Salvation Army’s John McIver granted bail after child abuse conviction
A disgraced former Salvation Army major who brutally abused vulnerable boys at a care home will appeal after he was sentenced to several years in jail for his crimes.
St George Shire Standard
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A disgraced former Salvation Army major who brutally raped vulnerable children at a Sydney boys’ home has been granted bail four months after he was sentenced to almost a decade behind bars.
John McIver, 79, was found guilty of four sickening sexual assaults upon defenceless boys at the Salvation Army’s Bexley Boys Home by Judge Nanette Williams at Parramatta District Court in September.
He was sentenced in December for two counts of buggery and two counts of indecent assault to an aggregate prison term of nine years and six months from the day he was found guilty and jailed in September 2019, with a non-parole period of five years, eight months and 28 days.
McIver would not have been eligible for parole until June 9, 2025 – but he has now been granted bail ahead of an appeal after serving only seven months and one day of his sentence.
He is now confined to house arrest at his Richmond home 24 hours a day until his appeal and cannot leave except in the event of a medical emergency.
The St George Shire Standard attempted to speak with McIver at his modest brick cottage in a quiet cul-de-sac in Sydney’s Hawkesbury region before an unknown person within the home quietly closed the front door.
Figures could be seen moving around inside the home behind white lace curtains and several vehicles were parked in the front driveway.
McIver perpetrated his most appalling attacks in the 1970s against a boy referred to as CN, who was not even five years old 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.
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.
“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.
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.