Relative of three child sex abuse survivors hits back at columnist Miranda Devine who called victims who've travelled to Rome an 'unofficial lynch mob' against Cardinal Pell

By Rachel Eddie
Daily Mail
February 29, 2016

http://tinyurl.com/jodoma5

Clare Linane's husband Peter Blenkiron was sexually abused by Brother Edward Dowlan in 1974 and is in Rome to watch Cardinal George Pell give evidence

Cardinal George Pell, appearing at the Victorian Government inquiry into child abuse in Melbourne in 2013

Pictured: Clare Linane, wife of child sex abuse survivor Peter Blenkiron

Cardinal Pell swearing on the Bible before giving evidence before the Royal Commission into Child Sex Abuse in Rome via video link

Victims and relatives of children who claim they were sexually abused by the Catholic Church hold placards as they stand outside the venue for Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney, Australia

Peter Blenkiron, a victim of priestly sex abuse wears a T-shirt showing him at the age in which he was abused, as he meets reporters in front of the Quirinale hotel in Rome on Sunday

A woman whose husband, brother and cousin were all sexually abused as children in Ballarat has hit back at controversial News Corp columnist Miranda Devine who said there had been a ‘lynch mob’ attacking Cardinal George Pell.

Ms Devine on Sunday wrote the opinion piece for the Daily Telegraph in response to growing dissatisfaction with Cardinal Pell who on Monday gave evidence into the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse from Rome after his doctor provided a certificate that he was unfit to fly to Australia to give evidence in person.

Survivors of abuse suffered over past decades in Ballarat and their supporters instead journeyed to Rome to hear him give evidence in person, believing it would help overcome trauma.

Clare Linane later hit back on Facebook in a post that’s since been shared more than 2,000 times.

‘My husband, Peter Blenkiron, was sexually abused by Brother Edward Dowlan in 1974 and is currently in Rome. My brother and cousin were also sexually abused by Dowlan,’ she wrote.

‘I am also proud to call myself a friend of David Ridsdale, Tony Wardley, Phil Nagle, Andrew Collins, Stephen Woods, Tim Lane, Rob Walsh, Gordon Hill, Dominic Ridsdale, Gary Sculley, Paul Auchettl and Paul Levey; some of whom are in Rome and some of whom have remained in Ballarat during Pell’s testimony.’

Ms Linane said she was ‘not an expert on all things Royal Commission, I do have a genuine, personal insight into these men, their motivations and attitude towards George Pell’.

Ms Devine had written it would be a ‘self-invited group of about 120, including 50 journalists and assorted victims, supporters and Pell-haters’ would be watching Cardinal Pell give evidence as an 'unofficial lynch mob'.

To that, Ms Linane said referring to the abuse survivors as ‘assorted victims’ was ‘offensive’.

‘Assorted victims? They’re a group of admirable, brave and yet fundamentally damaged men, most of whom have PTSD [Post Traumatic Stress Disorder].

‘They have survived this far in spite of being raped, assaulted and damaged for life as children.

‘Please do not speak about them like they’re a big of mixed lollies.’

She said Tim Minchin’s controversial song Come Home which aired on Channel Ten’s The Project and called Cardinal Pell ‘scum’ and a ‘coward’ had ‘captured our anger’.

‘We have nothing but gratitude to him for his assistance,’ Ms Linane wrote.

‘I invite you to come and spend the day in my hometown. Come meet with me, in my home. Meet my husband, meet my brother, and meet my friends. Meet the mums who are heart-broken at losing their sons.

‘Let us tell you about some of our friends and family who took their own lives, because they didn’t know how to teal the pain they had lived with since they were five, six, 11, 12-years-old.’

Ms Linane said Ms Devine was correct when she said only one of 43 suicides could confirmed to be related to child sexual abuse in the Victorian Church.

However, Ms Linane quoted her husband as saying: ‘Unless you put a post it note on your head and say “I’m committing suicide because I was sexually abused”, it is very easy to dismiss individual cases’.

‘The reality is, many of the victims themselves don’t make the connection.

‘Of Phil Nagle’s 1974 grade four class at St Alepius, 12 out of 34 (35 per cent) are dead, by premature death including suicide.’

Ms Linane said she hoped the Commission would look further into ‘why broader patterns such as these were not considered when the internal police investigation was conducted’.

She said her husband Mr Blenkiron had ‘at the lowest point in his life’ lost ‘his sense of self-esteem, and battled suicidal thoughts daily’.

‘So Miranda, no; I am not worried about George’s ‘frail health’ whilst he testifies. I’m sure he will be fine. I’m far more worried about my husband and friends.

‘To conclude, let me remind you of why these survivors have travelled to Rome at all. It is not about them as individuals, and is not about Pell.’

Ms Linane said they had travelled to Rome to ensure the Church commits to implementing a national redress scheme to assist survivors with medical costs, and day-to-day costs for those unable to earn a living due to their PTSD.

She also called for a national education program within schools, a healing centre for Ballarat survivors, a peer support program for men in the severely affected regions, and ‘an immediate strategy to remove all paedophiles from the Catholic Church entirely, in all countries, and assist police with criminal investigations in all countries’.