AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)
Helen Davidson in Canberra
theguardian.com, Wednesday 11 June 2014
The royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse is “a moment of truth for this nation”, said a witness who told of years of abuse by his teacher.
The man also accused the Marist Brothers of enabling the teacher, likening it to “putting an alcoholic in charge of the alcohol cabinet”, and described the actions of the church insurers in dealing with his complaint as “outrageous”.
The commission’s 13th public hearing opened in Canberra on Tuesday morning, focusing on the cases of two former Marist brothers: Greg Sutton and John Chute.
The royal commission was told that the two men were shifted from school to school across Queensland, NSW and the ACT throughout their teaching careers, despite – and in some cases because of – multiple complaints against them alleging child sexual abuse and inappropriate behaviour.
Chute, also known as brother Kostka, eventually admitted to abusing six boys and was jailed for two years in 2009.
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