AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

Abuse victim Paul Hersbach doesn’t want an apology from the Catholic Church. He doesn’t want the church to burn. He just wants compassion.

Mr Hersbach was sexually abused for three years during the 1980s by the same Catholic priest who had also abused his father and uncle.

Father Victor Gabriel Rubeo had lived with the Hersbach family, was known to the children as “gramps” and even had a cap with the phrase “Super Gramps” embroidered on it.

But when Mr Hersbach made a complaint to the Catholic Church’s Melbourne Response scheme for abuse victims in 2006, he said he felt like he was being interrogated.

Mr Hersbach told the child sex abuse royal commission in Melbourne he wants the church to show some compassion.