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Victorian Parliamentaryinquiry into Child Sex Abuse Prompts Push to Make Silence a Crime Abuse

By Matt Johnston
The Australian
November 13, 2013

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/victorian-parliamentary-inquiry-into-child-sex-abuse-prompts-push-to-make-abuse-silence-a-crime/story-e6frg6n6-1226758782356

Committee chair Georgie Crozier (centre) said the inquiry uncovered "serious breaches of laws". Source: News Limited

HORRIFIC sexual abuse cover-ups by the Catholic Church has led to a parliamentary committee recommending new offences for grooming children and failing to report crimes.

The nation's first inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious and other organisations found several thousand children were criminally abused by people within non-government organisations in Victoria over decades.

Committee chair Georgie Crozier has tabled the report in State Parliament and urged the Napthine Government to act on recommendations.

As revealed by the Herald Sun last week, the new laws proposed include compulsory reporting to police, with those who conceal child abuse able to be charged.

The committee also recommended:

A CHILD endangerment offence, making it a criminal offence for people in authority to knowingly put a child at risk, or fail to remove them from risk;

EXPANDING grooming offences to create a separate offence for grooming a child regardless of whether sexual assault actually occurs;

CIVIL law reforms to make it easier for victims to sue non-government organisations, including churches.

The report was scathing of church bodies.

"The committee heard that children subjected to criminal abuse have been less likely to be adequately protected in religious organisations than in any other group in society," the report says.

Ms Crozier said there had been "serious breaches of laws" uncovered by the inquiry, and it was time to change the law.

She said organisations, including the Catholic Church, covered up cases of child abuse to protect their reputation and finances.

"We have endeavoured to be open, transparent and balanced in conducting our inquiry," she said

"Our recommendations are intended to provide umbrella protections from the consequences of the heinous crime of child abuse."

State MPs shed tears while describing the bravery of victims of church abuse that gave evidence to a parliamentary inquiry.

Committee member Liberal MP Nick Wakeling said hearing stories from Victorians who had been targeted by paedophiles was horrific.

He broke down while telling Parliament that some of those young people had been the same age as his own children.

Labor MP Bronwyn Halfpenny, who also sat on the committee, described the experiences of victims of "heartbreaking" and expressed her sympathy for their ongoing suffering, while also choking back tears.

Nationals MP David O'Brien also fought back tears.

"The rape of children, criminal child abuse is indeed a gross betrayal of trust wherever it occurs," Mr O'Brien said.

"However, when it is conducted by members of trusted organisations who then cover up their crimes, and in their denials and cover-ups, facilitated further child abuse on unsuspecting communities, children and families, is an abomination," he said

"That much of this abuse was carried out by pedophile clergy in the Catholic Church and personnel in the Salvation Army is a terrible indictment on those organisations who were the beneficiaries of much community trust,"

Committee member Andrea Coote said sexual offences against children were "by no means a new phenomenon."

"In regard to the Catholic Church specifically, the committee found that rather than exposing criminal abuses in the Catholic Church, it minimalists and trivialised the problems," Ms Coote said

"A sliding morality was adopted in 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 obvious moral conflicts."

 

 

 

 

 




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