Sex Abuse Victims Angry over Inquiry Calls

ABC South West Victoria
March 29, 2012

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-30/church-sex-abuse-victims-angry-over-inquiry-calls/3922328/?site=southwestvic

Ms Courtin says a Royal Commission is needed.

There is anger at comments made by a senior Melbourne Catholic priest who has joined calls for an inquiry into the handling of child sexual abuse complaints in the Melbourne diocese.

Father Tony Kerin wants an independent inquiry but has told the ABC he does not think it will find "anything majorly untoward".

Judy Courtin represents men who were abused by convicted Christian Brothers and Catholic paedophiles in Ballarat in the 1960s and 70s.

She says the matter needs to handled by a Royal Commission and investigated much more broadly than one diocese of one church.

She says most victims are unhappy with the process.

"Some of them are saying that the church process is sometimes more abusive than the original sexual assaults," she said.

She says they really do not know how many victims there are.

"The only marker if you like that we can go on is that the Melbourne response has told us that it has dealt with about 400 or so complaints."