AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au
CONCERN that a public hearing into an Adelaide special school where disabled children were sexually abused could prejudice civil proceedings is no reason to postpone the hearing, the royal commission into child sex abuse has said.
At a directions hearing in Sydney on Friday, the Catholic Church insurer expressed concerns about the “potential effect on civil matters” of the timing of the commission’s hearing into child sexual abuse at St Ann’s Special School in Adelaide in the late 1970s and early ’80s.
The commission has scheduled a hearing for March 17 in Adelaide.
In a letter to the commission, Catholic Church Insurance Limited (CCI) said it wished to state “unambiguously that it had no objection” to the commission’s review of the St Ann’s matters.
The letter sent on behalf of CCI by Kate Harrison of law firm Gilbert and Tobin, said it anticipated the commission’s investigations would potentially traverse a number of the same issues of fact.
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