AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times
A culture of not believing child sex abuse victims has existed in the Catholic Church, based on suspicions “they were just making it up”, a bishop says.
Bishop Bill Morris, former bishop of Toowoomba, gave evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Brisbane on Monday.
He said he also considered Catholic education officials’ failure to report abuse to police to be a systemic failure.
Bishop Morris described as “stunning” the dithering over allegations about girls being touched inside their pants and shirts, saying such determination “is not rocket science”.
The hearing is looking into the case of former teacher Gerry Byrnes, who sexually abused school girls in his classroom in 2007 and 2008.
After Byrnes was arrested in 2008, Bishop Morris sacked a principal and two education officers, who knew about the allegations against him in September 2007 but did not tell police.
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