Woman Tells of John Oxley Rape – 15 Months After Heiner!
By Bruce Grundy
Another former resident of Brisbane’s notorious John Oxley Youth Detention Centre has told The Independent Monthly she was raped while held in custody in the centre – shortly after her fifteenth birthday in 1991.
The woman said the assault took place on an outing from the Centre at a well-known recreational water reserve and picnic spot an hour’s drive from Brisbane.
She is the fourth woman to have made serious allegations of having been raped, either by John Oxley staff or male residents, during the late 1980s or early 1990s.
The woman said she was taken with a group of other residents and four staff to the picnic spot where members of the group went swimming with inflated car tubes.
She said while in quite deep water her tube had floated away.
A staff member told another resident to get it back for her.
While this was happening he had held her around the waist and had begun rubbing his body against hers.
When the tube arrived, the woman said she had grabbed it with both hands because of the depth of the water.
She said the man had then lifted her off her feet, pulled aside her bathing costume and had raped her.
Because she had to hold on to the tube to keep her head out of the water she had not been able to prevent the rape nor retaliate in any way.
After several minutes the man released her and she immediately left the water.
The woman said she been had not had such an experience before.
She had been in addition to what had happened to her, she had trying to keep her head above the water.
She was frightened, confused and shocked and began crying.
The man told her not to say anything to anyone about what had happened.
When he left her, she got out of the water.
As she did, she discovered she was bleeding.
She wrapped a towel around herself and went straight to the Centre’s mini-van and sat huddled in one of the seats for the rest of the outing.
The man had told her to get out and have some lunch because her behaviour was being seen as strange and suspicious. But she refused to do so.
Back at the Centre she said she had gone straight to her room.
She did not shower or go to dinner – nor to breakfast. She did not speak to anyone.
Because she was so silent and withdrawn, she said, a male resident had been sent to see what was the matter with her.
She said did not want to see him and told him he wouldn’t understand because something bad happened to her in the water.
A member of staff had come in and said her had overheard what she had said and that he would out it on report.
She locked herself in the bathroom and did not venture out until smoko the next day.
At smoko she saw the boy who had come to her room and told him she did not like what had happened to her and mentioned the man’s name.
The boy had immediately wanted to confront the man.
She had grabbed him to stop him and screamed at him not to get her into trouble.
The men had grabbed her and struggled as she fought and kicked to get her back to her room.
When they got her inside she was desperately angry and unhappy and had trashed the room and all her possessions.
Another man came with handcuffs which he managed to get on one wrist and the four then carried her struggling and fighting to the timeout room.
They had opened the door and swinging her between them tossed her into the room.
Later that night she was taken back to her room and she fell asleep among the mess.
Next morning she cleaned up the mess and later went to lunch where she picked at her meal.
At lunch three girls came and sat surrounding her.
They were laughing, insulting and stirring her.
One punched her on the face.
The staff moved in to stop any further fighting.
That night she was sitting with another girl playing cards when a phone call came in from a friend on the outside.
He could tell she was upset and pressed her to explain.
She whispered to him what had happened.
But one of the three girls who had taunted her at lunch overheard the conversation on the phone.
When she went back to continue playing cards the three girls set on her and began beating her up.
She was king-hit, scored and black eye and suffered an immediate asthma attack.
Staff locked her in her room and gave her Ventolin.
She stayed in her room until she was released.
The girls sent her notes threatening to kill her if she talked.
The woman said she was interviewed by the manager who said he had been told things by the boy she had spoken to on the night of the outing and the staff member who had overheard their conversation.
The woman said that because she was scared of what would happen to her she had denied anything had happened.
The manager said there was one easy way to find out – get a doctor.
She had then told him what had happened.
A doctor came and examined her.
They gave her some tablets but she was terrified they might make her a zombie or even kill her, the woman said. She did not swallow them.
Later she was taken to the manager’s office. The man who had raped her was there. The manager asked him what he had to say. Eventually he hasd said something happened but he would not say what.
The manager said he had two choice: resign or be sacked.
The man said he would resign and was told to collect his things and go.
It was April 19, 1991.
The manager wrote a report.
It was not until two-and-a-half months later that the Director General advised the Criminal Justice Commission.
A week later they said that since the man was no longer a public servant, it was nothing to do with them.
The police said, since the girl would not talk (because of the bashing and notes she had received from the three girls) there was nothing they could do.
Her life descended into a spiral of self destruction.
She is now getting her self esteem, her confidence and herself back together once again. Has a loving and supporting husband and looks forward to two things – getting her children back -- and seeing the man who raped her dealt with properly.
Editor’s Note: In 1990, 15 months before this incident, the Goss government shut down an inquiry into the John Oxley Youth Detention Centre and shredded all the evidence it had gathered. They moved the manager at the time and said any problems there may have been at the centre had been fixed. This woman whose story appears above is the second we know of to have been raped as a child on an excursion from the centre and the fourth female resident to have suffered such a fate while held in custody in that place. We have been told of others.
