AUSTRALIA
The Australian

AUGUST 18, 2014

Pia Akerman
Reporter
Melbourne

THE mother of two girls who were abused by one of Victoria’s most notorious paedophile priests has told how she felt “betrayed” by receiving an apology from then Archbishop George Pell as well as a warning against litigation in the same month.

The royal commission investigating institutional responses to child sexual abuse has begun a two-week hearing probing the Melbourne Response, through which the Catholic Melbourne archdiocese offered financial compensation and counselling to abuse victims.

Counsel assisting the commission Gail Furness SC told the crowded courtroom there had been no formal or external review of the Melbourne Response since it began in 1996.

The church has paid $11.3 million in compensation since the Melbourne Response began, with $1.6m of that figure for claims outside the Melbourne Response process.

Nearly 20 per cent of all compensation paid by…