Salvation Army major John McIver found guilty of child sexual abuse
A once revered Salvation Army major was entrusted to care for some of the state’s most vulnerable children. Now, he has been found guilty of sickening sexual assaults against the young boys he was meant to protect. Warning: Graphic Content.
St George Shire Standard
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WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT. A once-revered Salvation Army major brutally raped a vulnerable young boy until he bled and sexually toyed with others he was entrusted to care for at a Sydney boys’ home.
Disgraced Salvation Army leader John McIver, 79, was found guilty of four sickening sexual assaults upon defenceless children at Bexley Boys Home by Judge Nanette Williams in a judge-only trial at Parramatta District Court in September.
McIver will be sentenced for two counts of buggery and two counts of indecent assault on December 3.
The most appalling attacks were perpetrated against CN in the ’70s, who was not even five when he moved into the Salvation Army boys’ home in Sydney’s south.
CN told the court the final vile assault, which occurred when McIver caught him rifling through other boys’ lockers, seemed to last “an eternity”.
“McIver turned him around to face the locker,” Judge Williams said.
“The accused penetrated the complainant and ‘stuck his d*** in my bum – he just moved his pelvis’.”
Judge Williams also found McIver raped CN when he found the boy out of bounds.
“He was told to turn around, and the next minute he ‘just felt some shooting pain in my behind’,” Judge Williams said.
CN yelled abuse at McIver as he fled, and later found blood in his underwear.
Despite feeling pain for days afterwards, CN never told anyone what happened.
Judge Williams said CN recalled specific details of his tragic life at the boys’ home, such as the horses kept in a nearby paddock.
“CN remembers going to pat the horses,” Judge Williams said.
“For an extremely young boy who was abandoned at the home, the fact that he could remember patting the horses was a visceral and compelling memory of an otherwise sad, lonely and vulnerable childhood.”
McIver had described the rape allegations as “ridiculous” and cited his 56-year-year marriage to his wife Hazel as evidence.
McIver was also found guilty of publicly prodding a 14-year-old boy’s anus under the guise of checking for worms.
“The accused said to DC ‘you’ve got worms’, and he felt a brush of the hand followed by a prodding in his anus,” Judge Williams said.The court heard DC escaped further punishment after the plucky 14-year-old boy told McIver he’d be “telling everyone at Rockdale what (he’d) done”.
“For a 14-year-old boy whilst naked to be directed to separate his buttock cheeks for inspection for worms in front of older boys was clearly designed to make DC a figure of mockery,’ Judge Williams said.
McIver was also found guilty of forcing an eight-year-old boy named AM to bend over while he was naked in the shower and grabbing his buttocks.
However, McIver was found not guilty of assault causing actual bodily harm when he pushed AM in the showers, causing him to slip and split his head open.
Judge Williams found McIver had caused the boy to slip, but said it could not be established the injury was deliberately caused.
McIver furiously denied the charges in court, arguing with the Crown Prosecutor and even his own lawyer for not defending him rigorously enough.
Judge Williams described his performance as “unimpressive”.
“He presented as controlling, domineering and argumentative in the witness box,” Judge Williams said.
“His lack of reliability on important issues causes me to reject his denials of offending.”
The Salvation Army refused to respond to questions about the verdict, McIver’s employment history and how he came to be promoted to major even after serious questions were raised about his conduct at the Salvation Army boys’ homes in Sydney and Brisbane.
Do you know more about John McIver, or about Bexley Boys Home and Alkira Salvation Army Home For Boys in Indooroopilly? Please email eliza.barr@news.com.au for an on-the-record or anonymous discussion.