AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
Salvo officer accused woman of blowing whistle on husband’s child sex abuse: royal commission hears
April 14, 2014
Paul Bibby
Court Reporter
A senior Salvation Army officer, whose husband, also an officer, sexually assaulted a young girl, later sent an accusatory Facebook message to a whistleblower, the royal commission into child-sex abuse has heard.
Lieutenant-Colonel Kerry Haggar denied she was trying to intimidate the whistleblower just weeks before the woman was due to give evidence at the commissions’ public hearings into abuse within the Salvation Army.
Colonel Haggar, formerly a member of the Salvation Army’s senior cabinet, broke down while giving evidence before the royal commission on Monday.
She apologised for sending the message to Captain Michelle White, who had gone to the Office of the Children’s Guardian and the Ombudsman in 2013 and reported that Colonel Haggar’s husband, Colin Haggar, had assaulted a young girl in 1989.
“I’m incredibly sorry and I’d like to reiterate publicly to Michelle my apologies for sending that,” Colonel Haggar said, after describing the message as “unwise”.
“It was – sorry. It was a very personal reaction out of my own distress.”
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