Ballarat’s Children: ‘no more jumping through hoops’ for church sex victims, by Pia Akerman, Peter Hoysted, Australian (October 31, 2016)

Ballarat’s Children: ‘no more jumping through hoops’ for church sex victims

A church lawyer tasked with helping victims of child-sex abuse in the country’s most scandal-plagued Catholic diocese has declared they no longer have to jump through any “hoops” for assistance, as a veteran police detective described how victims earlier had been pursued by private investigators working for the church.

In an interview for The Australian’s podcast Ballarat’s Children, Michael Myers has vowed the Ballarat diocese is taking victims “at face value” to offer counselling and support amid mounting pressure for a national redress scheme.

“It is a big problem that’s going to last for a long time and we’re just working at it as best we can,” said Mr Myers, a local lawyer appointed in 2014 to steer the diocese’s professional standards.

“In the past 10 years there’s been about $150,000 paid in counselling fees, for example. And in addition to that the diocese has made payments for other support costs — for medical costs, some financial assistance … they don’t have to go through any hoops, they’ll get it from the diocese.”

The Ballarat diocese, covering one-third of Victoria, was a prolific hunting ground for pedophile priests in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

Former detective sergeant Blair Smith dealt with some of Ballarat’s estimated thousands of sex-abuse victims as he investigated allegations of child sexual abuse against former Christian Brother Edward (Ted) Dowlan.

Speaking publicly for the first time, Mr Smith has revealed how he discovered that a private investigator hired by the Catholic Church had arrived on the doorstep of one of Dowlan’s victims in the 1990s, asking to go through his statement.

“I’ve got a feeling that … maybe she was looking for holes in the statement to use by the barristers at the trial. It’s totally inappropriate, and I’d never heard of anything like it.’’

Mr Smith said the investigator had responded defiantly when he called to confront her, asking what right the detective had to stop her approaching victims. “I said, ‘Well I’ll tell you what I’ll do, if you approach another victim, I’ll arrest you with attempting to pervert the course of justice’,” he said.

The Ballarat’s Children podcast concludes today amid continuing investigations into clerical pedophilia in the diocese.

Victoria Police detectives working within the Sano Taskforce last month travelled to Rome to interview Archbishop George Pell regarding allegations spanning from his time as a priest in Ballarat in the 70s to his time as archbishop of Melbourne in the 90s. Cardinal Pell has consistently denied the allegations.