AUSTRALIA
Huffington Post
Eoin Blackwell
Decades of child sexual abuse aided by an alleged network of supporters inside the NSW Newcastle Anglican Diocese has been wrenched into the public spotlight by the Sex Abuse Royal Commission.
For the past two weeks the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has been examining abuse within the diocese dating back to the 1970s, and heard testimony of the harrowing experiences of survivors amid allegations of a pedophile network in the southern NSW city.
The Royal Commission is looking at the diocesan response to abuse over the years, and has heard survivor testimony of rape, torture and mental abuse.
Michael Elliott, a former police officer who has been the diocese professional standards director since 2009, told the commission there had been a high level of interference in his work by the diocesan hierarchy.
“It was apparent that there were a number of clergy and laypeople associated with the church who had criminal convictions, in many respects for child sex abuse offences, where there had been no internal or additional outcomes with regard to risk management or discipline,” he said.
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