Abuse Inquiry Enters 8th Week

ABC News
July 29, 2013

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-29/abuse-inquiry-enters-8th-week/4849380

The special commission of inquiry enters its eighth week today

The inquiry into child sexual abuse in the New South Wales Hunter Valley will hear more evidence from senior Catholic clergy when the public hearings resume this morning.

The inquiry has previously heard a victim of paedophile priest James Fletcher went to a Nelson Bay presbytery drunk and angry, accusing priests of "doing filthy things to little boys".

Peter Fox, the senior policeman who sparked the special commission, said the parish priest at the time, father Bob Searle, told him about the incident but did not include the victim's comments in his official statement.

Father Searle is expected to give evidence this morning when the eighth week of public hearings gets underway.

Father William Burston will also give evidence after the commissioner gave him a week's reprieve because he had been "harassed" outside the inquiry by members of the public.

Other witnesses this week include the Maitland-Newcastle bishop's executive assistant Elizabeth Doyle, as well as John Davoren, the director of the church's Professional Standards Office.

The commission is examining claims of a cover-up of child sexual abuse.