Abuse survivor thought treatment 'normal'

Boys were picked at random and publicly beaten during meals while in the care of Christian Brothers in Western Australia, a royal commission has heard.

Clifford Walsh, who survived years of physical and sexual abuse at St Joseph's Farm and Trade School, Bindoon, said on Tuesday he thought the treatment was normal.

"They beat children in the middle of meals," Mr Walsh told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

"Brother Tuppin punched me with his fists, squeezed me with a bear hug, I remember he also rubbed his stubble on my face."

Mr Walsh, an orphan from England who was sent to Bindoon when he was 10, also detailed sexual abuse by brothers at the school.

One brother, Christopher Angus, raped him not long after he arrived at the school.

Another brother, Bruno Doyle, beat him so frequently, Mr Walsh said he believed the man got a kick out of it.

"I knew no other life and so I had no life ... I could compare with," Mr Walsh said.

Left so traumatised by his experiences at the school, he now has trouble being affectionate with his only son.

"He hugs me and I hate it," he said. "When he hugs me I push him away."

Mr Walsh said he received no education at Bindoon and was forced into hard labour.

Justice to him, he said, would be the Christian Brothers admitting the wrong they had done.

"And doing something about it," he said.

At another school, St Mary's Agricultural School in Tardun, boys were told they were not there to be educated and were needed for hard labour.

A resident at the school, known as VG, told the commission while working in the heat, boys were often tied just out of reach of a water tap and forced to stay there for hours.

"They beat us with leather straps that were about an inch thick, three inches wide ... and had a buckle thicker than a belt," he said.

When an older boy retaliated against the abuse, three brothers held him down and beat him.

"I thought the brothers were going to kill him," VG said.

When another brother, known as Simon, tried to rape him, VG hit him in the stomach with a chair.

"I tried to run away but he grabbed my shirt and threw me on the ground," he said.

"I then felt the buckle on the back of my head. I don't remember anything after that."

He later tried to commit suicide, he said.

Over the next two weeks the commission will hear evidence on how the Christian Brothers responded to allegations of abuse.

It will also hear evidence from representatives of the WA government and the acting director of public prosecutions about the department's response to complaints.

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