AUSTRALIA
Hobsons Bay Weekly
By GOYA DMYTRYSHCHAK
Nov. 13, 2012
AN ALTONA Meadows woman, who was molested from age eight to 11 by a priest, says a federal royal commission into sexual abuse by the Catholic Church will weed out paedophiles and protect potential victims.
But Mairead Ashcroft , who will this month address the state parliamentary inquiry into sex abuse by the clergy, warned it would be a tough time for survivors and urged them to seek help.
“Just imagine your worst nightmare is being forced over and over and over and over on the news,” she said. “That’s OK for me because I’ve come to terms with it and I’m working on it, but for those people who have been holding it a secret — for some of them, decades — it must be stirring them up something shocking.
“Some of them will be overwhelmed and some traumatised, but that’s not the fault of the commission; that’s the fault of their abusers.”
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