AUSTRALIA
ABC News
By Nicole Chettle
Institutional apologies to victims of child sexual abuse are sometimes weak, insulting and do not go far enough to address the long-term damage that has been caused, a royal commission has heard.
Bruce Perry from The Child Trauma Academy in the United States was one of several experts giving evidence about the impacts of abuse at the second last day of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse’s public hearings in Sydney.
“You can’t erase institutional coercion and institutional abuse of process by issuing a statement,” Dr Perry said.
“That doesn’t undo it. That’s not enough.”
During the course of his work, Dr Perry said he had worked with survivors who had been offended by official statements from the organisations in which they were abused.
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