Australian Military Cadets Were ‘Forced to Rape Each Other’

More than 100 recruits who served in the Australian military over several decades have told investigators they were raped by staff and forced to rape each other. More than a dozen of the recruits will provide evidence in a government sex-abuse inquiry in Sydney this month. Abuses reportedly took place among cadets with the Australian defense force since 2000 and at the naval training center HMAS Leeuwin and the army apprentice school Balcombe in Victoria in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Some were sexually abused when they were as young as 15. One male witness said: “On multiple occasions, I was snatched from my bed in the middle of the night by older recruits and dragged to a sports oval” to rape other recruits and to be raped by older recruits and staff members. “The environment made it useless to resist,” he said. “One could stand only so much abuse before realizing that saying ‘no’ was pointless. After a while compliance and getting it over and done with seemed the best solution.” Witnesses and survivors said they were ignored or punished when they reported the abuses. Others were told it was a “rite of passage” and part of the initiation.