A FORMER Hamilton student has spoken out about being sexually assaulted by a Kent Road Primary School teacher around 50 years ago and wants to encourage other victims to come forward.

Carol Johnstone now lives in Mount Beauty and like many others troubled by their past, hopes to help them find a journey through their experiences being brought into the light, to achieve some level of closure.

With the $45,000 she has received from the National Redress Scheme (NRS) from her case, she knows money can’t undo the past, but the recognition of her pain, along with the knowledge she was not alone, can have an ameliorative effect.

The NRS was the result of a recommendation by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that acknowledged many children were sexually abused in Australian institutions, recognised the suffering they endured because of this abuse, and aims to hold institutions accountable for this abuse.

It delivered a final report to the Governor-General after a five-year inquiry in December 2017, which included receiving 42,041 phone calls, 25,964 letters and emails, and held 8013 private sessions.

2575 cases were referred to authorities, including police.

The NRS made three components of redress available to victims - access to counselling, a direct personal response (including an apology), and a payment from less than $10,000 through to $150,000.

With the stories the Royal Commission heard about the abuse they experienced as children, they drew up an Action Plan that aimed to improve take up and quality of direct personal responses provided to survivors of institutional childhood sexual abuse.

For Carol, with her abuse so long ago and her life now affected by stage four breast cancer, she said, “I’m not going too well at the moment” – her claim to the NRS was expedited, something she felt great relief about.

She first found out about the NRS on social media when a woman posted about her case in another Victorian town and Carol realised the perpetrator was the same person as the one who abused her.

After Carol offered to help out by way of a statutory declaration, the woman’s lawyers also encouraged her to go ahead with a claim of her own, and the revelation there were multiple victims from the other school also played a part in her decision to go ahead.

In the process, Carol said she did a lot of research and found many other victims and witnesses from Kent Rd, all the while conscious of her “cancer on the move” in order to complete the application in a timely manner.

This involved filling out a statutory declaration and proving she attended the school before a claim could be made via the court system or the NRS.

“The most confronting thing was to write about how it had affected my life,” Carol said.

“Apart from that it was a relatively easy process to go through.”

With her NRS case outcome finalised, she was now looking to embolden and reassure others who were victims in Hamilton to come forward too, although she recognised some people don’t want to relive the past.

“There are probably many more victims out there, I’d just like them to be able to access help from the NRS if they wish,” Carol said.

“From my messenger and phone conversations with other past students, it’s possibly 50/50; those that just want to continue as they have been for the last 50 years and those that want some assistance from (the) NRS.”

She conceded some applicants may find it hard to wait longer than she did for a resolution, but she said getting their abuse recognised at an official level could be extremely helpful for many.

“The money is nothing to be sneezed at,” Carol said.

“But also an apology - some people would find really, really good.

“I didn’t really apply because I wanted the money (but) I did want what happened to be acknowledged.”

In her case, the closure of Kent Road since 2002 has meant the apology will come from the authority which governed the school, now The Department of Education and Training.

Carol said she felt strongly about making sure the money would be used for the benefit of other victims of abuse.

“I decided I would donate the $45,000 to a couple of organisations that could help people in the areas where that teacher did harm,” she said.

One of those organisations was Emma House, based in Warrnambool, but also servicing surrounding areas which include Hamilton.

Emma House corporate services manager, Jo Doman, was taken aback to take the call when Carol offered them $25,000.

“She just rang us out of the blue one day and said that she wanted to donate money,” she said.

“She wanted it specifically to go to women and children that were in the Hamilton region.

“So, we had a conversation around … the sort of things we would use the money for.

“I gave her an assurance we would quarantine it as she has requested, and I’ve made an ongoing arrangement – I have her husband’s email address and as we spend money … I will give him a bit of an update on the sort of things we’ve spent it on.”

Ms Doman said she has only been at Emma House about 18 months and has been pleasantly surprised at how generous the community has been with donations, but this was “obviously … a significant amount of money”.

“It’s incredibly generous,” she said.

“For a lady that is coming to the end of her life, that she’s thinking of others and how she can help people that have had similar experiences.”

Carol said that she has found about 20 witnesses and victims from the cohort of Kent Rd students in the late 60s to early 70s but she has “run out of time” and wanted her story public in order to help others to come forward.

She said her health was deteriorating to the point where just a few weeks ago her husband was told one night she had hours to live, but she has managed to pull through.

“I’ve got advanced breast cancer – it’s in my liver, bones and lungs,” she said.

“I was recently put in a coma for a little while as my body was shutting down due to sepsis and pneumonia.”

She said she’s already lived longer than the doctors have expected – “there’s an awful lot of resources gone into keeping me alive” and she was grateful to the support of her family through both the NRS application and her illness.

But the motivation for her was clear, whether it be the money helping others through organisations like Emma House or giving the NRS more exposure to facilitate healing, be it for victims or witnesses alike.

“I sort of see it as a little bit of a quest on my own behalf to let people know that perhaps they weren’t the only ones,” she said.

The commemorative book, ‘Message to Australia’, received contributions from more than 1000 victims who courageously told their story to the Royal Commission, and is a public record of their emotional journey and can be viewed online at    bit.ly/3GajL1C.

More information about the NRS can be found at nationalredress.gov.au – the scheme started on July 1, 2018 and will run for 10 years.