On Monday, Nov 18, The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse started a public hearing examining the response of the Anglican Diocese of Grafton to claims of child sexual abuse at the North Coast Children's Home in Lismore and the policies and procedures of the Diocese in handling a group claim.

The public hearing was focused on the victims claiming abuse against the diocese from 2005.

"This hearing will investigate whether the Diocese followed appropriate policies and procedures with respect to a group claim made by victims. It will examine how the group claim was settled and what occurred when former residents of North Coast Children's Home came forward seeking compensation after the group claim had been settled," Royal Commission CEO Jannette Dines, said.

"This historical example of institutional child sexual abuse will help the community to be better informed about how claims were dealt with by the Anglican Diocese of Grafton and is expected to highlight just how devastating and long-lasting the effects of child sexual abuse are," Ms Dines added.

The public hearing opened a pandora's box about a Paedophile Ring priests group that beat and lick children under the disguise of a cleansing ritual. Worse, this paedophile ring was founded with a licence by the church and whose key officials were senior church officials.

One victim (identity withdrawn) detailed the abuse he experienced when he was about three or four years old.

"I remember going to the rectory and I would be made to lie naked on the floor and the minister would put this stuff on my chest like a cross and then he would lick it off, right down to my genitals," the victim testified.

"That was called a cleansing process..."

Royal Commission also heard that rape was prevalent. There were also violent beatings like being down on all fours and asked to eat food from the floor.

In a separate tell-all interview with News.com.au, a successful press photographer at present, Richard "Tommy" Campion told of the abuse he suffered at the Church of England North Coast Children's Home.

He recalled that they were beaten by sticks, belts and whips. The home's matron was always drunk, and would beat them with belts until they bled and could not get up from the floor. They were beaten for not eating dinner, not making their beds and not reading the part of the Bible they were asked to read. Sometimes, they were starved, locked in cupboards for up to an hour or made to stand on one leg. As for the younger kids who still soiled their beds, their faces were rubbed in their faeces and urine and asked to wash their own heavy blankets.

During one instance, when he cannot remember a Bible passage, he was whipped until blood gushed from his back. The matron only stopped when she was tired of whipping. Mr Campion was only nine or ten years old at that time.

However, for him, the most unforgettable of all was being "sexually abused by a minister."

"Lots of kids were," Mr Campion darkly recalled.