AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM
A Roman Catholic order has admitted it hired a private investigator to tail a victim of the notorious paedophile, Brother Robert Best. The Christian Brothers order has detailed to Victoria’s parliamentary inquiry into child abuse just how far it went to support its members who stood accused of child sex assaults. It spent nearly $1 million defending Best, one of Australia’s most prolific paedophiles, and hundreds of thousands more defending other brothers charged with abuse.
Transcript
TIM PALMER: A Roman Catholic order has admitted it hired a private investigator to tail a victim of the notorious paedophile, Brother Robert Best.
The Christian Brothers order has detailed to Victoria’s parliamentary inquiry into child abuse just how far it went to support its members who stood accused of child sex assaults. It spent nearly a million dollars defending Best, one of Australia’s most prolific paedophiles and it spent hundreds of thousands more defending other brothers similarly charged with abuse.
At times the evidence prompted incredulous laughter and derision from the public gallery and there were also tears, as Madeleine Morris reports.
JULIAN MCDONALD: On behalf of all Christian Brothers in this country I want to acknowledge that children entrusted to our care have indeed been abused in some cases even brutalised by some of our number.
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