AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun
Ballarat survivors of Catholic clergy abuse to deliver ‘brutal and horrific’ details to royal commission
LUCIE MORRIS-MARR HERALD SUN MAY 18, 2015
SURVIVORS of child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in Ballarat say their evidence to a royal commission, beginning Tuesday, will cause outrage.
Steve Woods, 53, Andrew Collins, 47, Paul Lyons, 55, and Peter Blenkiron, 52, say their evidence of what went on locally in the 1960s and ’70s would be “brutal and horrific” and would help expose the full extent of the scandal.
“Our stories are shocking, and when people hear them in detail at these hearings there is going to be anger and upset,” Mr Woods said.
“It’s time for the full truth about what happened in Ballarat to be heard — and it’s not going to be easy to hear.
“So many of us were beaten and raped in the school by the men our parents trusted the most,” he said.
“But this is our moment and we deserve for our voices to be heard in the very town where it happened.”
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