AUSTRALIA
ABC News
By Michelle Brown
The royal commission examining institutional responses to child sexual abuse has heard from survivors who were caught in a legal “catch-22s” after they reported their abusers.
outcomes for abuse victims, without prejudicing the right of the accused to a fair trial.
Two survivors told the inquiry they had spent years trying to forget the abuse they received at the hands of clergymen as children — before deciding to make complaints.
The inquiry heard this often prevented survivors from providing the courts with enough specific detail to satisfy the requirement for proof of an offence “beyond reasonable doubt”.
The inquiry heard this often prevented survivors from providing the courts with enough specific detail to satisfy the requirement for proof of an offence “beyond reasonable doubt”.
In one case described as “particularly striking” at the inquiry, a judge acquitted priest Christopher Rafferty of six counts of sexual abuse against a survivor codenamed FAB at St Patricks College, in Goulburn, between 1984 and 1987.
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