Mr Owen, of Maryville, will be one of hundreds of thousands of people watching an apology by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to the Forgotten Australians at 11am today.

The apology will be delivered to Australians and migrants who, as children, suffered abuse and neglect while in institutional care.

Mr Owen, 71, first spoke to The Herald in 1997 about his lifelong struggle with the trauma he endured while in the Catholic Church-run orphanage called Neerkol in north Queensland.

The Sisters of Mercy institution has since become notorious for its record of violence and abuse with a former priest and groundsman both since prosecuted for sex crimes.

Mr Owen's mother was forced to give him up in Cairns in 1938 after she was raped by a police officer.

He ended up in Neerkol where he endured years of sexual abuse at the hands of priests and violent bashings when he reported the incidents to the nuns.

Mr Owen went on to play football for Toowoomba with the likes of Wayne Bennett and said his short stint in prison for robbery in his 20s was easier than his time in Neerkol.

Mr Owen will watch Mr Rudd's apology today and said while it was welcome it would do little to help him.

"Some people might be healed, I myself won't be healed until I die."

He holds no bitterness against the Catholic Church or the Sisters of Mercy.

"It's not a hate, it's sort of a sadness it happened.

"It is a stain on your brain forever."