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Adopted son of man named as a child abuser at Royal Commission speaks out.

John Gordon is haunted by the sexual assaults and beatings he says he suffered as a child at the Retta Dixon Home, a Commonwealth-funded, religious institution in Darwin.

This is the first time he has spoken about the abuse he said was committed by the man he came to regard as his father.

The Northern Territory hearings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard harrowing allegations against that man, Donald Henderson.

Mr Henderson and his wife lived at the Retta Dixon home from 1964 until 1975, working as "cottage parents" whose job was to raise the Aboriginal children who were brought there by the Commonwealth.

Mr Gordon had lived at the home since he was taken from his family as a baby.

He said when he was 10 years old, the Hendersons decided to adopt him.

It was most likely an informal adoption as John has no paperwork.

"All I remember is when I was 10 years old I was one of the special ones, I was chosen," he said.

Mr Gordon said his adoptive father would beat and molest him.

"I still have dreams about it. The last time I had dreams like that I woke up the whole house screaming," he said.

"I sometimes feel like it's my fault, I don't know why.

"Did we do something to turn the old bastard on? What's his fetish? What did we do to deserve it? We must have done something to deserve it, done something wrong, otherwise it wouldn't happen."

Mr Gordon was going to give evidence at the royal commission but he had a heart attack as the hearings were about to begin.

In the 1980s, Mr Henderson was convicted of indecently assaulting two children who were not from Retta Dixon and was given a two-year good behaviour bond.

Mr Henderson was named at the royal commission as one of Retta Dixon's worst offenders, accused of beatings, molestation and rape.

Jarrell Kunoth is another alleged victim, breaking his silence for the first time.

He said Mr Henderson sexually assaulted him when he was nine.

"He grabbed my foot and rubbed it on his private and I couldn't pull away because I was only young then and he was a big strong man," he said.

"Little things like that plays on your mind, because it makes you feel dirty."

Alleged abuser living in gated community on Sunshine Coast

The Retta Dixon home was levelled by Cyclone Tracy in 1974 and the site where the facility once stood is now a fairly barren public park.

Lateline tracked Mr Henderson down to a gated community on the Sunshine Coast, where he lives with his wife and another now grown-up child — a girl who was adopted from Retta Dixon.

No-one answered the door and neighbours said Mr Henderson had been in and out of hospital.

Mr Henderson has been charged with sex crimes against children at Retta Dixon twice, but both cases were dropped.

He was admitted to a mental health institution shortly before the royal commission and did not appear to give evidence.

Now he is one of the subjects of a class action, with 12 people claiming damages for sexual assaults he is alleged to have committed against them.

They want to take the Sunshine Coast house from him as compensation.

The other defendants are the Commonwealth and the religious organisation that ran the home.

There are more than 80 claimants altogether who say they were let down by the institution that was supposed to protect them.

The man who became his son, John Gordon, wants more than money.

"Justice would look like that man behind bars and the Government, someone be made accountable and made sure that they say yes, we are to blame," he said.

"Someone has take the blame to be made accountable and someone has to pay."

Source : https://amp.abc.net.au/article/6994012