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Child abuse inquiry: former MP ‘sensationalised’ abuse allegations at Neerkol orphanage near Rockhampton, Sister Berneice Loch says
By Marlina Whop and William Rollo
April 21, 2015
A senior nun has criticised a former Queensland MP for “sensationalising” allegations of abuse at the Neerkol orphanage near Rockhampton in State Parliament during the 1990s.
Sister Berneice Loch has testified today at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in the central Queensland city.
Sister Loch was a senior member of the Sisters of Mercy when allegations of abuse at the orphanage first came to light in the 1990s.
In September 1996, then-Queensland minister for family, youth and community care, Kevin Lingard, told State Parliament that six calls had been made to the child sexual abuse hotline about former residents of the orphanage.
Mr Lingard planned to refer the matter to the then children’s commissioner.
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