AUSTRALIA
9 News
AAP
Would-be pedophile priests and religious brothers are turning to the internet and downloading child pornography in what is the next abuse threat for the Catholic Church, an inquiry has heard.
The head of the Irish Catholic Church’s child protection board says allegations against priests are declining but the church needs to ensure viewing child pornography does not take the place of contact abuse.
“We know that because of the regulations and the rules that people don’t have the same amount of access to children and contact with children,” National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland chief executive Teresa Devlin said.
“So if you have a sexual interest in a child and you’re still a member of the church, well the only other place to go was to the internet.”
Ms Devlin said a few allegations about downloading child pornography had emerged.
“We have no idea of the scale of that. We don’t really know about it until someone’s computer is checked,” she told the child abuse royal commission in Sydney on Friday.
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