AUSTRALIA
ABC News
[with audio]
Victims support groups are outraged that senior members of the Catholic Church will be able to give evidence in private to the New South Wales Special Commission of Inquiry into sexual abuse investigations in the Hunter Valley. But the Commissioner Margaret Cunneen has ruled that private hearings are appropriate, because of the potential for criminal charges to be laid in the future.
Transcript
ASHLEY HALL: Victim support groups are outraged that senior members of the Catholic Church will be able to give evidence in private to the New South Wales Special Commission of Inquiry into sexual abuse investigations in the Hunter Valley.
That privilege is normally only extended to victims of abuse.
But the Commissioner, Margaret Cunneen, has ruled that private hearings are appropriate because of the potential for criminal charges to be laid in the future.
Here’s Eliza Harvey.
ELIZA HARVEY: Catholic priests Denis McAlinden and James Fletcher were notorious paedophiles.
Both abused scores of children across Australia.
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