Current Mullighan Inquiry - South Australia

The Children in State Care Commission of Inquiry (the Mullighan Inquiry) was established in November 2004 to investigate allegations of sexual abuse and death from criminal misconduct of children in State care.

The Hon Ted Mullighan, QC, former justice of the Supreme Court, was appointed as Commissioner. Commissioner Mullighan submitted his final report to the Governor of South Australia on 31 March 2008.

There were 809 hearings over the inquiry's three years, and their evidence has led to the police investigation of 434 alleged abusers, 14 of which went before the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Prefacing his 564-page report, the commissioner wrote "Nothing prepared me for the foul undercurrent of society revealed in the evidence to the inquiry, I had no understanding of the widespread prevalence of the sexual abuse of children in South Australia and its frequent devastating and often lifelong consequences for many of them."

80 year suppression orders were placed over most of the detail.

There is an active drive to have those suppression orders lifted.



Eventually, abusers and paedophiles became so emboldened they would ring care facilities and demand certain children be let out. It really is awful reading.
 
Mar 21, 2016
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I have read some of the extracts available and it makes terrible reading

But there needs to be clarity on the numbers thrown around previously

ie page 21

There were 171 deaths of children while placed in institutions; 124 while in foster care or similar placements; 21 when the children had absconded from their placement and 77 when the children were on probation to their parents. There were 15 allegations of criminal conduct as the substantial cause of death, which were investigated by the Inquiry

171 + 124 = 295
98 outside of state care but under the protection

Only 15 of these deaths were asked to be criminally investigated

Suicides would be the vast number and accidents/overdoses the remainder
 
Mar 21, 2016
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I am one opposed to the suppression orders and ask the SA Government to undo the Suppressions. We have a right to know




( the only reason I can think of SOME suppressions is where there is doubt the allegations are not the stuff of fantasists ie Marshall etc )
 

bluegirlz

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No words.

Child victims really hurt, it is on par with people who deliberately torture and maim animals for fun with me. 😢

Close to 600 pages is gonna be a solid read though. Suppression orders can fu** off, these putrid creatures and their enablers need to be shamed.
Ive read it, disgusting read & the government have a lot to answer for!
 

bluegirlz

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I am one opposed to the suppression orders and ask the SA Government to undo the Suppressions. We have a right to know




( the only reason I can think of SOME suppressions is where there is doubt the allegations are not the stuff of fantasists ie Marshall etc )
I totally agree with you. I also believe the report should be made public.

I did have a conversation with a lady some time ago, who was an assistant for the inquiry. She suggested the reasoning for the suppression order was due to the fact some of these victims were ashamed of what happened, some had never told their story before & no-one knew of their abuse & some never wanted charges laid, just wanted to be able to be heard & someone just to acknowledge ‘it actually happened’.

i never actually believed that because at the time of the inquiry, there was no intention to supress the report, so either a) it was always going to be supressed or b) she didnt want to admit the reasoning for the supression order was because of the names involved.

Some perps werent named by name, rather by a nickname or a reference to the perp (such as stinky breath or whatever) so no actual name was to the inquiry. In some instances, the children were so drugged, they were unable to actually identify them & on some occasions, there were so many perps, they just ‘switched off’.

But in all probability, it was supressed due to the people & places named in the inquiry. And there would be some big names in there. Magistrate Peter Liddy was active at that time and there has been many accusations of law circles being involved as well as high ranking officers, business people, ‘The Family’ almost all walks of life. ‘Mother Goose’ (Symonds) was one of the two charged with offences out of the whole inquiry! Two..thats it?

I also do know at some ‘parties’ photos were taken of perps in compromising situations and used as blackmail against them. Still, there was no excuse for their actions and shouldve been held accountable.

Some may have had ‘false allegations’ made against them, but in my view,I wouldnt imagine there would be that many, as the abuse was rife, nothing needed to be made up.

All in all, the whole system failed these children over the decades & there are no words to describe the abuse on all levels that these kids went through. Its no wonder so many developed drug and alcohol problems later in life. The government owes them all so much more than a bit of money, although they did arrange counselling for victims, but who knows fohow long that was for.

Marshall, he is a funny one. Some of his allegations make your skin crawl & he has actually been proven right many times, even though sapol refer to his allegations as ‘fantasies’, but they have to say that, otherwise they will need to investigate ALL his allegations. I have actually heard phone tapes of him recounting information given to the inquiry & he does not waiver his recount.
 

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I have read some of the extracts available and it makes terrible reading

But there needs to be clarity on the numbers thrown around previously

ie page 21

There were 171 deaths of children while placed in institutions; 124 while in foster care or similar placements; 21 when the children had absconded from their placement and 77 when the children were on probation to their parents. There were 15 allegations of criminal conduct as the substantial cause of death, which were investigated by the Inquiry

171 + 124 = 295
98 outside of state care but under the protection

Only 15 of these deaths were asked to be criminally investigated

Suicides would be the vast number and accidents/overdoses the remainder
"Only 15 of these deaths were asked to be criminally investigated" is why the suppression orders are in place. They're not there to protect the guilty, they're there to protect the innocent.
 

bluegirlz

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"Only 15 of these deaths were asked to be criminally investigated" is why the suppression orders are in place. They're not there to protect the guilty, they're there to protect the innocent.
I’m not sure thats the reasoning, there were plenty of offences that were referred for investigation. Thats still doesnt justify the 80 yr supression order & if thats the reasoning, they couldve applied the supression to the deaths?
 
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I’m not sure thats the reasoning, there were plenty of offences that were referred for investigation. Thats still doesnt justify the 80 yr supression order & if thats the reasoning, they couldve applied the supression to the deaths?

Has anybody, an investigative journalist for example ever applied to have the suppression orders lifted? Do we even know how many there are or is there some sort of special blanket order?
 

bluegirlz

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Has anybody, an investigative journalist for example ever applied to have the suppression orders lifted? Do we even know how many there are or is there some sort of special blanket order?
I’m not 100% sure, I’ll see what I can find. Its an interesting question because I wonder who sent Marshall’s letter/maps to The Advertiser in 2007? It was what he submitted to the Inquiry.
 
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Investigative journalism in SA died when Graham Archer retired.

Debi Marshall had some success in the South Australia courts getting orders lifted on the Family Murders, she found out how many there were and chose which ones to apply for.

Royal Commission protection orders might be a different kettle of fish, I'm not quite sure.
 

bluegirlz

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"Only 15 of these deaths were asked to be criminally investigated" is why the suppression orders are in place. They're not there to protect the guilty, they're there to protect the innocent.
It read it as :
There were 15 allegations of criminal conduct as the substantial cause of death, which were investigated by the Inquiry.
 
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It read it as :
There were 15 allegations of criminal conduct as the substantial cause of death, which were investigated by the Inquiry.
Out of the 171 deaths that occurred he found some of those had no cause of death or insufficient cause was listed like broken bones for example.

Out of 600 pages, around 200 were released to public. It's been a while since I've read them but couldn't find an index of those 171 deaths which lists ages, gender, cause and dates of death. Did you see one or was this part of the suppressed pages?
 

bluegirlz

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Out of the 171 deaths that occurred he found some of those had no cause of death or insufficient cause was listed like broken bones for example.

Out of 600 pages, around 200 were released to public. It's been a while since I've read them but couldn't find an index of those 171 deaths which lists ages, gender, cause and dates of death. Did you see one or was this part of the suppressed pages?
Im thinking that may be a supressed because that hsppens a bit. I also came across another link that was called similar to : mulligan secondary report into a specific allegations’ or somehing but link doesnt work..i wonder if that the report indicating persons & finding/referrals?
 
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Out of the 171 deaths that occurred he found some of those had no cause of death or insufficient cause was listed like broken bones for example.
He found only 15 deaths that had allegations of criminal conduct



an index of those 171 deaths which lists ages, gender, cause and dates of death.
Why is this important? Dont you feel that could identify the victims? The one thing the report goes to great lengths is the suppression on identity of the victims
 

bluegirlz

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He found only 15 deaths that had allegations of criminal conduct




Why is this important? Dont you feel that could identify the victims? The one thing the report goes to great lengths is the suppression on identity of the victims
Being a minor would have a supression on it anyway. But I have read plenty of reports that supresses enough detail not to identify the victims aswell.
 
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bluegirlz

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Ki Meekins wrote a book - Red Tape Rape if you want a a first hand account of The Takeaway Children of the 1970s, 80s.
I have just finished reading this book, bloody sad. Our system exploited these kids and pushed them back into the corner. No-one said anything because no-one listened. Highlights the importance of listening to everyone and not to disregard their claims. Thats what the court system is for.

If Ki didn’t standup and push for the departments to recognise their failure to the kids, they would’ve swept it back under the carpet - again.

As Ki stated, it was important for other victims to see he was being believed and listened to for once in their life. After being ignored and called liars most of their lives, someone finally listened and acted. It was important to him to come forward publically, so other victims could see his success and come forward with their claims.

This report needs to be made public.
 

charlie20

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Investigative journalism in SA died when Graham Archer retired.
did graham archer ever mount a campaign, via today tonight, to have these suppression orders lifted? he waged war against the authorities for decades over van beelen, keogh, and bromley, for instance, in the interests of justice and the public's right to know the truth, but what about the mulligan info?
 

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did graham archer ever mount a campaign, via today tonight, to have these suppression orders lifted? he waged war against the authorities for decades over van beelen, keogh, and bromley, for instance, in the interests of justice and the public's right to know the truth, but what about the mulligan info?
Not sure what he did with getting the suppression lifted but he had a huge impact on getting the Mulligan Commission going... Putting pressure on the government every week. Look up the shows he did about Takeaway Children. The rest of the media were embarrassingly quiet.
 

bluegirlz

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Not sure what he did with getting the suppression lifted but he had a huge impact on getting the Mulligan Commission going... Putting pressure on the government every week. Look up the shows he did about Takeaway Children. The rest of the media were embarrassingly quiet.
They will never lift the ban...too manu people to expose if they did - IMO..
 
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