Parliamentary Inquiry Condemns Church Cover up of Child Sexual Abuse

By Heather Ewart
The ABC News
November 13, 2013

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-13/parliamentary-inquiry-condemns-church-cover-up-of/5090136?section=vic

[with video]

[the report]

A Victorian Parliamentary inquiry has released a scathing report accusing the Catholic Church of a systemic cover up of child sex abuse cases over years.

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: It was another day of reckoning for the Catholic Church today with the Victorian parliamentary inquiry releasing a scathing report accusing the Church of a systemic cover-up of child abuse cases over many years. Other churches and institutions were also slammed for failing in their duty of care to children. The findings could open up hundreds of claims for financial compensation in the courts, as national affairs correspondent Heather Ewart reports.

LES LAST: I've got about four plants in the house, and if they can survive, then I think there's a chance for me.

HEATHER EWART, REPORTER: It's the simple things that help ease a lifetime of suffering for Les Last.

LES LAST: I've been such a failure at so many things for so many years, it still amazes me that I have any desire to attempt anything, you know.

HEATHER EWART: Les Last and his sister Helen share a terrible story. He was repeatedly sexually abused by a Christian brother at Melbourne's Aquinas College in the 1960s from the age of 12.

LES LAST: In that three years, I could not account for the number of incidents. The number of incidences would go into probably the hundreds.

HELEN LAST, ABUSE ADVOCATE: It was physical, sexual, he was psychologically assaulted, he was humiliated in front of the class.

HEATHER EWART: Even more shocking for Helen, a renowned advocate for victims of sex abuse for almost 30 years, is that her brother only told her about it 10 years ago. In her own family lay hidden one of the worst abuse cases she'd ever come across.

HELEN LAST: It was a missing piece, I've got to say. As soon as he said it, something in me also went "Aha".

HEATHER EWART: For most of his life, Les Last has battled drug and alcohol abuse. He's attempted suicide three times. The last try damaged his short-term memory.

LES LAST: I've had all these professional people, like, trying to fix all these things and still my life is a wreck, a ruin.

HEATHER EWART: Les' abuser died years ago. With his sister's help and after a long fight, the Catholic Church paid him compensation of $40,000.

LES LAST: It was like being bloody sexually assaulted 100 times again just going through the negotiation process, you know.

HELEN LAST: It was very, very stressful.

LES LAST: They were horrendously bad.

HEATHER EWART: It's horrendous cases like this that led to the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into church and institutional handling of child abuse, over several months, hundreds of submissions and hearing days and some of the highest church leaders in the land called to account. And today finally came the results.

GEORGIE CROZIER, COMMITTEE CHAIR: I'm proud to table our final report on behalf of the committee. We have called our report Betrayal of Trust.

ANDREA COOTE, COMMITTEE MEMBER: A sliding morality has developed within the Catholic Church which emphasises the interests of the perpetrator and the Church. The Catholic Church appears to have compartmentalised the issues in order to avoid the obvious moral conflicts.

HEATHER EWART: One by one, members of the bipartisan committee rose to condemn the Catholic Church in particular and extensive abuse of children revealed to the inquiry.

DAVID O'BRIEN, COMMITTEE MEMBER: Towns of the Ballarat Diocese in the western region affected by Catholic child abuse include Apollo Bay, Ararat, Ballarat, Bannockburn, Camperdown, Colac, Edenhope, Geelong, Inglewood, Hamilton, Horsham, Kyneton, Maryborough, Mildura, Mortlake, Ouyen, Penshurst, Portland, Port Ferry, Sea Lake, Swan Hill, Tatyoon, Terang, Warrnambool, Wenberree (phonetic spelling), Werribee and Winchelsea.

HEATHER EWART: The committee delivered what victims had sought for years: a new independent avenue for justice, strengthening criminal law, lifting the statute of limitations and changes too to ensure churches are legal entities that can be sued.

HELEN LAST: It basically holds the Church accountable for the first time in terms of the Government is saying, "You are going to have to answer to us now and we are going to put in place a whole lot of reforms that are actually going to make this accountability happen."

HEATHER EWART: But the Catholic Church says that won't be easy.

DENIS HART, CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF MELBOURNE: They're complex legal matters and I think we need to engage with government to bring the best outcome for all parties concerned.

HEATHER EWART: For the committee, there's a huge sense of relief their job is done.

FRANK MCGUIRE, COMMITTEE DEPUTY CHAIR: The investigation was into crime, not faith, but the more we got into it, the more it was like the descent into Dante's Inferno, the worst of suffering. I mean, that's what was overwhelming, almost overwhelming.

HEATHER EWART: Was it far worse than you and others on the committee could have imagined or expected?

FRANK MCGUIRE: It's incredibly confronting when you look in the eyes of parents whose children have committed suicide, when you realise that this was avoidable, that there was a cover-up, that documents were destroyed or people in authority kept it to themselves, did not disclose it.

HEATHER EWART: The Victorian report is already being hailed as a blueprint for the Federal Government's Royal commission now underway to apply tough new measures against child sex abuse nationwide. It's also hoped the Victorian experience will encourage more victims from around the country to come forward with the knowledge they're finally being heard and their stories will be acted on.

Many rallied in front of Parliament House to welcome the committee's findings.

Les Last was there too with rally organiser, his sister Helen.

Why have you come here today?

LES LAST: To stand up and be counted, you know.

HEATHER EWART: Like thousands of others, Les was robbed of his childhood and innocence, but now he knows he's not alone.

LES LAST: You've got to get past the victim of sexual abuse and turn it round somehow in a positive light, you know. The main aim is to have it recognised that you're a survivor rather than a victim, you know.

LEIGH SALES: National affairs correspondent Heather Ewart reporting.