AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au
CHILD sex abuse victims are being sent away with paltry settlement payments because the law is protecting the institutions like churches, lawyers say.
The royal commission into institutionalised responses to child sex abuse is being urged to get tough on the state-based statute of limitation laws that give victims just three years to lodge a claim in court.
“When they molested the child they took away their human rights. When as an adult the victim tries to take action, then they take away their legal rights,” lawyer Jason Parkinson said.
The commission has been told in submissions about one case where up to $22,000 each in “compassionate” payments were made to 41 victims who as children had been abused at the notorious Anglican-run North Coast Children’s home in Lismore.
However one victim from the home who sued in the courts and made it clear he would challenge the statute of limitation laws recently received a confidential settlement believed to be around 10 times that amount.
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