AUSTRALIA
Stock & Land
RACHEL OLDING
14 Nov, 2012
TONY HERSBACH and his son were in their kitchen on Monday evening putting in some timber fittings when they heard Julia Gillard announce on the radio a royal commission into institutional child abuse.
Mr Hersbach, 59, was overwhelmed. He was elated, terrified, satisfied and exhausted. It has been more than 40 years since his parish priest, the man who assumed the role of surrogate father, repeatedly molested him. He is still waiting for the truth.
”That’s what I’ve struggled with for so many years,” he said. ”That the whole story has never come out. I’m still trying to get the church to admit what they did. I’m still trying to get over what happened. It affects me every single day.”
Father Victor Gabriel Rubeo sexually abused Mr Hersbach when he was 11 years old until he was 18 at a house in Laverton in Melbourne’s west.
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