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Anglican Church official Pat Comben quizzed in Royal Commission over response to child sex abuse at North Coast Children’s Home
BY ASHLEIGH RAPER – ABC
November 25, 2013
The Royal Commission into child abuse has heard a former Anglican Church official responsible for responding to historic abuse claims did not pass on allegations to police.
The former registrar of the Anglican Diocese of Grafton, Pat Comben, today took the stand for a second day at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
Mr Comben, who had previously served as Queensland education minister under premier Wayne Goss, was the first to receive claims about the North Coast Children’s Home at Lismore.
He has faced intense scrutiny about the evidence given to the commission by former residents of the home about the physical and sexual abuse they suffered between the 1940s and 1980s.
Witnesses at the commission last week criticised Mr Comben’s handling of the allegations and subsequent negotiations for compensation, with his actions described as cruel and inappropriate.
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