THE Catholic Diocese of Bathurst says it wants to hear from a Sydney man who  claims he was physically abused at the former Croagh Patrick boys’ home in Orange in the 1960s.

As a former child resident of Croagh Patrick, Garry Wright wants a voice for children physically abused in institutions to be heard at the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse announced earlier this year.

He says he is still wrestling with the demons of his memories of years spent at Croagh Patrick in Orange in 1967 and 1968 where, he says, boys as young as five were “flogged” with a cane for what could be considered today as a small misdemeanour.

After being contacted by the Central Western Daily in relation to Mr Wright’s allegations, a diocesan spokeswoman said it encouraged Mr Wright and any other former child residents who had a complaint to contact the Bathurst office.

“The diocese has no record of a complaint from Mr Wright but we would urge him and others to come forward,” diocesan secretary Fiona Lewis said.

Mr Wright told the CWD he had a deprived childhood as one of six children born to alcoholic parents but his removal by welfare authorities to a Catholic-run institution left him unable to form loving relationships.

“I didn’t turn out to be any good as a father - I was an alcoholic and I didn’t have any role models to follow,” he said.

He says as a student of De La Salle College and St Mary’s Catholic Primary School there was no respite from physical abuse.

“We were flogged at school and then when we came home at night or at weekends, you got flogged again - you just never knew when your next hiding was coming,” he said.

He said at first he attended the all-boys De La Salle College in Summer Street opposite the fire station.

“I was told because I couldn’t read I had to be put back to St Mary’s because I was behind the other boys because of my background,” he said.

“When I got back to Croagh Patrick the head nun called me in and told me and I was caned for that - I didn’t understand it because I didn’t think it was my fault,” he said.

Today Mr Wright is undergoing counselling funded by the state and federal governments. Through his counsellor at Relationships Australia he advertised in the CWD in the hope of meeting up with others who were put in the boys’ home.

“There was no sexual abuse that I know of that went on and I want to make that quite clear,” he said.

“But we lived in constant fear of being flogged.”

Mr Wright said he had a vivid memory of one of the Catholic priests standing in front of the assembly and holding up straps which he threatened to use on the boys if they disobeyed rules or stepped  out of line.

“He told us he had six of them made and they were used regularly to flog us across the backside and the back of the legs,” he said.

Mr Wright said the priests’ abuse didn’t stop there.

“It was nothing for us to be hit across the back of the head or the side of the head with their hand,” he said.

He said the boys at Croagh Patrick did not want for food or clothing.

“But if you didn’t eat your meal it would be taken away and served up again at every meal after until you ate it,” he said.

After he had been at the orphanage for a number of months, Mr Wright was given the task of showing new boys around and helping to teach them the rules.

“Even if the new boys wet the toilet seat that would mean a flogging with the cane,” he said.

He said the discipline handed out by the nuns was humiliating and degrading.

“We had to take our trousers off and lie across our bed to be belted on the backside with the cane if we were told we’d done something wrong,” he said.

“The nuns were vicious,” he said.

Mr Wright said he always felt sorry for boys who tried to run away but were invariably returned by police.

“There was a shed out the back of Croagh Patrick and a boy would be put in there for two or three days as discipline with hardly any food,” he said.

He sadly reflects on weekends which was the loneliest time at Croagh Patrick.

“Many of the kids would have someone come and visit them,” Mr Wright said.

“Every Saturday I would sit on the front step and wait but no one ever came.”

As he grew older Mr Wright was returned to his parents who he said struggled with their alcohol addiction throughout their life.

Croagh Patrick was run from 1928 to 1969 by the Daughters of Charity.

The Sisters of Mercy took over the orphanage in 1969.

Mr Wright would like to hear from any former child residents of Croagh Patrick and he can be contacted on 0432 652 261

janice.harris@fairfaxmedia.com.au