AUSTRALIA
Adelaide Now
Paul Mulvey
AAP
October 18, 2012
MORE victims of church sexual abuse will kill themselves unless Victoria’s parliamentary inquiry acts swiftly to protect the men who still contemplate suicide every day, one campaigner fears.
Up to 50 men taught in the 1960s and 70s by convicted pedophiles Brother Robert Best, Brother Edward Dowlan, Brother Stephen Farrell and Father Gerald Ridsdale at Catholic schools in Ballarat and elsewhere in Victoria have taken their own lives and many more former students suffer from the long term impact of abuse.
Survivor Peter Blenkiron says the inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious organisations, which opens on Friday, cannot afford to take too long to recommend action and has called for a government-run, church-funded support system to help keep these men alive.
“What I’m worried about is that it’ll take too long and people will die before there’s any sort of resolution,” he said.
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