A new report has found hundreds of teenage boys were abused while training at a naval base in Western Australia.
The Defence Abuse Response Taskforce report says more than 200 boys aged between 15 and 17 were abused while training as junior recruits at the HMAS Leeuwin base between 1960 and 1984.
Former recruits have told of being scrubbed daily with sandsoap until their skin bled, and being held down while boot polish was smeared onto their genitals or an object such as a mop handle was forced into their anus.
Much of the abuse went unreported or unpunished.
The report says the pattern of abuse meant Defence should have known about it, but failed to stop it.
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