Hundreds to Address Australian Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse

Jacaranda Fm
September 16, 2013

http://m.jacarandafm.com/post/hundreds-to-address-australian-inquiry-into-child-sex-abuse/

More than 500 victims of child sexual abuse in Australian institutions will tell their stories to a public inquiry which began in Sydney today. 

The chairman of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Justice Peter McClellan, warned that many testimonies would shock people.

McClellan had already heard 400 adult witnesses give their evidence behind closed doors, and the commission will now hear from  500 child abuse victims in open hearings.

"It is reported to us that when it occurs in residential institutions, sexual abuse is almost always accompanied by almost unbelievable levels of physical violence inflicted on the children by the adults who have responsibility for their welfare," McClellan said at the start of the public hearings.

"Many have thought of suicide and some have attempted it," he said.

The first part of the inquiry is into a paedophile scoutmaster and the lack of reaction by scouting and government authorities.

The commission, set up during the administration of former prime minister Julia Gillard, was a response to allegations by police that the Catholic Church moved suspected paedophile priests to different jurisdictions to hinder their prosecution.

The inquiry will also look into how churches, schools, orphanages, and welfare authorities reacted to sex abuse of children in their care.