A man sexually and physically abused as a 15-year-old in an army apprentice school has accused the military of covering it up.
The ex-serviceman known as CJU told a royal commission on Friday that shortly after he went to study at the Army School of Music at Balcombe base in Victoria in 1978 he was physically and sexually assaulted.
He was near tears as he recalled how eight senior apprentices wearing balaclavas held him down and smeared Vegemite on his genitals and stomach and got a dog to lick it off.
CJU said as a terrified boy he feared the dog would bite his genitals.
The ordeal continued. He was made to kneel and the dog was pushed into his behind while his tormentors jeered: "This is the only way you are going to have sex."
The assault followed shortly after he had reported senior apprentices for breaking his arm.
Those seniors were fined and confined to barracks but his injury was recorded as a training injury.
Staff generally fobbed off complaints, he said and other recruits treated the apprentices who assaulted him as "super stars".
During the sexual assault he was told: "You're a dog for reporting us. If you tell anyone about anything else, the next time it will be worse and we'll kill you."
He never reported again and lived in fear.
CJU left the army in 1989.
It was not until the 2013 Defence Abuse Response Taskforce that he reported the abuse.
By then he had been living with diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder for 38 years which impacted on his health and family life.
"The military were my guardians and they covered this up," he said
"What happened to me never should have happened."
CJU was one of five men who have given evidence of being abused at Balcombe.
They, like witnesses who last week gave evidence of abuse at the HMAS Leeuwin Navy training base in Fremantle told of a hierarchical system in which senior recruits were used to keep junior recruits in line.
Both groups alleged regular officers did not want to know and a culture of not dobbing was deeply ingrained.
Alan McDonald, the former army officer who was in charge at Balcombe from late 1972 to 1976 told the commission on Friday he was shocked by the evidence.
"I was really saddened to hear the stories that we heard. I'm sure all the people here are shocked at what they heard."
When asked by Justice Peter McClellan if as officer-in-charge he should have known, he pointed out the abuse was not reported by the boys.
Over the past week the commission has heard the Department of Veteran Affairs (DVA) puts obstacles in the way of veterans who seek redress for abuse suffered in training.
Evidence has been tendered that claimants are knocked back because of the lack of corroborating evidence.
Neil Bayles, assistant secretary Military Review Compensation Arrangements for DVA, said on Friday he would tell policy makers the question of evidence needs to be considered.
