with any earnestness but I had contact
with others. I think that was a big
attraction, because it got fairly serious in the marketing game. It was all about new victims.
Q : Did
you ever receive any money from the Catholic Church?
J : No. I had heard, I had contact with other
survivors who had received assistance at different times and then I read where
they had offered survivors three hundred dollars.
On one
occasion I did attempt to get some assistance with school fees for my son, I
was putting him through school here. I
was having trouble meeting the payments and I’d heard that the [INAUDIBLE]
service had paid for education for other survivors’ kids. So I thought I would see if that might be an
avenue.
The
fellow from grammar school here contacted I believe S and yes they did do that
on occasion. But they wouldn't do it on
this occasion because my son was not going to a Catholic school. If I was to send him to a Catholic school,
they would certainly help.
*****
I had
to have some interaction with Relationships Australia and I simply came away
from that thinking it was another number to add to ten or twelve psychologists
I’d sampled. One I’d already decided not to go back to.
Q : You
haven't received any money or formal conclusion?
J : No,
not from O’Callaghan. I had an email
apology from George Pell and bits and pieces like so, but nothing beyond that,
that's it, that's yeah- it's, it's-
Q ; When
did you get from Pell?
J : I
just sent another- that three hundred dollars would be very handy to me, so I
sent an email just the other day to [SOUNDS LIKE] John Usher out of Sydney.
That was a reply to his email to me offering an apology from Pell.
Q : You
haven't received the apology yet?
J : Well
he says, Cardinal Pell has asked me to respond to your email on his behalf,
he's presently away from Sydney. He
expresses his sincere regret about your abuse by Kevin O’Donnell. I've referred the matter to the Melbourne Response
who will ascertain what the archdiocese is doing to assist you. Could you let me know if your contact with
the archdiocese of Melbourne has been unhelpful, and did I told him yes it had
been entirely unhelpful and destructive.
IRREVERENCE
IRREVERENCE
Q : When
was your interaction with Melbourne?
J : The
first of December 2009 they replied to an email I sent out, so whatever the date
of my email was, I don't know how long before that it was. I could probably find that, I can tell
you.
Q ; And
you were offered an apology by George Pell, right?
J : Yes,
yes.
 |
| Brown in infamous t-shirt |
J : Well
I sent an email around to probably several thousand Catholics across Australia
to say that I had the wording to go on a t-shirt or something. The
t-shirt basically said that I’d been fucked over by the Catholic Church and the
police commissioner and the minister for police.
In the
email I asked if they could help with the font.
And
they responded to that.
******
THAT'S
IT!
That's
THE END
THE END
John’s
email to several thousand Catholics, identifying himself as "Buggered by a Priest" in the "from" box, tells you the level of disrespect with which
he holds their hierarchy, and I agree.
*****
Post
Note:
The Commissioner
conducting the interview with John asked him:
IS IT OK
TO USE YOUR STORY?
J : I
put my flag up there really high if there's any opportunity to use me, I
particularly want to convey the understanding of what it's like to be raised in
an environment that's based on psychological blackmail and intimidation and
threat and how that leaves you in a perpetual state of fear and terror.
*****
John
Brown runs this Facebook page which keeps up throughout the day with Royal
Commission events
VIDEOS
FROM Australia Royal commission:
On
July 7 The Vatican refused a royal
commission's request
to give them all internal documents on abuse in that country.
http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=21938
to give them all internal documents on abuse in that country.
http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=21938
John
Brown’s ongoing work:
More: Australian Child Abuse Inquiries Roundup
READERS:
SURVIVORS:
Feel free to send me digital recordings that I
will transcribe and post here as your story about a pedophile priest in your
life.
THE FOLLOWING
IS FROM documents John Brown submitted along with his testimony:
1956
# Age
8 raped by Kevin O'Donnell (On record with my counselor MH).
I was
instructed to direct O'Donnell to a small church in the surrounding hills
outside of yea at a location called Cheviot/Caveat. I was raped on the way to
the Church which was called the something of seven sorrows. I have detailed
this in other writing as well.
When I
ran home barefoot to my mother she put me in a bath of warm water and washed me
and soaked my underwear off me as I had been bleeding and they had stuck to my
body. She talked to me and asked me to explain - I was not able to tell her
much. She wrapped me up in a blanket and sat with me on her lap by the kitchen
fire and she talked to me - she did this often.
My
mother went to H to see what he was able to do. He set in place a number of
events that included a number of meetings of the Knights of the Southern Cross
and the eventual arrival at Yea of the bishop. My mother was assured that
O'Donnell would receive medical help and that he would never be allowed near
children again. She learned some months later that all they Church had done was
to relocate him. I accused the priest of doing things to me.
Whipped
by my father under direction from O'Donnell (On record with my counselor MH).
The
priest came to my home and spoke with my father who was chopping wood. He
called me and asked me to tell him what had happened. I told him. The priest
denied it and instructed my father to whip me. He whipped me with a stock whip
3 times on each arm. I was asked again to tell him what had happened. I told
him again and again the priest instructed my father to whip me - this happened
several times - I cannot remember how many times. He told my father that I was
to receive special attention as I was the spawn of the devil and that had to be
beaten out of me.
Pigeon
toed - foot problem - built up boots (On record with my counselor MH).
My
right foot had been seriously injured on the day O'Donnell raped me on the way
to the little church and again on the way home via Molesworth. The damage to my
foot was explained by neighbors and members of the parish community as my being
pigeon toed. I was required to wear special built up boots made by the local
boot maker. H paid for the boots. I got into trouble often because I refused to
wear them. I often had to put them on before going to school, I would walk out
the front door and go to the corner of the fence and take my boots off and
stuff them in the hedge and then go to school in bare feet. My brother Robert
reported me on every possible occasion. I received many beatings as a result of
his "telling on me" often for things he or others had done. I learned
around tat time how the confessional was used to learn about my activities and
that fact that information told in the confessional was passed on to nuns and
other priests.
I was
said to require special treatment as a result of my behaviour - this most often
took the form of cruel punishment - pinching, punching, pinching fingers under
the desk lid, being hit across the face with the strap, being brought to the
front of the class and humiliated and then strapped as an example to others.
Publicly
humiliated in from of congregation at Church (On record with my counselor MH).
H
makes arrangements for my future via Church - ensures there is a file with my
records (On record with my counselor MH). # H changes his will - explains to
Mum and I (On record with my counselor MH).
Many
problems at school (On record with my counselor MH).
Too
numerous to detail. Was regularly required to "run up to the convent"
to do some chore - put wood on the fire, bring in firewood, start a fire, clean
out the fire or stove, take a message to someone, take out the rubbish, someone
was delivering something, run to the shops, collect eggs for the nuns or the
priests during school times.
1962
Clash
with nun and kick out window (explained to Sandy & ALB some of it)
When I
was around 13 or 14 I had a clash with the nun who was teaching. At recess time
she kept myself and several of the older bigger boys in; their job was to catch
me as she intend to beat me for some reason. I was not up to it as she was
hacking at me with a T-square. I got him several times with it until I rushed
at her and hit her in the stomach and knocked her to the floor. I jumped up on
to the desks and on to the window ledge and kicked out the window and escaped.
High
school - involvement of Bill Ellison Bully Buck Aldous - paper round - compass
attack History teacher ignored (On record with my counselor MH).
Problems
at High School with bullying (On record with my counselor MH).
*************
I
realized, as I was transcribing, that there are parts of John’s story that are
almost exactly like the story of Ted Lausche, from another interview I did with another survivor in
the United States two years earlier. So next
month [August 2014] I'll run Ted’s story
here at City of Angels Blog.
-posted
by Kay Ebeling
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