The mother of a teenage air force cadet who committed suicide has wept in front of a royal commission over the “waste of her life”.
Susan Campbell spoke of how her 15-year-old daughter Eleanore Tibble was distraught after being threatened with dishonourable discharge due to a suspected affair with an older instructor.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard that Eleanore from Hobart was scared her future career was on the line, as her great passion at the time was being a cadet.
She died in November 2002, and Campbell later learned that Air Force Cadets officers based in Canberra had decided to reinstate Eleanore, but she was never told.
Her mother said in an emotional testimony: “A wing commander decided on 12 November 2000, two weeks prior to her death, that Eleanore should not be charged with fraternisation.”
“Eleanore was never told of the Australian Air Force Cadets decision to abandon the discharge action against her.
“Instead, somebody sat on that order for over two weeks and, in this time, Eleanore committed suicide,” she continued.
“She died probably thinking she was doing something honourable, saving her family the shame of a dishonourable discharge.”
Ms Campbell said that she has fought to learn more about the death of her daughter, but she has barely gotten any answers.
She also spoke of the last time she saw her daughter, after dropping her off at a bus stop to go to school.
“I kissed her goodbye and told her I loved her. I returned home to find . . . my daughter had committed suicide,” she said.
Two former cadets also spoke of how they didn’t feel supported after Eleanore’s death and that the Australian Air Force Cadets (AAFC) response was poor.
The young women, given the pseudonyms CJG and CJE, told the commission that they were pressured to have sex with their instructor, Christopher Adams, three years ago.
In 2015, he pleaded guilty to having sex with teenagers under his care and was sentenced to two years in prison.
CJG, now 21, said: “The AAFC have said that things have changed since the Ellie Tibble case but the response of the AAFC and the ADF was still really poor . . . through their actions they have hurt and traumatised people.”
The hearing will continue through the rest of the week.
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