AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph
Senior official tells royal commission that Catholic Church has ‘lifelong responsibility’ to child sex abuse victims
JANET FIFE-YEOMANS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH MARCH 14, 2014
CATHOLIC Church barristers cross-examined a victim of child sex abuse for four days in court despite having accepted he was telling the truth, the royal commission was told.
“That doesn’t speak well for the litigation process,” commission chair Peter McClellan said yesterday.
Church NSW director of professional standards Michael Salmon said he never confronted church authorities about it although he knew “all of the church authority … believed he was telling the truth.”
Mr Salmon also had no doubts victim John Ellis was telling the truth about being sexually abused from age 13 by the late Father Aidan Duggan.
Mr Salmon confirmed at the commission that the church’s own assessor had found in favour of Mr Ellis and a private investigator contracted by the church had reported he was telling the truth.
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