news.com.au (Australia)
December 12, 2015
WARNING: Disturbing content
A MAN who alleged his penis was cut off by a male staff member at a Sydney boys’ home was one of many children who were mutilated and severely abused at the facility, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard.
Gordon Myers, 50, told news.com.au he was 13 when he was sent to the institution for the first time in 1978.
In his submission to the commission, Mr Myers said he was raped and bashed by various staff at the home on a regular basis over the five years he lived there.
He said a male staff member who “didn’t like little boys with foreskins” used to perform illegal and botched circumcisions on the children at Daruk.
“He cut my penis off,” Mr Myers told news.com.au.
“I had just turned 13. He took me into the clinic and said ‘we have permission to circumcise you’. I said ‘no you don’t’.
“He knocked me out with a needle and I woke up in the middle of it and there was (a second staff member there as well), I screamed in pain.
“Because I was so tiny, he probably thought, stupidly, ‘don’t give him as much anaesthetic to put him under’.”
Mr Myers said there was “blood everywhere” and that he was sent to Windsor Hospital where a surgeon “sewed (his) penis back on”.
He claims the hospital “covered up” the incident.
A spokeswoman for Hawkesbury District Health Service — which replaced Windsor Hospital — told news.com.au there were no records of the incident because they had likely been destroyed.
“Having checked with our hospital’s Medical Records Department, the records for the old hospital would have been destroyed if the patient had not presented again within a certain period of time,” the spokeswoman said.
“The Medical Records manager confirmed that she has previously discussed the subject with the patient identified, and advised that unfortunately no records can be located.”
Mr Myers said his penis “never grew” as a result of the trauma.
“All the nerve endings aren’t there,” he said. “It was a complete reattachment of the top of it.”
He said the deformity had a profound effect on his life.
“I can’t have children and I can’t have sex,” he said.
Mr Myers provided news.com.au with copies of medical documents which reveal Dr Philip Sutherland examined him in March this year for his submission to the Royal Commission.
“I can confirm that the size of Gordon’s penis and scrotum are childlike,” the report read.
Mr Sutherland referred Mr Myers to urologist Stephen Ruthven for further assessment.
Dr Ruthven concluded in a report sighted by news.com.au that Mr Myers had “testicular microlithiasis”, a condition where small clusters of calcium form in the testicles.
Dr Ruthven could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Mr Myers said he was not the only child whose penis was severed by the staff member at Daruk Training School.
“Every now and then he’d grab a kid to rape or circumcise and I was one of them,” he said.
Mr Myers said he was returned to the boys’ home following surgery.
“(The staff member) wanted to have another go and rape me a second time,” he said. “He raped me heaps of time before that but I wasn’t going to let that happen again.
“I just lost the plot and flogged him. I turned very violent.”
Mr Myers said dozens of boys were brutally, sexually and physically abused by staff at the home and that the perpetrators hadn’t been brought to justice.
He said an extensive cover-up linked to a VIP paedophile ring had protected the offenders and prevented them from being investigated.
Senator Bill Heffernan recently campaigned for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse to expand its investigation to include the judicial system.
In October this year he told Senate estimates that he had given the commission “very disturbing” police documents that named at least 28 alleged paedophiles, some of whom were prominent Australians.
But he said the commission had told him it could not investigate the cases because they were outside its terms of reference.
Carl Orme, 50, told news.com.au he was also a resident of Daruk Training school in 1978.
Mr Orme said he was routinely physically and sexually abused by several staff members at the home and that one at the school often taunted the boys and severed some of their penises.
“There was a male (staff member) there, and I will never forget his name,” Mr Orme said. “He was a very sick man.
“He’d start fondling with you and things and he would always threaten to circumcise everyone. “He used to scare you and everything, he’d get scissors out and grab hold of the old fella’ saying, ‘I’m going to cut it off if you don’t sit still, I’m going to cut your willy off’.
“His excuse was ‘it’s clean to be circumcised’.”
Mr Orme said the new arrivals were often the staff member’s main targets.
“Sometimes he would tell one of the boys that he liked, especially the new arrivals, and then take them back to the hospital,” he said.
“Then a couple of days later, that same little boy would come back so traumatised, everyone felt for him, as most boys had already been in the same position.
“I was taken to the hospital and told that they were going to circumcise me. I went off my brain and started to fight the officers in the room.
“I threw everything that I could at them, as I’d heard that two months before, one of the little boys had his penis cut off and I was so scared, and wasn’t going to allow anything like that happen to me.
“All my life I have wondered about that little boy, I still to this day try and think of his name. I also wonder whether he made it through life.”
The Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse is the largest Royal Commission in Australia’s history. It is focusing on the sexual abuse of children in institutions that were supposed to care for them.
After being granted an extension last year, the commission will now conclude at the end of 2017.
December 12, 2015
Boys had penises cut off, Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse hears
by Megan PalinWARNING: Disturbing content
A MAN who alleged his penis was cut off by a male staff member at a Sydney boys’ home was one of many children who were mutilated and severely abused at the facility, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard.
Gordon Myers, 50, told news.com.au he was 13 when he was sent to the institution for the first time in 1978.
In his submission to the commission, Mr Myers said he was raped and bashed by various staff at the home on a regular basis over the five years he lived there.
He said a male staff member who “didn’t like little boys with foreskins” used to perform illegal and botched circumcisions on the children at Daruk.
“He cut my penis off,” Mr Myers told news.com.au.
“I had just turned 13. He took me into the clinic and said ‘we have permission to circumcise you’. I said ‘no you don’t’.
“He knocked me out with a needle and I woke up in the middle of it and there was (a second staff member there as well), I screamed in pain.
“Because I was so tiny, he probably thought, stupidly, ‘don’t give him as much anaesthetic to put him under’.”
Mr Myers said there was “blood everywhere” and that he was sent to Windsor Hospital where a surgeon “sewed (his) penis back on”.
He claims the hospital “covered up” the incident.
A spokeswoman for Hawkesbury District Health Service — which replaced Windsor Hospital — told news.com.au there were no records of the incident because they had likely been destroyed.
“Having checked with our hospital’s Medical Records Department, the records for the old hospital would have been destroyed if the patient had not presented again within a certain period of time,” the spokeswoman said.
“The Medical Records manager confirmed that she has previously discussed the subject with the patient identified, and advised that unfortunately no records can be located.”
Mr Myers said his penis “never grew” as a result of the trauma.
“All the nerve endings aren’t there,” he said. “It was a complete reattachment of the top of it.”
He said the deformity had a profound effect on his life.
“I can’t have children and I can’t have sex,” he said.
Mr Myers provided news.com.au with copies of medical documents which reveal Dr Philip Sutherland examined him in March this year for his submission to the Royal Commission.
“I can confirm that the size of Gordon’s penis and scrotum are childlike,” the report read.
Mr Sutherland referred Mr Myers to urologist Stephen Ruthven for further assessment.
Dr Ruthven concluded in a report sighted by news.com.au that Mr Myers had “testicular microlithiasis”, a condition where small clusters of calcium form in the testicles.
Dr Ruthven could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Mr Myers said he was not the only child whose penis was severed by the staff member at Daruk Training School.
“Every now and then he’d grab a kid to rape or circumcise and I was one of them,” he said.
Mr Myers said he was returned to the boys’ home following surgery.
“(The staff member) wanted to have another go and rape me a second time,” he said. “He raped me heaps of time before that but I wasn’t going to let that happen again.
“I just lost the plot and flogged him. I turned very violent.”
Mr Myers said dozens of boys were brutally, sexually and physically abused by staff at the home and that the perpetrators hadn’t been brought to justice.
He said an extensive cover-up linked to a VIP paedophile ring had protected the offenders and prevented them from being investigated.
Senator Bill Heffernan recently campaigned for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse to expand its investigation to include the judicial system.
In October this year he told Senate estimates that he had given the commission “very disturbing” police documents that named at least 28 alleged paedophiles, some of whom were prominent Australians.
But he said the commission had told him it could not investigate the cases because they were outside its terms of reference.
Carl Orme, 50, told news.com.au he was also a resident of Daruk Training school in 1978.
Mr Orme said he was routinely physically and sexually abused by several staff members at the home and that one at the school often taunted the boys and severed some of their penises.
“There was a male (staff member) there, and I will never forget his name,” Mr Orme said. “He was a very sick man.
“He’d start fondling with you and things and he would always threaten to circumcise everyone. “He used to scare you and everything, he’d get scissors out and grab hold of the old fella’ saying, ‘I’m going to cut it off if you don’t sit still, I’m going to cut your willy off’.
“His excuse was ‘it’s clean to be circumcised’.”
Mr Orme said the new arrivals were often the staff member’s main targets.
“Sometimes he would tell one of the boys that he liked, especially the new arrivals, and then take them back to the hospital,” he said.
“Then a couple of days later, that same little boy would come back so traumatised, everyone felt for him, as most boys had already been in the same position.
“I was taken to the hospital and told that they were going to circumcise me. I went off my brain and started to fight the officers in the room.
“I threw everything that I could at them, as I’d heard that two months before, one of the little boys had his penis cut off and I was so scared, and wasn’t going to allow anything like that happen to me.
“All my life I have wondered about that little boy, I still to this day try and think of his name. I also wonder whether he made it through life.”
The Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse is the largest Royal Commission in Australia’s history. It is focusing on the sexual abuse of children in institutions that were supposed to care for them.
After being granted an extension last year, the commission will now conclude at the end of 2017.
