AUSTRALIA
ABC Newcastle
December 10, 2017
By Robert Virtue and Paul Turton
A survivor of child sexual abuse at the hands of the Anglican Church in the 1960s is calling for the Federal Government to fully implement the final findings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
The call comes in the wake of the royal commission delivering a damning assessment of the Newcastle Anglican Diocese’s responses to abuse cases, when it handed down its findings last week.
The commission found there had been a “distinct lack of leadership” from bishops Alfred Holland and Roger Herft, and a “cumulative effect of … systemic issues was that a group of perpetrators was allowed to operate within the diocese for at least 30 years”.
Paul Gray said he had been abused by a number of perpetrators when he was aged 10 to 14, including Father Peter Rushton, who died in 2007 without being charged.
Mr Gray said lawmakers needed to act to ensure children were kept safe.
“How about we make sure we get consensus in the Parliament to instigate the findings of the royal commission and keep our children safe?” he said.
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