King Charles’ ‘insult’ to Australian child sex abuse survivors

The settlement has been offered to hundreds of children who were removed from poor British families by the UK government and sent to “farm schools” in Australia and Canada, where they believed they would receive “opportunity and education”.

Instead, many of the children suffered horrific child sexual abuse, public floggings and emotional cruelty.

The Prince’s Trust — a charity founded by King Charles and of which he is now the president — is legally liable for the survivors’ claims because it took over Fairbridge, another charity whose previous iteration ran the farm schools, in 2012.

Last year, the UK high court put the value of the compensation claims at around £204,000 ($382,000) for each child abuse survivor — but survivors have been told they’ll receive less than one per cent of that due to “insufficient moneys” put aside by the Prince’s Trust.

The payment was called “outrageous and grossly unfair” and an “insult” by survivors’ representatives, who urged King Charles to intervene.

The Old Fairbridgians Association, a group that represents the survivors, has written a scathing letter to the King.

In the letter, reported by the Guardian, David Hill implored the King to correct what he called an “injustice” by his former charity.

Mr Hill was sent to an Australian farm school in the 1950s aged just 12, and says he was subjected to illegal treatment and public floggings. He has since settled in Australia.

“The body which bears the initial responsibility for the sexual, physical and emotional abuse of hundreds of Fairbridge farm children, some as young as five years of age, intends to pay each survivors an amount of up to approximately $3820 or, in many cases, less than that,” Mr Hill wrote.

“I cannot begin to tell you how offensive, hurtful and distressing this is to all Old Fairbridgians, all of whom are now elderly and nearly all of whom have borne the trauma and scarring from their experiences throughout the whole of their lives. Many of them have never been able to live anything approaching normal lives as a result of their experiences at Fairbridge institutions.”

The Prince’s Trust is understood to have put aside £1.275m ($2.42m) for the Fairbridge Restored scheme, having received 328 applications from survivors of sexual abuse at the Fairbridge farm schools who were still alive after March 2020, or their families.

The survivors further allege that the Prince’s Trust has stalled on handing out payments, meaning that many survivors may die before receiving compensation.

Political commentator Scarlett Mccgwire said the lack of funds showed the King’s lack of generosity.

Speaking on GB News, she said: “These are people who have had awful lives. A lot of them will be affected for the rest of their lives.”

“What was done was appalling and they deserve some compensation. What gets me about The Princes’ Trust is that Charles never puts his hand in the pocket for anything. He’s not the most generous of people.”

The Fairbridge Society dates back to 1909, when it was created as part of a plan to address child poverty and boost British presence in the colonies.

A 2018 report by the independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse found that Fairbridge had failed to protect children from sexual abuse at four farm schools in Australia, Canada and Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).

It called the child migration programs “a deeply flawed policy that caused lifelong damage to many children”.

King Charles was photographed socialising at the Prince’s Trust Awards, hosted at Buckingham Palace, just last week. Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the survivors’ claims, when contacted by multiple media outlets.