AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury
By ELLE WATSON Aug. 3, 2013
During the past six weeks those living in the aftermath of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church have been confronted with a stream of devastating evidence.
Evidence proving that – for at least 60 years – the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese carried the knowledge that some priests posed a risk to children.
So with these proceedings now drawing to a close, the question remains: do the survivors feel validated?
ELLE WATSON reports.
Four decades after Peter Gogarty was abused by defrocked priest James Fletcher, the Vacy man stood before a highly-publicised inquiry and cross-examined the former head of the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese.
The date was July 15, 2013. And Mr Gogarty made history.
“I was nervous about it but I was absolutely determined to do it,” Mr Gogarty said.
“It was a significant and symbolic thing to do because here was someone, not a barrister, asking a bishop (Michael Malone) the questions.”
Mr Gogarty is not a solicitor or a barrister but held his own in a crowded room of senior counsel and a packed public gallery.
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