Thursday 12 Jun 2014 |
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1:35 PM The royal commission into child sex abuse is investigating how the Vatican dealt with allegations of abuse against its priests in Australia. Commission chair Peter McClellan has written to the Secretary of State of the Vatican City, asking for a copy of all documents held in Rome relating to complaints of sexual abuse by priests and religious leaders in Australia. Justice McClellan hopes the documents will shed light on how complaints were handled by the Catholic Church. "We have asked for copies of documents which reveal the nature and extent of communications between Catholic congregations in Australia and the Holy See," Justice McClellan will tell Griffith University in Brisbane on Thursday. "From these documents we should be able to determine how church authorities in Australia, under the guidance or direction of the Vatican, have responded to individual allegations of abuse." The commission has received some documents from the Vatican relating to its upcoming public inquiry of the Wollongong diocese. But Justice McClellan says the Vatican has yet to respond to his request for documents relating to other sexual abuse complaints. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has so far heard allegations of abuse at the Scouts, YMCA, three schools, two church dioceses and the Salvation Army. Justice McClellan warns that the potential for abuse still exists at those institutions. "All of these institutions continue to exist (and) the risk of abuse accordingly remains," he says. Based on information the commission has collected, Justice McClellan says there are at least 30 other institutions which must be examined in public hearings. A "significant portion" of the institutions reported to the commission by abuse survivors were faith-based, Justice McClellan says. "Many of these are Catholic institutions," he says. Justice McClellan says the commission has received stories from more than 1730 people in private sessions and has referred more than 160 matters to the police for investigation. The commission is due to provide an interim report to the federal government by June 30. |
Monday 14 Apr 2014 |
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6:45 PM A woman whose Salvation Army officer husband went to police to turn himself in for sexually assaulting an eight-year-old girl says she cannot recall details of the event and denies trying to intimidate an officer. Kerry Haggar, a lieutenant colonel in the Salvation Army whose husband Colin has been subject of an inquiry into the army's handling of abuse complaints said on Monday she could only recall that her husband had gone to police to report "he had inappropriately touched a child". The royal commission into child sex abuse hearing started two weeks ago and has heard that Colin Haggar admitted abusing the girl in a central western NSW town in 1989. James Condon, who is now the man in charge of the army's eastern region, gave evidence last week that he accompanied Mr Haggar when he went to police in 1990 to report the offence. Mr Condon, who was a captain at the time, could also not recall details but said police had told Mr Haggar no action could be taken without the victim making a complaint. John Agius SC counsel for the state asked Mrs Haggar on Monday if she could recall to which police station her husband and Mr Condon had gone. Mrs Haggar said she could not recall. Mr Agius: "How often does your husband tell you he is going to a police station to report a sexual assault on a child?" Mrs Haggar: "He only ever told me once." She said it was an extremely distressing time in their lives. The couple had been dismissed from the army after Mr Haggar's confession but were re-admitted in 1993. They rose through the ranks, both becoming lieutenant colonels. Colin Haggar was recently demoted and forced to retire. Mrs Haggar has been stood down from her post on the army executive. On Monday Mrs Haggar denied she intended to intimidate Captain Michelle White who had blown the whistle on her husband by reporting to child protection authorities he was still in active service. Mrs Haggar sent a personal Facebook email to Ms White accusing her of causing "devastation and incredible pain to many innocent people" through her actions. "In attempting to protect families you have caused irreparable damage to mine," the email said. On Monday Ms Haggar said she now realises sending the email was wrong and apologised to Ms White. "I did not intend to intimidate," she said. "I had spent a sleepless night. My husband had been splashed all over the media. I was frustrated and incredibly distressed." John Greville, a former NSW detective who has been contracted by the Salvation Army's Professional Standards Office to investigate historical allegations of abuse, said on Monday he had doubts as to whether the matter was ever reported to police. Mr Greville has not yet concluded an internal investigation but said he could find no evidence that a proper investigation had ever been conducted within the Salvation Army. "I found no evidence of any questions being asked of officer Haggar, or the victim or the victim's family." He had recently interviewed JI the girl who had been abused and her mother JH. Mr Greville told the commission JI had not disclosed the full nature of the allegations until he spoke to her - that is that she had been abused three times by Colin Haggar. |
Tuesday 1 Apr 2014 |
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1:17 PM 
The Catholic church spent $1.5 million to defeat John Ellis claim for compensation. (AAP)
A former altar boy preyed upon by a pedophile priest has been surprised by an apology from Cardinal George Pell. Dr Pell concluded two-and-a-half days of evidence to the royal commission into child sex abuse on Thursday by apologising for what he had described as regrettable mistakes and misunderstandings over years of dealing with John Ellis. Reading from a statement, Dr Pell said that, as the former archbishop of Sydney and speaking personally, the church had failed Mr Ellis in many ways. Mr Ellis later said he had been "a bit surprised" by the cardinal's apology. "I am just not sure how I feel about it," he told ABC. "It is better that he said he is sorry than that he didn't say that." Mr Ellis was sexually abused from the age of 13 to 17 by Father Aidan Duggan in the Sydney parish of Bass Hill in the 1970s. Despite his experiences Mr Ellis became an accomplished lawyer, before the weight of what had happened hit him more than 20 years later and his life fell apart. When he sought compensation from the church, it rejected an offer to settle for $100,000 and lawyers instructed by Dr Pell proceeded to aggressively defend a court case brought by Mr Ellis. Mr Ellis said the past fortnight at the royal commission had been totally draining and he felt exhausted. But he said it was very meaningful to have seen all of the actions that were taken put under scrutiny, and to get some answers about why things went the way they did. He hopes people won't have to take their cases to court in the future and that there will be a gentler, more compassionate process for all parties. But he said people need the right to take actions to court if they can't be sorted. Mr Ellis also said the church needs to be told "very publicly" that it is not above the law. Having his experience so publicly ventilated was something he still needed to reflect on, he said. But the royal commission process was very supportive, unlike the lonely process he went through 12 years ago when he went to the church. |
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1:16 PM 
Cardinal George Pell. (AAP)
A lawyer who represented a clergy sex abuse victim who lost his case against the Catholic Church, says changes are needed to ensure the church cannot keep claiming immunity from legal action. It's known in legal circles as the Ellis defence and it's been used by the Catholic Church in Australia when victims of clergy sex abuse have tried to sue. This week Australia's most senior Catholic cleric, Cardinal George Pell faced intense cross examination about the Ellis defence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney. Former altar boy and sex abuse victim John Ellis tried to sue the Catholic Church trustees and Cardinal Pell. But in 2007, the New South Wales Court of Appeal ruled the Church's assets are held in property trusts and are protected from lawsuits against clergy sex abusers. Cardinal Pell told the Commission he had some reservations about the defence used in the Ellis case. "I initially was uncertain about the propriety of that defence, I'm not a lawyer, it was pointed out to me, I think successfully, that the role of the trustees was quite limited to the ownership of property, if for example, there was negligence in building, if for example there was asbestos that the trustees could be sued on that account but as they had not been involved in the appointment and supervision of priests, they could not be sued. They did not have liability on that count." Cardinal Pell told the Commission he didn't believe the Church acted fairly towards Mr Ellis from a Christian point of view. Lawyer Doctor Andrew Morrison represented John Ellis in 2007. He told Greg Dyett, Cardinal Pell's appearance at the Royal Commission hasn't altered his views about the church's approach to clergy abuse claims. |
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1:16 PM JF and his two brothers were placed in Indooroopilly Boys Home when their father shot and killed their mother. While there, he was raped. The memory of his eight-year-old twin brother screaming for him when they were in a home run by the Salvation Army has caused a witness at a child sex abuse inquiry to break down. JF, who is now 75, was giving evidence to the royal commission examining how the Salvation Army dealt with abuse victims who complained of their treatment in homes in NSW and Queensland. JF and his two brothers, one his twin, were placed in Indooroopilly Boys Home Queensland in 1948 when their father shot and killed their mother. On Thursday he told how he bled for days when one officer at the home grabbed him, "choked" him and raped him. "I complained to the manager of the home who gave me a few whacks of the cane and told me to bugger off". JF also told how when he complained of a pain in the side during gym training he was accused of lying. The Salvation Army officer whose name he could not recall "pulled me in and kneed me in the stomach". JF passed out and spent three weeks in hospital with a burst appendix. He also told the commission how one officer took boys into his room and JF would hear them crying. It was when he was telling how he heard his twin brother "screaming for me" that he broke down. Simeon Beckett, counsel for the commission, read JF's statement for him. In it JF said he ran into a locker room where he saw an officer beating his brother. JF said he attacked the officer with "his hands and fists" "We didn't get into trouble for that, he said and added "you never knew what was going to happen". One day when he came home from school his twin brother was gone. "I didn't know he was going and I didn't get a chance to say goodbye." JF did not see him again for six years. "It was very difficult to deal with and still upsets me today" said JF. Mr Beckett said the commission would be presented with evidence indicating JF's later account of the abuse was doubted by the Salvation Army when it was first put to them. |
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1:15 PM Cardinal George Pell says the Catholic church didn't deal fairly with the victim of a pedophile priest "from a Christian point of view", but in a legal sense it did nothing improper. The church's most senior cleric in Australia has told the royal commission into child sexual abuse that while mistakes were made in defending a court case brought by former altar boy John Ellis, he was consoled by a legal ruling protecting the church's property trustees from being sued. "From a Christian point of view, leaving aside the legal dominion, I don't think we did deal fairly," the former Archbishop of Sydney told the commission in Sydney on Wednesday. "One of the few consolations, if that's what I've got from this sorry mess, is that the court of appeal unanimously endorsed the view that the trustees were not responsible in this case." The commission has heard the archdiocese of Sydney has property and cash worth $1.2 billion. Mr Ellis was abused by a priest from the age of 13-to-17. He sued the church but lost in 2007, when a court ruled the trustees which controlled church property weren't liable. Dr Pell appointed law firm Corrs Chambers Wesgarth to handle the case, telling the commission he wanted more control than he would have had by leaving it to the church's insurers. Dr Pell told the commission he instructed lawyers to defend the case so that litigants would "think clearly" about the advantages of not going to court. The commission heard the church refused to make a counter-offer to Mr Ellis after he sought $750,000 and the matter went to court. Dr Pell blamed advice from his lawyers, despite endorsing the strategy himself. Corrs then disputed in court that the abuse had occurred, despite the church having previously accepted that it had happened. Church lawyers cross-examined Mr Ellis over a number of days. Dr Pell said he regretted the action. "I regret that. I was told that it was a legally proper tactic," he said. The church subsequently pursued Mr Ellis for costs, despite a psychiatrist assessing Mr Ellis as being in a fragile mental state. The inquiry continues. |