Survivor's tale of terror at Bindoon

The royal commission will continue in Perth, and will focus on Christian Brothers-run residences. Source: AAP

A SURVIVOR of severe sexual and physical abuse at a Christian Brothers boys institution in Western Australia says the orphanage was "devoid of love" and run by men who believed the children were born of the devil.

John Hennessey has told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse that when he was 12 he was publicly stripped and nearly flogged to death by a Christian Brother while at St Joseph's Farm and Trade School, Bindoon.

"No one came to my aid," said a visibly upset Mr Hennessey, the first witness at the 11th case study examined by the commission.

"I am now left with a stutter."

The man who beat him, Brother Paul Keaney, also repeatedly sexually abused Mr Hennessey.

When Mr Hennessey - who later became deputy mayor of Campbelltown, NSW - was first brought to Australia at age 11 he was told he would be able to ride kangaroos to school and there would be lots of fruit.

"From the time I arrived at Bindoon, there was no love," he said.

"I realised there was no kangaroos, there was no fruit."

The Christian Brothers said they wanted to make a man out of him.

"'We don't want you to grow up as Satan's children,'" Mr Hennessey said he was told.

Instead boys were passed around between brothers at the home for sexual gratification.

Boys were forced to sleep on an outdoor concrete veranda. The brothers would also eat lavish food, while the boys were forced to eat porridge and bread dipped in dripping.

"I would do anything and let anyone do anything to me, just for a feed," Mr Hennessey said, becoming visibly upset.

"It made me steal, it made me feel ashamed and angry.

"I was exploited and abused by criminals safe in knowing that the state government and church were my legal guardians and would never bother to meet their responsibilities."

Mr Hennessey repeatedly broke down during his evidence, at one point declining to read out a paragraph detailing one aspect of his abuse.

As he spoke, sobs could be heard from the rear of the room.

Mr Hennessey did not see his mother for 57 years after he was forcibly removed from Bristol, England, for Australia.

The order changed his name and reduced his age by three years, making it extremely difficult to locate his mother. He eventually met her six years before she died.

He said for years he thought of Brother Keaney as a father but he lived in constant fear of the beatings - usually meted out with specially made leather straps with bits of metal sewn in.

Boys at the school were also forced into hard labour and a complex network of gangs sprang up, created by religious brothers picking favourite boys "as pets".

"Every day was a fight for survival," Mr Hennessey said.

Boys at the school would also sexually abuse each other, he said.

Mr Hennessey eventually received about $45,000 from Redress WA, a state government scheme set up to recognise the harm suffered by children in the homes.

But he said changes to the scheme to reduce the maximum amount paid to victims to $45,000 from $80,000 left him feeling betrayed.

The hearings continue.

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