AUSTRALIA
The West Australian
BY SOPHIE TARR
December 13, 2013
Towards Healing was supposed to be a means for the Catholic Church to offer pastoral care and financial redress to people who had suffered years of anguish caused by pedophile priests.
Instead the process pitted lawyer against lawyer, an inquiry has heard, “horse-trading” over compensation sums.
Jennifer Ingham was subjected to four years of sexual abuse from the age of 16, at the hands of northern NSW parish priest Father Paul Rex Brown, and this year received a $265,000 settlement, most of which was paid by Catholic Church Insurance (CCI).
But Emma Fenby, a former CCI executive who dealt with child molestation claims, says she was advised to make an initial offer closer to $30,000.
She told the royal commission she ignored that advice.
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