Catholic Church Faces Fresh Allegations of Ignoring Child Abuse

By Geoff Thompson
ABC - PM
July 2, 2012

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2012/s3537310.htm

[with audio]

MARK COLVIN: "It would have been no different if he had taken a gun and shot him, it just took longer."

Those are the words of a relative of a child abused by a Catholic priest who's one of the subjects of tonight's Four Corners on ABC TV.

It uncovers a shocking case of abuse involving many children, committed over several years. Perhaps the most alarming revelation is the fact that the Church turned a blind eye to the priest's crimes. He was allowed to move from parish to parish, apparently without alerting the police.

The story's reporter, Geoff Thompson, told me first about extensive recent research on the appalling effects of abuse on the victims.

GEOFF THOMPSON: There was a study done in 2010 through Monash University which found that victims of child sexual assault are 18 times more likely to commit suicide and 50 times more likely to die of an accidental drug overdose.

And what we've seen in Victoria; at least 40 suicides are being investigated by police with their links to sex abuse by clergy. So sometimes this abuse happens a while ago, but the impacts are life and death issues and they're happening today and they're affecting the children of those abused as well.

MARK COLVIN: Now some people may think that this has all been cleared up and that the Church now has processes in place which are sorting it all out.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Yeah, I approached this story very much with an open mind being prepared to believe that, knowing that since 1996 there's been the Towards Healing response, there's been the Melbourne response, which is meant to be the Church's special protocols for dealing with that allegations of child sex abuse.

And there has been some good work done there, and part of those protocols are that the victims should be encouraged to go to the police. But it is still an internal process and leads to compensation, typically not as much as you would get if you went on your own with a civil action and armed with lawyers. But there's a process there.

But what we've uncovered throws a lot of doubt on the ability of the Church to refer knowledge that it has, very definite knowledge that it has of child sex abuse to, to off its own bat take that information to the police.

MARK COLVIN: Well be specific, what have you uncovered?

GEOFF THOMPSON: We've uncovered a - well there's a particular - he's now a former priest. He was a priest in the - basically up until 2005 from the early 80s, he abused at least six altar boys that we know of in Moree and in Parramatta. And he's never been convicted. He lives as a free man in Armidale today. But we've established that the church knew about some of these allegations in 1983.

MARK COLVIN: 1983?

GEOFF THOMPSON: 1983. One of these young boys, who was abused when he was 11, did take this person to court in a criminal action in 1988 and it was thrown out for lack of evidence. We now know that the church knew about it before then and they didn't offer that evidence.

But more disturbing than that is that this particular person said a lot more to three very senior priests, and those priests, even today, tell us that nothing was said that they thought should be referred to the police. And when people…

MARK COLVIN: You've got evidence that something was said that should have been referred to the police and they're contradicting that?

GEOFF THOMPSON: You'll hear what the things that were said tonight on Four Corners, but suffice to say, a key - one of the priests referred to them as "instances of misconduct". I would be very surprised if any of our viewers judge what they will hear to be adequately described as "instances of misconduct".

MARK COLVIN: Coming out of this, what do you expect to be the affect on the church?

GEOFF THOMPSON: I think, of course, the question will be asked of what did Cardinal Pell know? We've spoken to Cardinal Pell, he was surprised to even hear that some of these admissions were made in open court, and said to us, "I would take the word of three priests over that allegation", these were admissions in open court. He - I'm not sure exactly what he's been told, but there will certainly be questions raised about what he should know and what he should've known.

And certainly with the three priests involved, who are very senior priests, I think very serious questions will be asked about what they consider to be an admission which is worthy of telling the police. And if they don't believe that these admissions are worth telling the police it raises a very big question about what else they know, what else they have known, what else they have in their files now, and they feel, based on their own judgement, it's not worth telling the police about.

That's not for them to decide. That's for the police to decide, that's for the law courts to decide.

MARK COLVIN: Geoff Thompson on tonight's Four Corners on ABC Television at 8.30.