Media out in Force for Child Sex Abuse Inquiry

By Elle Watson
Maitland Mercury
May 7, 2013

http://www.maitlandmercury.com.au/story/1482385/media-out-in-force-for-child-sex-abuse-inquiry/?cs=171

A contingent of more than 20 journalists and their camera crews occupied every seat of the designated media section of Newcastle Supreme Court for the first day of inquiry hearings into an alleged Catholic church cover up.

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?Media from the country's largest publishers and broadcasters reported on the Commission of Inquiry into child sexual abuse within the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle.

Three bar tables were installed in the court to seat 12 solicitors and barristers including counsel assisting the inquiry, Julia Lonergan SC.

Members of the public, the majority in their 50s and 60s, listened to Commissioner Margaret Cunneen SC speak of Maitland's "troubled history" of sexual abuse.

"It has rightly been said that child sexual abuse is no longer a crime in which the conspiracy of silence continues to the grave," Commissioner Cunneen said.

"Children are inherently vulnerable and innocent. The sexual abuse of children is abhorrent. It exploits their vulnerability, irreparably damages their innocence and casts a shadow over their whole lives."