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Child Abuse Survivor Gina Swannell Wins Compensation after Speaking out against Catholic Church

ABC News
January 15, 2016

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-15/woman-suing-catholic-church-over-abuse-awarded-settlement/7089162

PHOTO: Ms Swannell believes the settlement with the Church is the result of speaking out publicly. (ABC News)

A woman who was suing the Catholic Church over sexual abuse she suffered as a young child has been awarded an out-of-court settlement.

Gina Swannell was seeking damages in the NSW Supreme Court for sexual abuse she suffered when she was six years old at the hands the late Father Charles Holdsworth when she was a boarder at the St Francis Xavier school in Urana.

Last August, Ms Swannell spoke out publicly against the Church, telling the ABC it was failing to honour its pledge to treat sexual abuse victims with more compassion.

She now says she is happy with the settlement, but believes it would not have happened if she had not gone public.

"The apology is accepted but trust is denied," Ms Swannell said.

Ms Swannell alleges Father Holdsworth abused her nine times in the confessional box at St Fiacre's Church in Urana, 350 kilometres west of Canberra.

She said she reported the abuse at the time, but the head nun told her the priest was "hand-picked by God" and cut off her waist length hair.

Ms Swannell said when she made her claim for damages the order of nuns which ran the school, the Presentation Sisters, offered to mediate but the Church declined to do so.

She urged the Church to stop forcing child abuse victims to fight their claims in court.

"When abuse is brought up, the process should be an exchange of documents, [to establish] what happened, then just go to mediation," she said.

"Don't threaten abuse survivors with the Supreme Court. The Church makes it so combative, so stressful, so designed for you to fall at every step. The process shouldn't re-traumatise people, but it does.

"Stop it. They've suffered enough."

'Behind closed doors, they've changed nothing'

When Ms Swannell spoke out publicly last year she said people needed to know how the Church was treating sexual abuse victims.

"People need to know that what is happening behind closed doors is not what they are saying to the public," she said at the time.

"They are saying all the right things but they're not doing it. Behind closed doors, they've changed nothing.

"They're doing exactly the same — deny then crucify."

Just weeks after making those statements, the Church agreed to mediate with Ms Swannell and subsequently offered her an apology and a confidential settlement.

Ms Swannell was one of original campaigners for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and one of the first to give evidence, in private hearings, about being assaulted by Father Holdsworth.

In November, the Church released new guidelines to deal with claims of child sexual abuse to promote a more compassionate approach towards victims.

Francis Sullivan, the head of the Catholic Church's Truth, Justice and Healing Council, told the ABC the Church wanted to treat survivors and victims fairly, compassionately and in a timely manner.

"It's about demonstrating how they will put the interests of the survivor first, provide information quickly, go through it openly and honestly, provide a proper defendant, if that survivor wishes to bring forward a suit of damages," Mr Sullivan said.

But child abuse survivors and their lawyers say the guidelines are disingenuous because they do not expressly reject the controversial Ellis defence — a court ruling that the Church is not a legal entity which can be sued.

 

 

 

 

 




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