SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland
VICTIMS OF ABUSE SPEAK OUT AGAINST ‘BRICK WALL’. BY JUDITH DUFFY
Sunday 10 March 2013
A VETERAN campaigner for abuse victims has questioned the contrast between the swift action taken by the Catholic Church over Cardinal O’Brien’s resignation and the length of time taken to deal with allegations of sexual and physical abuse made by members of the public against priests.
Frank Docherty, a founder member of In Care Abuse Survivors (INCAS), said the church had been forced to get rid of O’Brien swiftly because he had created an “embarrassment” that the hierarchy couldn’t cover up.
Docherty, who suffered physical abuse as a child in an orphanage run by nuns, said the contrast between how allegations of O’Brien behaving inappropriately with adult men were dealt with in comparison to allegations of criminal abuse against minors showed the church wanted to both “minimise” the issue of offences against children, and sweep clerical scandals such as O’Brien’s under the carpet as quickly as possible.
His comments come after another alleged abuse victim, known only as Chris, told how his life was “ruined” after being abused by a priest in the 1990s from the age of around nine or 10.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.