AUSTRALIA
ABC News
By Jade Macmillan
The Christian Brothers who ran children’s homes in Western Australia in the 1940s, 50s and 60s did not consider the abuse of students a crime, a royal commission has heard.
Brother Anthony Shanahan, a former province leader of the Christian Brothers in WA, today gave evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Perth.
The inquiry is examining alleged sexual and physical abuse in four homes run by the Brothers in Perth, Tardun and Bindoon between 1947 and 1968.
Brother Shanahan told the hearing the mindset at the time meant abuse was not thought of “first and foremost” as a crime, but as a moral fault or failing.
“I think they saw it as something that was abhorrent, harmful – although I don’t think they understood it as harmful in the way we would now, in terms of consequences for the victim, but something that was abhorrent and harmful and that was the way they dealt with it,” he said.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.