AUSTRALIA
ABC News
The Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse will be preparing to publicly examine the North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore. David Hanger from the Professional Standards Committee says the people who handled the complaints at the time were concerned about the Church’s financial exposure. He says the diocese is currently handling several other cases from the orphanage and they’ve referred some matters to police.
Transcript
TONY EASTLEY: Two months ago, the Anglican Diocese of Grafton in northern New South Wales publicly apologised to victims who suffered abuse over decades at the children’s home in Lismore.
The apology came several months after the Anglican Bishop of Grafton, Keith Slater, resigned, admitting he failed to properly manage the allegations and had turned victims away.
The diocese says it’s currently handling more cases from the orphanage and they’ve referred some matters to police.
David Hanger is chair of the Professional Standards Committee for the Diocese of Grafton.
He’s speaking here to AM’s Emily Bourke.
DAVID HANGER: What we discovered in terms of our failures was a real wake up call for us as a diocese. The outcome of that has been a deep sense of shame, a deep sense of repentance, a deep sense of wanting to ensure that we respond appropriately to what’s happened in the past and in the future. And that’s an attitudinal change for us.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.