Biography of child migrant about abuse published in Australia — ABC News Australia
A book titled Johno has been published in Australia — a biography of 83-year-old Norman Johnston, who was transferred from a British orphanage to Western Australia at the age of seven after World War II. Written by his former wife, Kathleen O'Reilly Johnston, the publication recounts abuse that he says he suffered in institutions run by the Christian Brothers.
As ABC News Australia reports, the book was released during Child Protection Week. Johnston was one of thousands of children sent from the United Kingdom to Australia after the war to help rebuild the country with “good British stock”.
Time in orphanages
Johnston spent more than six years at the Castledare junior orphanage in Wilson, and later stayed at Clontarf in Perth. According to him, these institutions stripped him of his identity and subjected him to physical abuse. He said children could be beaten publicly, including for a dirty sweater.
Johnston also said he nearly drowned in the Canning River after witnessing the sexual abuse of another boy. He alleged that one of the brothers took him to the middle of the river, forcibly submerged him underwater and left him there, although he could not swim.
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Work on the book
At the age of 15, Johnston was deemed too old for education and sent to work on a farm. He lived in a windowless shed and, according to him, worked 100 hours a week for two pounds five shillings until a social worker came to see him two and a half years later.
Johnston later joined the army and served in Vietnam. Kathleen O'Reilly Johnston recorded his testimony over several years, compared his recollections with historical sources, and each time gave the manuscript to Johnston for review. Before printing, she separately asked whether he agreed to disclose the episodes of sexual abuse; he decided to keep them in the text as an important part of his own story.
The history of British child migrants had previously been the subject of a parliamentary inquiry in the United Kingdom. The Christian Brothers apologized to victims in Western Australia in the 1990s and reached an out-of-court settlement with some of them, while other survivors successfully sued the institutions.
