Abuse Victims Speak Out Following Spotlight Win

MASSACHUSETTS
NECN

By Justin Michaels

It was a huge and surprising win for a movie that has its foundation at the Boston Globe.
Spotlight won Best Picture at the Academy Awards, and for the real people behind the movie characters, the win means much more than a gold statue.

Winning best picture at the Academy Awards, the film Spotlight shined a bright light on an issue sex abuse victim Alexa MacPherson knows intimately. She faced abuse from her priest, but as exciting as this moment was, it didn’t offer her something she longs for more than anything.

“Not a sense of closure, at least not for me,” said MacPherson, “It’s a sense of being understood. And not being called a liar.”

The movie is about the Boston Globe’s Spotlight investigation into the child sex abuse scandal in the Boston Catholic Church.

NECN spoke with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Walter Robinson, who was part of the spotlight team that exposed the sex abuse scandal involving clergy. In spotlight, Robinson is played by actor Michael Keaton.

Robinson hopes with Spotlight’s now global fame, swift action will be taken in the Catholic Church.

“Perhaps it will move the church to move more quickly to Institute the reforms to make sure that this kind of Wholesale abuse of children doesn’t happen again,” said Robinson.

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