AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)
Helen Davidson
theguardian.com, Monday 9 December 2013
The first witness to speak at the public hearing on the Catholic church’s Towards Healing program says she is “now free” and has “broken the shackles” after giving evidence at the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse on Monday.
The commission is to hear evidence from four victims who sought redress through the Towards Healing process, set up by the church in 1996 to respond to complaints of abuse by members of the clergy.
The first of these, Joan Issacs, told reporters: “Just as abusers control and silence their victims, the church had to silence and control people like me.”
Standing with her husband and two sons, she said: “Today was my opportunity to say I will never again be controlled and silenced. The opportunity to give evidence here has been both challenging and confronting. I hope it has been informative to the commission.”
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