Hill, who estimates about a quarter of eligible victims have died since 2018, implored the king to intervene in a letter sent on behalf of survivors group the Old Fairbridgians Association , to correct what he called an “injustice”. last week.
“The agency initially responsible for the sexual, physical and emotional abuse of hundreds of Fairbridge farm children, some as young as five years old, intends to pay each survivor up to around $3,820 (£2,400), or, at In many cases, less than that,” he wrote in the letter seen on this masthead.
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“I can’t begin to tell you how offended, hurt and painful this is for all the old Fairbridge folks who are now in their senior years and nearly all of them have carried the trauma and scars of what they’ve experienced throughout their lives. “
“Many of them have never been able to live anything close to a normal life because of their experience at the Fairbridge institution.”
In a letter to survivors dated May 10, Grant Thornton confirmed that for those claiming “physical, sexual and/or emotional abuse” in Fairbridge’s care, those who have not received other compensation will be awarded about 382, $000 of specified value loss.
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If the claimant has already received payment, that amount will be deducted from the $382,000 figure.
But just six days later, it said the payments would be “a fraction of each admitted claim”.
“This is because there will not be enough money to pay all admitted claims in full, so each creditor with an admitted claim will receive the same fraction of the claim,” the letter said, emphasizing that it would be “approximately 1 %point”.
After Hill’s book was published, survivors filed a class action lawsuit, forgotten childfound that more than 60% of the children in the school had been sexually abused.
In 2018, an independent inquiry into child sexual abuse in the UK found that the UK government and Fairbridge knew about sexual abuse in Australian farm schools as far back as the 1930s. Its final report said: “Fairbridge UK denied responsibility and, at best, deliberately turned a blind eye to the evidence of sexual abuse contained in its own files.”
Former ABC chairman David Hill in 2007.Credit: peter morris
Around the same time, the Australian government released the final report of its royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse. The Prince’s Trust agreed to pay for the state redress scheme, but has missed multiple deadlines to pay remedies to victims.
Buckingham Palace did not respond to a request for comment, while the Prince’s Trust said in a statement: “As dialogue between the Trust and the administrators of Fairbridge (Restored) Limited ended some time ago, I can confirm that if you have any questions please Contact the administrator.”
