Australia failed children, national sex abuse inquiry says

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Australia failed children, national sex abuse inquiry says

SYDNEY, Dec 15, 2017 (BSS/AFP) – Australian institutions “seriously
failed” children in their care over decades with tens of thousands sexually
abused, the final report from a five-year inquiry said Friday, calling it a
“national tragedy”.

The government ordered the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses
to Child Sexual Abuse in 2012 after a decade of pressure to investigate
widespread allegations across the country.

The commission was contacted by more than 15,000 survivors who detailed
claims of child abuse involving churches, orphanages, sporting clubs, youth
groups and schools, often dating back decades.

It heard horrific stories during often confronting and emotionally
exhausting public and private hearings.

In total, more than 4,000 institutions were accused of abuse, with many of
them Catholic-managed facilities.

“Tens of thousands of children have been sexually abused in many
Australian institutions. We will never know the true number,” the final
report said, making hundreds of recommendations to improve children’s safety
and make it harder for paedophiles to operate unpunished.

“Whatever the number, it is a national tragedy, perpetrated over
generations within many of our most trusted institutions.”

It said abuse occurred in almost every place where children resided or
attended for educational, recreational, sporting, religious or cultural
activities.

And it was not a case of a few “rotten apples”.

“Some institutions have had multiple abusers who sexually abused multiple
children,” it said.

“Society’s major institutions have seriously failed. In many cases those
failings have been exacerbated by a manifestly inadequate response to the
abused person.

“The problems have been so widespread, and the nature of the abuse so
heinous, that it is difficult to comprehend.”

More than 2,500 referrals have been made to police, with 230 prosecutions
under way.

Among the 17-volume report’s recommendations was the creation of a National
Office for Child Safety, and for religious ministers to be required to report
abuse confided to them during confession.

During its hearings, the commission heard that seven percent of Catholic
priests were accused of abuse in Australia between 1950 and 2010, but the
allegations were never investigated, with children ignored and even punished
when they came forward.

There were more than 1,800 alleged perpetrators, with the average age of
the victims at the time 10 for girls and 11 for boys. The St John of God
Brothers religious order was the worst, with just over 40 percent of members
accused.

The inquiry embroiled Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric George Pell,
now the Vatican’s finance chief, who was questioned over his dealings with
paedophile priests in Victoria state in the 1970s.

Pell is currently accused of multiple historical sexual offences, with a
committal hearing in March due to decide if there is enough evidence from the
prosecution for the case against him to go to trial.

BSS/AFP/RY/08:50 hrs