AUSTRALIA
9 News
AAP
The Catholic Church in Australia could face a barrage of lawsuits from clergy abuse victims amounting to billions of dollars in compensation, a victims’ advocate says.
Cardinal George Pell and a former Victorian bishop’s appearances before the child abuse royal commission this month could get further key evidence on the public record to be used in class action lawsuits, victims’ advocacy group Broken Rites spokesman Wayne Chamley says.
The 1971-1997 Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns has terminal cancer and Dr Chamley says he has nothing to lose by telling the truth to the commission when he appears next week.
“He’s actually got everything to gain by telling them how much he did know and telling them if he spread the knowledge, and it’s beyond belief that he didn’t spread the knowledge,” Dr Chamley told AAP.
The commission has heard Bishop Mulkearns knew in 1975 that Australia’s worst pedophile priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale had abused boys but moved him between parishes.
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