A former child migrant who broke down giving evidence to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse has called for the "villains" to be named.

David Hill, who waived his anonymity, told the first day of the inquiry there was an "endemic" problem of sexual abuse at Fairbridge Farm School in Molong, Australia.

"Many never recover and are permanently afflicted with guilt, shame, diminished self-confidence, low self-esteem and trauma," he said.

"We will never be able to undo the great wrong done to these children but what is important to survivors of sexual abuse is, where this inquiry is satisfied with the evidence, to name the villains."

Harrowing details of the child migration schemes, which saw thousands of children sent abroad often against their will, were outlined.


The inquiry, chaired by Professor Alexis Jay, was told that it would hear evidence from children who were sent to Commonwealth countries between 1935 and the early 1970s and subjected to horrific physical and sexual abuse.

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Image: The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse is under way

It was told that children, some as young as two, were "put on board ships without being given any real understanding of where they were going or what they were doing".

Many say they were taken without the consent of their parents or guardians, and some were wrongly told they were orphans.

Once the children arrived at their destinations in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), they were placed in institutions or at farm schools where they were put to work.

There they were "subjected to frequently harsh conditions, hard labour and physical abuse by people who were supposed to be responsible for their well-being".

Henrietta Hill QC, told the inquiry that there was "widespread and systematic sexual abuse" of children and that surviving child migrants would give "emotional accounts of decades of pain their experiences have caused".

Children were abused on their journeys, in the placements and during holiday placements, the inquiry was told. They suffered "torture, rape and slavery".

Image: Professor Alexis Jay is leading the inquiry

Speaking on behalf of a former child migrant Oliver Cosgrove, who was sent to Australia in 1941, Imran Khan told the inquiry: "(It was) a scheme to populate the empire with good, white British stock and which led to the physical, emotional and sexual abuse of countless children, many thousands of miles away from their families.

"Those who were abused tried in vain to tell others, who they hoped and believed might assist them. But they didn't."

Around 100,000 children were sent to the Commonwealth countries under the child migration schemes - with the majority (90,000) sent to Canada between 1869 and 1924.

However, the inquiry will investigate the thousands who were sent abroad during and after the Second World War.

The schemes were seen as a way of reducing the cost of caring for destitute children in the UK and meeting the labour shortage in the colonies.

Funded in part by the government and in part by charities, some did see the schemes as a way of rescuing children and giving them better opportunities for the future.

In 2010, then prime minister Gordon Brown apologised for the scheme but the inquiry heard there was still little public knowledge of the brutality of the programmes and the abuse of the children.

Around 2,000 former children migrants are still alive and the inquiry will hear from a number of witnesses about the abuse they suffered.

The public sessions of the inquiry have suffered a series of delays and setbacks - and the resignation of three chairwomen.