AUSTRALIA
The Australian
MATT JOHNSTON, JAMES CAMPBELL, ANNIKA SMETHURST HERALD SUN
NOVEMBER 13, 2013
HORRIFIC sexual abuse cover-ups by the Catholic Church has led to a parliamentary committee recommending new offences for grooming children and failing to report crimes.
The nation’s first inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious and other organisations found several thousand children were criminally abused by people within non-government organisations in Victoria over decades.
Committee chair Georgie Crozier has tabled the report in State Parliament and urged the Napthine Government to act on recommendations.
As revealed by the Herald Sun last week, the new laws proposed include compulsory reporting to police, with those who conceal child abuse able to be charged.
The committee also recommended:
A CHILD endangerment offence, making it a criminal offence for people in authority to knowingly put a child at risk, or fail to remove them from risk;
EXPANDING grooming offences to create a separate offence for grooming a child regardless of whether sexual assault actually occurs;
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