AUSTRALIA
The Age
November 14, 2013
Barney Zwartz
The state government’s report on clergy child sex abuse recommends sweeping changes to laws behind which the Catholic Church has sheltered, and accuses its leaders of trivialising the problem as a ”short-term embarrassment”.
Inquiry chairwoman Georgie Crozier spoke of ”a betrayal beyond comprehension” and children suffering ”unimaginable harm”. Launching the report in State Parliament on Wednesday, she said the inquiry had referred 135 previously unreported claims of child sex abuse to the police.
The report, Betrayal of Trust, wants to establish a new crime when people in authority knowingly put a child at risk. It wants to make it a crime to leave a child at risk or not report abuse, including for clergy, but does not recommend ending the exemption for the confessional. Grooming a child or parents should be a crime, child abuse should be excluded from the civil law’s statute of limitations, and the present church systems of dealing with victims in-house should be replaced by an independent authority funded by the churches, the report says. Premier Denis Napthine said the government would act quickly to begin drafting legislation reflecting the recommendations.
He said the abuse detailed in the report was ”absolutely appalling” and the religious leaders involved should hang their heads in shame.
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