Mick’s story

“It was not unusual to get home in the afternoon and be directed into Vic Holyoak’s office where I would be physically beaten and emotionally tortured. The whole process revolved around what I had talked about with the others on the way to school and on the way home. At times he even wanted to know what I had discussed with my school friends. Over a period of time I lost all of my school friends because I was so introverted and non communicative. I did this in an effort to minimise the level of punishment which towards the end of my stay in Barnardo’s was almost a daily occurrence.”

Despite the childhood trauma experienced at Hartwell House Mick Kennedy did not follow the path to violent criminality.

In 1978 Mick Kennedy joined the New South Wales Police Force and worked at Bankstown, Revesby and Bass Hill before he became a detective.

“I wanted some job security and also wanted a worthwhile job,” he explained. “I wanted to be a social worker but this required a university degree. I had left school in year 10 and did not have the required qualifications and at that time there was little chance that I would ever acquire them”.

In 1984 Kennedy was a member of the Viking Hotel Task Force that investigated the Father’s Day massacre resulting with seven deaths after a shootout between the Comanchero and Banditos outlaw biker gangs in the car-park of the Viking Hotel at Milperra. He also served as a detective in the Bureau of Crime Intelligence and the Organised Crime Squad.

“I served for a few years in the NSW Crime Commission and then moved into the Major Crime Squad South-West I then shifted away from organised crime work and specialised in Child Protection Work. I found this work to be very rewarding and not as stressful as organised crime work. My own past was in fact an asset and had no negative impact on my ability to do my work.”

The asset Mick Kennedy successfully used as a detective in the NSW Child Protection unit was his own childhood experiences of brutality and sexual exploitation at the hands of those employed to protect and nurture him as a child.

During the 1980s the Channel Ten program Page One, hosted by Katrina Lee, began investigating Hartwell House and produced a story called “The Class of 1966”. As a result of the story, Detective Belinda Mole from the NSW Police Force began a criminal investigation into Holyoak and his running of Hartwell House.

Detective Mole interviewed Ruth Kennedy and other former residents and the full extent of the sickening horror that had shattered their childhood was finally revealed. As a consequence of Mole’s criminal investigation Holyoak was prosecuted as a child sex offender and was found guilty at trial. NSW District Court Judge Kirkham sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment in 1994.

“After Holyoak was jailed my sisters were approached by a firm of lawyers who offered their services so we could take civil action against Barnardo’s. We accepted the offer and became part of a class action against Barnardo’s.

“The Barnardo’s organisation stretched everything out as long as they could. In the process a number of people withdrew from the civil action because of the strain and stress upon their lives and their relationships. There was a special hearing before Judge Graham to determine whether or not we had initiated our civil action in the time frame or whether we could get an extension. It was a very traumatic process for most of those giving evidence because some were illiterate and had no family support whatsoever.

“After 20 years of having to give evidence in criminal proceedings I was insulated against the fear of being in court. I was the last person to give evidence and an old barrister friend, Joan Locke, came along to support me. She advised me to get everything off my chest as it would probably be the last opportunity that I would be able to publicly give my version of events that had haunted me since childhood. It was good advice and I did as she suggested.