‘House of horrors’: Survivor of paedophile Dennis McKenna says he will be relieved to see hostel demolished

A survivor of one of Australia’s worst cases of institutionalised child sex abuse says he will be relieved to see the “house of horrors” demolished at the end of the week. Serial paedophile Dennis McKenna was jailed in 2011 and is serving a 22-year sentence for the abuse of 28 boys at the Katanning Residential College — formally St Andrew’s hostel — while working as a hostel warden in the 1970s and 80s. The former hostel is set for demolition on Friday, six months after former education minister Tony Buti announced it would be flattened and replaced with a monument. Survivor Todd Jefferis said he would be attending Friday’s demolition and described the former hostel as an “abandoned abattoir” and “house of horrors”. “I think it’s really important for the St Andrews victims because that place just stands there now as a monument to paedophilia and a monument to McKenna and what he did there,” he told The West Australian. “It’s a house of horrors, there’s nothing good there, so you can’t re-purpose it for anything and nor would you want to.” “Walking it off the face of the Earth is extremely important ... so it doesn’t sit there as a reminder to all and sundry of what went on there.” Police Commissioner Col Blanch said he hoped the demolition would bring survivors a sense of closure. “If that brings closure to victims or that brings an ability to move to the next chapter, I think that’s wonderful,” he said. “I have taken a strong view that police will focus heavily on going after the perpetrators of child abuse, but (also) certainly supporting victims.” Mr Jefferis said the demolition would help other survivors recognise “what we went through was real”. “For me, it’s an acceptance of what we went through and what we fought for over the years has some recognition,” he said. “As much as people want to pretend it never happened and stick their heads in the sand ... knocking the joint down is also a bit of a message to them which says, ‘guess what? You know what happened and it happened right there. “It’s sort of a Berlin Wall moment for us because it’ll finally be gone . . . it’s almost like turning the page over and we are starting to get towards the end of the story “The next step is to make sure that the bastard doesn’t get out of jail and that he dies there, and then that’ll be the end of the chapter.” Beyond Blue 1300 224 636