The Royal Commission into child sexual abuse has begun hearing harrowing details of the sexual abuse of children as young as five at a foster home for Aboriginal children, in remote northern New South Wales.
The inquiry is looking into the state government's monitoring of operations at a children's home at Brewarrina in the 1970s and 80s, and its response to complaints.
The Commission heard the NSW state government spent over two-million dollars fighting claims because a solicitor did not believe them.
The NSW state-funded foster home, Bethcar, was run by Burt and Edith Gordon from 1969 to 1989.
Th couple were held up as model citizens - even receiving an award from then NSW Youth and Community Affairs Minister, Rex Jackson, as so-called "child-care parents of the year" in 1980.
But the evidence heard at the Royal Commission tells a different story.
The Commission heard Burt Gordon abused children, and Edith beat them when they complained.
The Gordons' son-in-law, Colin Gibson, also abused children.
He was jailed in 2006 for repeatedly raping three girls including Jodie Moore.
Ms Moore told the commission she broke her own arm at the age of eight - to try to get away from him.
"I was so scared of Colin Gibson coming into my room and sexually abusing me. I also remember deliberately breaking my arm when I was eight year old so that I could get a break from the sexual abuse."
The commission was told the state of NSW resisted accepting liability for any abuse and disputed for four years that it had occurred - even after Mr Gibson was jailed.
When 13 former residents came forward in 2008 to sue the state, the Crown Solicitor's office employed solicitor Evangelos Manollaras and junior counsel Patrick Saidi to handle the case.
Council Assisting the Commision, David LLoyd told the commission how Mr Manollaras expressed strong doubts about the abuse in a letter, in which he wrote:
"An apology should not be made because "firstly, I don't ever recall the state apologising for anything, secondly, as to the sexual assaults, I have a very strong doubt that anything occurred at all in most cases."
The Commission also heard evidence from Kathleen Biles, who recalled how she was abused from the age of five.
"I felt like nowhere was safe, even if there were other people present. It felt like, as time went by, that Burt got bolder. It's like he knew that even if we said anything, we would not be believed."
Ms Biles said the legal process made her feel like she was being mistreated all over again.
"It made me angry and emotional. It felt like they were looking at me like I was a liar. It felt like I was back to being a little child, being called a liar when I told Edith or anyone else about the sexual abuse that was happening to me."
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse continues.
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