Widow Calls for Caution in Care Abuse Inquiry

By Natalie Poyhonen
ABC News
November 23, 2012

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-23/widow-calls-for-caution-in-care-abuse-inquiry/4389810?section=qld

[with video]

Peter Jackson's widow says an inquiry into child abuse triggered devastating memories.

Transcript

CHRIS O'BRIEN: A warning tonight on how challenging it can be to deal with child sexual abuse, as the Federal Government prepares for next year's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Peter Jackson was a man who on the surface had it all - a loving wife, children, memories of a stellar international rugby league career and a burgeoning media role. But he was tortured by the anguish of sexual abuse as a teenager. His widow tonight reveals from a letter he wrote just before he died how media reports of a previous investigation into paedophiles triggered a downward spiral which lead to his death. Natalie Poyhonen reports.

SIOBHAN JACKSON, WIDOW: One of the powerful things about Peter's story is that it's not about one institution, it's over institutions, it's about a Catholic brother who was working in an Anglican boarding school, who was a football coach.

This is a supremely conditioned athlete. And this is an abused child. It's easy to defend yourself when you're a powerful football player.

NATALIE POYHONEN: Peter Jackson died at just 33 years of age leaving behind his wife and three children. As Australia prepares for the upcoming Royal Commission into Child Abuse, his widow Siobhan Jackson knows from bitter experience what can happen. In 1997 while in drug rehabilitation her husband wrote a letter about how he felt watching news reports of a Commission of Inquiry that was then underway.