From: Inside Queendland, March 1998
MANTELPIECES are great places for stickybeaks. What people put on their mantelpieces often says as much about them as can be gleaned from an hour of conversation.
Mantelpieces are where treasures and achievements and awards reside -- along with the photographs, frozen in time, of the proud or precious moments of the lives of those whose mantelpiece it is.
"Dan's" mantelpiece is certainly one of those. And more. It proudly declares to all that its owner is a victim of Neerkol. For framed amidst the other memorabilia of his life stands an apology, the apology from the current Sisters of Mercy for the wretched behaviour of their sister nuns at that institution.
But for Dan, as for many of the others, the apology does not obliterate the past. The apology does not heal the hurt. The apology does not staunch the bleeding for lost childhood, innocence and opportunity.
As one victim said: "If you stand on someone's toe, you say you're sorry. How do you say sorry for what they did to us?"
How indeed?
How do they say sorry for Father Anderson?
Father Anderson was the ultimate hypocrite, preaching a gospel of love, especially for the victims of life's misfortunes, and all the while abusing those he was supposed to nurture and care for - children, children who had nothing, and no one, in this world. Orphans.
Neerkol orphanage was a place made for a paedophile like Father Anderson. His appetite for boys was great and he could indulge to his heart's content. There was no shortage of boys to start with and they were the perfect victims. You could promise them eternal damnation, and certainly a flogging from the nuns, if they talked.
Even the man from the department could be relied on to protect you. You could do with these boys exactly as you liked. And he did, and what Father Anderson liked was depraved.
Three of father Anderson's victims have spoken about their shocking treatment at the hands of this man of God.
David Owen's story is reported separately.
"Dan" suffered an almost identical fate. He too was chosen to be an altar boy. He had to go to the presbytery for Latin lessons. He was 9 or 10 years old.
Soon he found the lessons were conducted on Fr Anderson's knee. And then his teacher had a headache and he had to lie down on the bed with him. An attempt was then made to rape him. But there was too much pain and the boy tried to run out of the room.
He was caught and taken for a shower. After that he was forced to give the priest oral sex whenever it was his "turn" to go to the presbytery. The abuse continued for years.
Dan says he "often" told the nuns he did not want to go up to the presbytery but would be grabbed by the ear and forced to go. He told them what was happening to him but was beaten "really hard" and told not to say such things about a priest and to stop telling lies.
Like David Owen, Dan too had to go to confession and tell Fr Anderson about his "impurity". He was asked who the "impurity" had been with and when the boy told him, the man hearing the confession said it wasn't an impurity to do it with a priest because he was a man of God.
Dan was also forced to provide sex for Fr Anderson in his car.
The priest used to serve mass in the towns in the parish and took an altar boy from the orphanage with him. Dan's story coincides exactly with the experiences of David Owen.
On one occasion after complaining to one of the senior nuns Dan was locked in a cupboard.
When he was released he was met by one of the workmen with a stock whip. It was the same man who had flogged David Owen in front of the whole orphanage.
Dan was flogged until he was bleeding all over -- legs, back and bottom. That was what you got for complaining.
At the time Dan didn't know men and women were different … until the day he was taken to bed by a nun. She wanted a completely different set of things done to her.
Dan cannot forget. The apology does not put his childhood, nor his life, back together.
And then there is 'Gareth'...
Gareth had problems with Father Anderson too.
His were almost identical with those of David and Dan.
Gareth's story is set out in a file in the Supreme Court Registry in Brisbane. It is a public document. The file contains a great deal of interesting information about Neerkol.
Gareth's father was killed in an accident at work. He had tried to help a workmate and both died. Gareth's mother had great difficulty making ends meet and some of the children were put into Neerkol. Gareth vividly remembers the shock of seeing what happened in that place. And that was only a start.
Gareth was just a little boy when he was told one day after mass to go to the presbytery. Poor kid - poor little innocent kid. Father Anderson undressed him, took the holy oil and rubbed him with it -- all over.
Gareth thought he was going to be anointed or something. The rest of the story is, as one would expect, awful. In short Gareth was raped. Just a little boy.
From then on Gareth would get a call to go to the presbytery once every couple of weeks. He would tremble with fear but if he said anything, the Man of God told him he would be put in the lime pit. There was a large pile of bags of lime at Neerkol (no one yet has been able to explain what it was used for, although lime has various uses on farms). Gareth thought the threat was real.
After his first visit, the nuns were given to understand that Gareth was the priest's "special one". This meant that he was seldom belted in the same way that other kids were. Like so many others he tried to run away but the police caught him and took him back -- for the mandatory flogging.
Gareth's torment at the hands of Father Anderson went on every fortnight until he left. Fortunately his mother's circumstances changed and he and his brother and sister were taken back into the bosom of his family.
In 1995 Gareth instituted court proceedings against the Sisters of Mercy and the Church. The judge ruled against extending the statute of limitations to allow the civil case to be heard and awarded costs against Ga-reth.
Father Anderson was dead.
Had he been alive, it is likely he would have faced serious charges. In view of the criminal nature of matters involved, the statute of limitations would not apply.
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