Farm college sufferer was threatened after accusing conflict hero of kid sexual abuse
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survivor of a farm college in rural Australia owed compensation by the Prince’s Trust mentioned he acquired threats and abuse after changing into the primary particular person to publicly accuse Australian governor normal Sir William Slim of kid sexual abuse.
After a long time of silence, Robert Stephens instructed an Australian newspaper in 2007 the celebrated British conflict hero had molested him within the Nineteen Fifties – prompting different males to return ahead.
“I was pretty nervous about (going public about the alleged abuse) and, in fact, I was getting threats. People were ringing up and threatening me,” Mr Stephens instructed the PA news company.
“There were abusive phone calls and things like that.”
Mr Stephens is among the many 277 claimants looking for compensation for the abuse and mistreatment he suffered on the farm college which was run by the Fairbridge Society.
For 70 years the organisation exported tens of 1000’s of working class kids from Britain to its former colonies in a bid to transform a “burden and a menace” to society into “assets” for the Empire.
In 2012 the King’s charity, the Prince’s Trust, turned legally answerable for the Fairbridge farm faculties when it took over the organisation and absorbed its property.
Then, in response to little one sexual abuse inquiries in each the UK and Australia, the Prince’s Trust pledged to pay compensation to Fairbridge survivors and in 2020 it arrange a separate authorized entity for this objective – placing it into receivership and tasking joint directors Chris Laverty and Alistair Wardell of Grant Thornton UK LLP with paying compensation.
In November 2022, the High Court of Justice decided an affordable quantity to every claimant was £204,000 (380,000 Australian {dollars}) however final month Mr Stephens and different former “Fairbridge kids” had been knowledgeable they’ll solely obtain about 1% of that determine as a result of Prince’s Trust having “insufficient monies”.
Each claimant will now obtain about £1,000-£2,000 every.
Born in St Albans, north of London, Mr Stephens had solely identified the within of orphanages when he was despatched to Australia on the age of eight as a toddler migrant.
Like 60% of survivors of the Molong college in rural New South Wales (NSW) state, 180 miles from Sydney, Mr Stephens was subjected to sexual abuse throughout his 9 years on the establishment.
It was not till the Eighties, when he was in his 40s, that the toll of that trauma actually hit Mr Stephens.
He had been visiting London along with his spouse when he had a nervous breakdown inside St Paul’s Cathedral after coming face-to-face along with his abuser – or fairly a marble reproduction of him.
“It was a bust sitting in an alcove. I can still see it clear as day… and I still remember the card with this red flower on it which said ‘From a thankful child in Singapore’. It’s never left me,” he mentioned.
Mr Stephens instructed PA that in that second “something exploded” inside him and he couldn’t converse or transfer.
“I was in a highly emotional state, shaking… everything came back,” the 80-year-old mentioned.
“It’s still quite emotional… prior to that incident in London, (my wife) had no idea what I’d been through… (She still) has great difficulty coping with it.
“Here’s this guy standing there in this bloody cathedral who couldn’t move. She had no idea what was going on.”
From then on, the trauma compounded for Mr Stephens however as a result of excessive stature of his alleged abuser, he didn’t assume he can be believed.
“I tried to deal with it the best I could, but in the end I needed help to deal with it because it had a chain effect on everything,” he recalled.
“It was a terrible time. I try and put it behind me but it’s there.”
The Molong farm college to which Mr Stephens and round a thousand different British little one migrants had been despatched between 1938 and 1974 had been blacklisted by the UK Home Office in 1956 after a fact-finding mission discovered the Fairbridge establishments had been “unfit for children” – but it had continued to function for the subsequent twenty years.
In the early 2000s, David Hill – a former resident of the college who went on to turn into chairman of Australia’s nationwide broadcaster – started researching the farm faculties and discovered the extent to which each the UK and Australian governments had been conscious of mistreatment of youngsters however had coated it up.
Mr Hill’s dogged interviewing of survivors uncovered the stunning scale of sexual abuse on the college with Mr Stephens the primary to open up to him.
They couldn’t consider that Slim did what he did. The Star of Burma individuals nonetheless have that difficulty as a result of, to them, he was a god
It set off an avalanche of testimony and one after the other, survivors revealed to Mr Hill the true horror of the Molong farm college. In nearly each occasion it was the primary time of their lives that they had disclosed the sexual abuse to anybody.
“(David Hill) was a catalyst for a lot of people,” Mr Stephens mentioned, explaining having the ability to converse out in regards to the abuse after a long time of silence had been useful to his therapeutic.
“It was part of that business of me getting over what I’d been through. I’d been pretty crook. I couldn’t work, the family was broke. And I think I was angry.”
Sir William had been so celebrated as a army commander of the British Army throughout the Second World War that when a statue was unveiled in commemoration of him exterior the UK’s Ministry of Defence in Whitehall in 1990, Queen Elizabeth II did the honours.
While Mr Stephens had not talked about him by title to Mr Hill, one other “Fairbridge kid” had. But as a consequence of him not wishing to talk on the document, it was not included in Mr Hill’s ebook The Forgotten Children when it was revealed in 2007.
In the next promotional interviews for the ebook, Mr Hill talked about to a journalist off the document the allegation he had heard in opposition to the thirteenth governor normal.
The subsequent day The Sydney Morning Herald ran the story about Sir William “attempting to sexually interfere with a young, impoverished British boy sent to an institution in western NSW”.
The article prompted Mr Stephens to turn into the primary to allege publicly he had been abused by the revered army commander.
“No adult would believe these things happened so you didn’t talk about it. You think you are the only one,” he instructed the paper.
“Like so many things that happened at Fairbridge, they don’t go away. They live with you all your life.”
His claims had been met with threats and abuse from supporters of the late governor normal.
“That was difficult. It was mainly people who had served with Slim. They could not believe that Slim did what he did. The Star of Burma people still have that issue because, to them, he was a god,” he mentioned.
“But to other people, he was not quite the person that they knew.”
Shortly after Mr Stephens made the allegation, one other two former Fairbridge children got here ahead to say that they had additionally been abused by the previous governor normal as kids.
They mentioned that throughout the governor normal’s official visits to the farm college within the Nineteen Fifties, Sir William would provide the “pretty boys” a journey in his black viceregal Rolls-Royce and make them sit on his lap.
From there, he would slide his arms up the boys’ shorts and assault them.
The three males’s accounts had been supported by a fourth man who wrote into The Australian newspaper in 2007 to say he had been a toddler in Gosford, NSW, throughout the Queen’s official go to to Australia in 1954 when he had witnessed Sir William contact the crotch of one other younger boy.
The 1st Viscount Slim died in 1970 however his son, who inherited his father’s title and his seat within the House of Lords, rubbished the accusations in opposition to his late father.
A lieutenant who had served below him throughout the Burma marketing campaign additionally dismissed the accusations, saying: “We can’t believe that of our great leader. I think it will all waft over and everyone will forget about (the allegations).”
Mr Stephens refused to stay silent and in 2021 he was profitable in getting a significant street in Canberra which had been named after the previous governor normal renamed.
For almost twenty years, Mr Stephens had pushed down Lord Slim Drive to get to and from the artwork gallery he owned. That modified when it turned Gundaroo Drive.
The sense of recognition from that easy title change was enormous for Mr Stephens after struggling in silence for thus lengthy, with him describing it as “cathartic”.
“I think, for me, it was a release of what I had been through in terms of all the problems I had had mentally and physically (that) kept coming back to me,” Mr Stephens defined.
“I thought talking about it sort of (helped) me to deal with it better and better as I got along.”
While Mr Stephens admits his household finds the topic of Fairbridge deeply upsetting after studying the extent to his struggling as a toddler on the farm college, they perceive his must attempt to cease what occurred to him from occurring to another weak kids.
“I generally try to be positive and I try to look beyond what’s happened,” Mr Stephens mentioned.
“There was also a determination that I was never, ever going to allow my children to go through what I went through, and I think that underpinned a lot of what I was doing in speaking out about it.
“It still haunts (my wife). The fact that I’m talking to you (the media), she gets upset by. And I can understand that, but I’ve always believed that what happened should never happen again.
“It’s part of our social history whether we want to admit it or not. We’ve got to do what we can.”
The 80-year-old grandfather mentioned the saga of looking for compensation from the Prince’s Trust for himself and the opposite aged survivors was an “insult”.
“After years and years of not only being at Fairbridge, but then the suffering that a lot of Fairbridge kids have had to go through economically, it’s a pittance, an absolute pittance for what a lot of them would have been through in their lives,” he mentioned.
Despite leaving Fairbridge on the age of 15 having by no means identified a loving household, Mr Stephens went on to have seven kids after assembly the love of his life when he was 18.
Like many Fairbridge children, Mr Stephens might barely learn or write when he left the farm college, however he went on to turn into a profitable businessman along with his personal artwork gallery in Canberra and farm the place he breeds Angus cattle.
He admits attempting to be comfortable in life has been troublesome after the trauma of Fairbridge, however finally believes his life has been a profitable one as a consequence of his spouse of 56 years and the seven kids they raised, all of whom are high-achievers.
“This is where I’ve been incredibly lucky. I’ve had someone who’s stood there behind me… and as a mother, she’s been absolutely amazing. No question about that,” he mentioned.
“I don’t think the children would be where they are today without (her)… I’m very proud of them.
“Trying to be happy in life has been difficult for me but my success is we’ve brought seven children into the world who have been very successful and are contributing in their own way to life and society.”
The Prince’s Trust and Buckingham Palace didn’t reply to PA’s request for remark.
- The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) is a UK-based charity that provides assist for grownup survivors on 0808 801 0331
- The National Male Survivor Helpline is a devoted service for males and boys in England and Wales affected by sexual violence and abuse and people who assist them on 0808 800 5005
- In Australia, survivors of advanced trauma, together with violence, neglect and little one sexual abuse, can obtain assist and assist via the Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380