AUSTRALIA
ABC News
By Giselle Wakatama
Records from a boys’ home that is set to be the focus of a case study at a royal commission into child sexual abuse are being held at the University of Newcastle, it has emerged, after it was believed the records had been destroyed or had gone missing.
The ABC earlier today reported on claims by a retired police detective, who said he had found no records, minutes or other documents from the St Albans Anglican boys’ home, despite a “relentless pursuit” for the records.
An archivist has come forward, saying records are being held in the university’s Archives of the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle.
The archivist has passed that information on to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
The previous lack of documentation had raised alarm bells with retired 20-year police veteran Greg Harding, who had pursued convicted paedophile and ex-St Albans board member James Michael Brown, who abused 20 boys.
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