AUSTRALIA
The Age
September 29, 2014
Chris Goddard
“I was a young schoolgirl with everything before me. I was a student doing well at Forbes High School, coming first in four subjects … However, my life and future plans were stolen from me by the criminal actions of an Anglican priest … Donald Shearman.”
This is how Beth Heinrich started her private submission to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Shearman was an assistant Anglican priest, and he and his wife were in charge of the hostel where Beth boarded.
Beth’s detailed submission about her rape and abuse provides an extraordinary insight into how perpetrators prepare their victims, and just how vulnerable children are.
One day, after many months of sexual abuse, Beth was “labelled promiscuous” and expelled from the hostel.
This is where Beth’s story begins a new and extraordinary trajectory. Her experiences – and the many documents that she has kept – provide the most detailed case study of what is called “secondary victimisation”. Shearman – and the church – kept Beth hostage to his abuse.
Child rapists seek to corrupt the institutions that provide the opportunities for their crimes. Corrupting the host institution provides the cloak of concealment and confusion that denies the victim any chance of justice or recognition.
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