Report on sexual abuse in Australian naval base tabled

Sydney, June 18 (IANS/EFE) Hundreds of teenaged naval recruits were abused physically and sexually between 1960 and 1984 at Leeuwin naval base in southwest Australia, according to a report presented before the Australian parliament in Canberra Wednesday.

The special panel investigating the navy's response to the abuses in the armed forces is headed by former Judge Len Roberts-Smith.

It examined the cases of more 200 enlisted recruits in Leeuwin and has referred two cases to the police, ABC reported.

The report, consisting details of the abuses and testimonies of the victims, indicates the possibility that some of the perpetrators may still be working in the defence sector.

The report states that the abuses committed in the naval training base are far more extensive than what is known till date and the authorities did nothing to stop the assaults.

The head of the investigating panel said that teenagers up to 15 years of age were victims of "an extraordinary level of physical and sexual abuse" and many even tried to report them without luck.

"They were effectively discouraged and were often victims of staff or peers. Those who did not complain at that time, which would be the majority, did not because they knew perfectly well what would happen," Roberts-Smith told ABC after presenting the report.

The victims, who at present are around 60 years of age, "have lived with the trauma of what happened to them and the fact that they have not been able to tell anyone", said Roberts-Smith.

This panel was formed in 2012 to investigate all abuse cases within the Australian Defence Forces, although special emphasis was put on the abuses at the Leeuwin base.

In 2012, the then Labour government headed by Julia Gillard apologised to all the victims of sexual abuse and other forms of harassment or aggression committed within the armed forces.

This gesture was motivated by a report ordered by the government to the DLA Piper law firm to examine the 847 accusations of sexual abuse, harassment and other types of assault allegedly committed within the armed forces.

The Australian navy recruited children aged 13 years during the 1950s and 1960s while in all the other branches of the army children aged 15 years were recruited until the beginning of 1980.

--IANS/EFE

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