AUSTRALIA
Northern Star
NORTH Coast Children’s Home has been subjected to its most damning report yet with the findings the local Anglican Diocese tried to evade responsibility, was insensitive and failed to follow its own policies.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has this morning released 28 findings and two recommendations on the North Coast Children’s Home at Lismore and the Grafton Anglican Diocese’s handling of complaints of child abuse there.
Among its findings, the report says:
* The Anglican Diocese of Grafton denied responsibility for sexual abuse that took place at the North Coast Children’s Home.
* The Diocese denied financial compensation for some victims abused at the home.
* The Diocese failed to comply with its own policies and procedures as set out in the Professional * * * Standards Ordinance and Protocol for Dealing with Complaints of Sexual Abuse and in its Pastoral Care and Assistance Scheme.
* The Diocese dealt with victims insensitively
* Despite its knowledge of the potential claims by 2005, the Diocese of Grafton did not make provision for settling child abuse claims in its annual budgets for 2006 and 2008 and 2012.
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