When will the other churches come to the party? Why are they silent and letting the Catholics take all the heat? Aged 17 I was groomed and assaulted by an Anglican church official. Nearly 14 years after I first complained, they are still telling me to go away. In 1997, they said I had to withdraw my complaint from the Police before they would investigate. Then they said "he didn't do it" and told me to go away. Then after continued pressure, they appointed a barrister who said my complaint was substantiated. Then they fired the perpetrator and told me to go away. Although they magnanimously paid for some counselling, they have never once apologised or taken responsibility for the destruction of my childhood. They say at 17 I should have known better. But I had only just turned 17 and was a school leaver. I had never even seen a male unclothed before he exposed himself to me in the cathedral organ loft. I am still waiting for any form of justice. This is despite a memo obtained from the Diocesan office that detailed his molestation of a 12 year old in the 1950s!
I can almost promise votes for anyone who publicly acknowledges
the Forgotten Australians and the issue of child abuse. Versions of our story
are repeated for 500,000 Australians. Why don't we hear from them all,
and their families? Because unlike our indigenous sisters and brothers,
we rarely enjoy extended family networks. In fact, because of the lack of
understanding shown to our family, neither of my siblings speaks to me any more,
and they also cheated me out of some of my inheritance. The reason? I did
not use the advantages my upbringing gave me. Even my own sisters do not
understand. How can anyone else? Every day I come into contact
with welfare and health 'professionals' who know nothing at all about our
issues.
The first political party to seriously address the awful problem
of child abuse in this state will be swept into power. That means to address
the fact that three Supreme Court judges and a senior political figure belong
to the Boy Lovers And Zucchini Eaters club [A Report by the Parliamentary Joint
Committee on the National Crime Authority, November 1995] and were
photographed by the Federal Police leaving BLAZE's monthly meeting at Dirty
Dicks nightclub. In an incident ‘reported’ to have occurred in about
August, 1988, two Federal police officers from
This detail has been reported in the CJC’s August, 1988, Kimmins
Report.
As part of this investigation, it has been reported that the two
AFP officers carried out video surveillance of a
It was reported that the occasion filmed at Dirty Dicks was a
monthly meeting of BLAZE (Boy Lovers and Zucchini Eaters). Some high profile
individuals were reportedly caught exiting the event, on the AFP surveillance
video.
My abuser, Dr Robert Boughen OBE (and various other accolades) is
closely involved with the Royal School of Church Music. A memo I acquired
from the Callaghan/Briggs Enquiry detailing a phone call
from Michael Kelly, son of the late Virginia Whitfield and an
Anglican priest, dated in 2002, references a report of abuse by Robert Boughen
on Virginia Whitfield when she was age 12 in the 50s.
Despite this Boughen went on to get a job at Uni and began to groom me for abuse
when in the first weeks of my first year in 1969.
I have heard from the friend I told about my abuse when it was happening that
her father-in-law, knowing my story, told them on his deathbed that he was a
choirboy along with Robert Boughen in the 30s or 40s when, at a Royal School of
Church Music camp on Stradbroke Island, he witnessed the then Organist and Choirmaster
molesting the boy, Robert Boughen. As a result of knowing this, and also
hearing from another organ student in 1972 (we were 21) that he was
"beginning to lust after choirboys", I believe there is an entrenched
system of corruption involving both major parties to cover up paedophilia in
Qld.
In 2005 I was told by a Registered Psychologist in
In one of the newsletters for a
It would be so good and cleansing for my soul to see justice done, for me, Virginia Whitfield, and countless others whom Boughen abused, and who have been too scared because of his position in society.
Ref: http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2003/transcripts/s926706.htm
http://sgp1.paddington.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/cover_stories/transcript_994.asp
From: Sylvia Blayse <editme09@gmail.com>
Date: Tue,
Feb 3, 2015 at 7:29 AM
Subject: Please add to correspondence from Sylvia
Blayse
To: "Child Abuse Royal Commission, Enquiries" <enquiries@childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au>
|
Subject: Re: long term effects of childhood institutionalization
To:
"royalcommissionsecretariat@pmc.gov.au ...snip... Bateman
<ibrose22@tpg.com.au> |
These comments are respectfully submitted in view of the absence of any media commentaryÂon a subject of vital importance.ÂThe immigration department wants to deport a child with autism because of the expense Australia will face in the future because of his disorder.How ironic! When by the simple expedient of removing a child from their parents (instead of removing the parents too, and sorting the whole family's problems out, or using a CCTV in cases of family violence) the government has created long term disability not just in those individuals, but their families. How does this compare to one child with autism? In our family, nine university degrees between us, and four of us on disability?My late husband's disability was not recognized until his 40s. Until then he was labelled a dole bludger and I lost the love and support of my family, as well as my home and career. Our children were the victims of prejudice by other children, and their teachers. When Professor Beverley Raphael pronounced, in 1995, that Lewis Blayse was profoundly disabled owing to childhood institutional abuse (otherwise known as "The Homes"), it came as a huge relief to our family. Since then, several more of us have gone on disability.How much would the government have saved if Lewin Blazevich had not been removed from his mother and father multiple times, starting from when he was a baby? What could we all have contributed to Australian society, had it not been for the short-sightedness of the social work profession?ÂIt is not the Churches who decided, in most cases, to destroy families like ours. It was governments, at the suggestion of professionals who really didn't know what they were doing. Why are governments, State and Commonwealth, hiding behind the Churches when it comes to redress discussions? What proportion of those who have testified to the Royal Commission were State Children? This is not a rhetorical question. I expect an answer. Judge McClellan said my late husband was "one of the fathers of the Royal Commission" on the Monday after Lew died. Well here's one of the mothers talking.ÂOn behalf of all the other families, 500,000 of them, of former State Wards, I ask: Why are governments taking second place after the churches in redress discussions? Lewin Blazevich and his siblings were not taken on the orders of a churchman, although it was a Salvation Army officer who dragged the screaming toddler from under the bed where he'd hidden in terror. They were taken on the orders of the Police, under the auspices of the State Children Department. Their illiterate father had to sign documents saying that as State Children, they could be hired out, lent out, given away, without the knowledge or consent of their parents.I don't have that much longer to speak about these matters. Before too many more of us die, please do something. Our children are suffering unspeakably.
LETTER TO THE ROYAL COMMISSION
INTO INSTITUTIONAL RESPONSES TO CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE
Date: Mon, Oct 26, 2015 at 6:25
PM
Subject: Anglican priests
To: <royalcommissionsecretariat@pmc.gov.au>
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN
I read today of three Anglican priests, one of them a
bishop, disclosing their own abuse.
I wish to draw the Commission's attention to the
inter-generational nature of abuse at the Anglican cathedral where I was
abused.
A reputable source told me that my own abuser, the Director
of Music at the Cathedral, was himself abused as a child by whoever was
Director of Music. Several other Choirmasters at the Cathedral have been the
subject of allegations. A fellow organ student confided in me, in 1972, that he
was "beginning to lust after choirboys". I have previously told the
commission his name, and that he is now a choirmaster at another Australian
cathedral.
Even more poignant is the story of Michael Kelly, Anglican
priest, who shouldered the burden of recounting his mother's deathbed
disclosure of her abuse by the same man who abused me.
Before the rest of his family found out, Michael had gone to
the Archbishop, not straight after his mother died, but after he saw a story
about my abuse, six years later, in the local newspaper. It was this story that
enabled him to find the courage to contact the Archbishop. I have attached the
memo of the conversation he had with the Archbishop's secretary.
After the O'Callaghan Briggs Inquiry sent to me the memo of
Michael's call to the Diocese, I recognized the surname of the victim, Virginia
Whitfield. I wrote to her sister, whom I had known at Somerville House.
Shortly thereafter I received a warning letter from
O'Callaghan, which the Commission is aware of. I was told that under no
circumstances should I contact Virginia's family again. I had spoken once to
Michael. He said it made him feel sick to have to work in the Cathedral where
his mother's abuser was lauded and revered. I am sure he was not popular with
some family members for passing on his mother's deathbed disclosure. Apparently
his father had not known she had been abused.
Michael told me that his mother had inexplicably (to her family)
asked to be removed from Somerville House and sent to boarding school, after
she was 12. My own sister, Valerie Joy, knew Virginia when they were at primary
school. When she caught up with her again at university, she said Virginia
seemed to have lost her spirit.
Michael must have loved his mother to be able to brave the
censure he seems to have received for telling what happened to her. There has
been not a whisper about her abuse since 2002, although I have tried and tried
to tell her story; she is the only other victim of my abuser to have been brave
enough to speak, and that only because she was dying, I believe.
The family's silence becomes easier to understand when two
facts are considered.
1. Virginia's sister is married to John Story, Chancellor of
University of Queensland, which employed
her abuser from the 60s until his retirement.
2. Boughen's reputation as a sexual predator was an open
secret in Brisbane before he was employed by the university.
Kindly take note of these factors, and in addition, that
Boughen was employed at the Church of England Grammar School East Brisbane,
where he had a reputation for cruelty to little boys.
Sincerely
Sylvia Blayse
1. Sylvia
Blayse Original Statement 1997
7. Sylvia
Tunley Blayse Outcomes
8. UQ To inaugurate the Around
the Organ series
9. Simon Birmingham Letter July 2018