AUSTRALIA
9 News
A lawyer who will represent scores of Ballarat sexual assault victims at the royal commission has welcomed the focus on organisational abuse, saying it can devastate entire generations.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Friday announced the terms of reference for the royal commission on child sexual abuse, which will start as soon as possible and hand down its interim report mid 2014.
It will focus on how organisations have managed and responded to claims of sexual abuse and associated forms of abuse and neglect.
Viv Waller, who will represent 70 victims of abuse perpetrated by clergy in Ballarat during the 1970s, said abuse within churches and schools was particularly abhorrent, given offenders had access to a fresh lot of victims each year.
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