Victoria Launches Child Abuse Inquiry

ABC - PM
April 17, 2012

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2012/s3479540.htm

[with audio]

MARK COLVIN: The Victorian Government has announced a Parliamentary inquiry into the handling of the criminal abuse of children by religious and other organisations.

Victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy have been calling for an inquiry for years.

But recent revelations that the church's handling of complaints could be linked to as many as 40 suicides, put more pressure on the Baillieu Government.

Even now, victims and their families are concerned that the inquiry may not go far enough.

Samantha Donovan reports.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Melbourne man Stephen Woods says that between the ages of 11 and 14 he was repeatedly raped and bashed by three Catholic clergy in the Victorian town of Ballarat.

He says he's overjoyed by news of the inquiry.

STEPHEN WOODS: It's wonderful. We've, many of us have argued and many of us have been knocking our heads against the walls of bureaucratic walls to try and get some sort of satisfaction, some sort of hearing on the truth.

So I'm quite joyous.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Stephen Woods estimates that in one of his classes 15 other schoolboys were also being molested.

He says when he went to the presbytery for help he was raped by the now notorious priest Gerald Ridsdale who was later jailed for dozens of offences against young boys.

Stephen Woods says at least three of his schoolmates later committed suicide.

He's looking forward to giving evidence to the inquiry.

STEPHEN WOODS: Well the inquiry will be hearing quite graphic details of what happened to me. They'll hear quite graphic details of what happened to two of my brothers also, because I'm the youngest of seven kids. And the three youngest in my family were all assaulted and/or raped.

And one of them has subsequently died because his life went into an absolute spiral and went out of control and he finally died.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: The Parliamentary inquiry will look at how organisations have handled allegations of criminal abuse of children and whether they have practices in place to discourage the reporting of suspected abuse to state authorities.

It will also consider whether change is needed in those organisations to help prevent the abuse of children and deal with allegations when they arise.

The inquiry will have the power to compel witnesses to give evidence and to summons documents.

The Victorian Attorney-General Robert Clark says the government considered all the options but decided against a Royal Commission.

ROBERT CLARK: We concluded in the end that a Parliamentary inquiry would be less intrusive, less formal, less legalistic and would provide greater flexibility for the way in which victims might want to present their stories and their experiences to the committee.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Anthony Foster's two daughters were raped by their parish priest when they were in primary school.

Emma Foster later committed suicide and her sister Katie is now severely disabled after a traffic accident.

Mr Foster has been calling for a Royal Commission. He's pleased by news of the inquiry but is worried it may not go far enough.

ANTHONY FOSTER: We have some concern about the ability of this Parliamentary inquiry to garner the evidence that's really required to ensure that all the matters are investigated that need to be investigated and there are a lot of historical issues to be investigated and I'm sure that the inquiry's going to need to see information from the church and other organisations going back many decades.

A Royal Commission would have been able to force the church to hand over evidence with the threat of very severe sanctions if that wasn't done.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Lawyer Judy Courtin has been lobbying for an inquiry into the Catholic Church's handling of abuse complaints. She says this inquiry is an Australian first and good news.

But she says victims of abuse tell her the Catholic Church has a legalistic and adversarial approach to complaints.

JUDY COURTIN: That the church is very powerful and extremely wealthy. It to date has not been, has not volunteered to partake in any form of inquiry and it's been pushed into a corner.

So I think a judicial inquiry or a Royal Commission would be much more suited to this type of inquiry.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Judy Courtin is also concerned that the inquiry hasn't been specifically asked to look at the connection between childhood sexual abuse and suicide.

JUDY COURTIN: Everybody knows now that there are far, far too many deaths associated with clergy abuse. This inquiry cannot deal with those suicides.

We need a full coronial inquiry. The coroner needs to re-open these cases and to re-investigate and to look at these problems in a systemic way.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Anthony Foster says his family knows what happened in their case. But he says many more stories will emerge in the inquiry.

ANTHONY FOSTER: We know that our perpetrator was known about for decades before he assaulted our children. Now that's just abhorrent. It's disgusting and abhorrent that the Catholic Church and its hierarchy knew about the perpetrator of our children well, well before it happened and did nothing about it.

And we are just one case. I also understand why the Government's chosen to target all religious organisations, rather than just the Catholic Church. But I think that we will find that this inquiry in the main is an inquiry about the Catholic Church in Victoria.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: The Parliamentary committee has been asked to report to the Victorian Parliament no later than the end of April next year.

MARK COLVIN: Samantha Donovan.