AUSTRALIA
Daily Examiner
Adam Davies | 12th Feb 2015
A NEW report has been critical of how the Catholic Church treated a former Lismore sexual abuse victim who said she was so petrified her secret would be revealed she got her attacker to oversee her first marriage during the 80s.
She said it was just easier at the time to keep up a facade she was simply friends with the Lismore Diocese priest.
Jennifer Ingham, 53, gave evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in 2013 that Father Paul Rex Brown had sexually abused her between 1978 and 1982.
The report, released on Wednesday, examined how the Catholic Church’s Towards Healing process responded to four people, including Mrs Ingham, who suffered sexual abuse from priests and have experienced adverse impacts.
The report was highly critical of how the church treated Mrs Ingham’s journey as an insurance matter instead of providing pastoral care, which was one of the main functions of the process.
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