AUSTRALIA
PerthNow
September 10, 2016
THE Press Council considered a complaint by Margaret Masters about two articles in The Sunday Times headed “Swan Homes hired killer” on 13 September 2015 and “Church calls cops over Swan Homes” on 20 September 2015. The articles were also published online by PerthNow with different headlines. The articles reported on allegations by former child residents of the Swan Homes orphanage of abuse by a former house master, Leonard Darcey, and Mrs Master’s father, children’s home director Angus Peterkin.
The Council’s Standards of Practice require publications to take reasonable steps to ensure factual material is accurate and not misleading and presented with reasonable fairness and balance (General Principles 1 and 3). If the material is significantly inaccurate or misleading or not reasonably fair and balanced, publications must take reasonable steps to provide adequate remedial action or an opportunity for a response to be published (General Principles 2 and 4). …
The publication said the articles were based on the recollections of seven former residents which included allegations of sexual and physical abuse by Mr Peterkin; that it reported the experiences of the two brothers on the basis of compelling and believable first-hand accounts and it also took into account the statement made by the Anglican Archdiocese of Perth confirming it had assessed four cases of abuse. The publication said that on considering the complaint from Mrs Masters it had changed the online article to refer to confirmation of complaints instead of confirmation of abuse.
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