Teenage recruits into the Australian military were forced to rape each other, often as part of brutal initiation practices, a public inquiry into child sex abuse heard on Tuesday.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse has already examined churches, sports bodies and the entertainment industry with its focus now on the Australian Defence Force.
The spotlight is on two former training establishments used from the 1960s to 1980s — HMAS leeuwin in Western Australia where junior naval recruits were trained, and an army apprentice school at Balcombe in Victoria state.
Counsel assisting the inquiry Angus Stewart said the commission had been contacted by 111 people about incidents of child sexual abuse within the ADF — and 50 of these involved either leeuwin or Balcombe.