Sex Abuse Royal Commission to Begin

ABC News
April 2, 2013

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-03/sex-abuse-royal-commission-to-begin/4606476?section=vic

[with video and audio]

The historic Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will begin in the Victorian County Court in Melbourne today.

The commission will look at religious organisations, state care providers, not-for-profit bodies, as well as child service agencies and police forces and what can be done so that the victims have justice.

The commission's chairman, Justice Peter McClellan, will today provide information on how future private and public hearings will be conducted.

The senior counsel assisting the commission, Gail Furness, will also deliver an opening statement.

Audio: Royal commission set to begin (AM)

A spokesman for the royal commission has told AM it is anticipated the commissioners will start holding private discussions with victims of child sexual abuse in May.

Public hearings are not expected to start for several months.

An initial report is due by mid next year and the Federal Government has requested a final report by the end of 2015, but given the magnitude of the inquiry, it appears likely that deadline will need to be extended.

It has been compared to a similar inquiry in Ireland, which lasted a decade.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who announced the royal commission in November last year, told ABC NewsRadio this morning that the commission is "an important moral moment for our nation".

"What I want to achieve out of the royal commission is twofold: for the survivors of child sexual abuse, I want this to be a moment of healing, for us to say to them as a nation 'we hear you, you're valued and you're believed' because for too long, so many of these survivors have just run in to closed doors and closed minds," she said.

"And second, I want the royal commission to provide for us recommendations about the future.

"We've let children down in the past as a country - we need to learn what we can do as a nation to better protect our children in the future."

Ms Gillard announced the commission a week after explosive allegations made by a senior detective in the NSW police force.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox alleged in an interview with Lateline last year that the Catholic Church hierarchy protects paedophile priests, silences investigations and destroys critical evidence to avoid prosecution.

But Chief Inspector Fox has told the ABC's 7.30 program that NSW Police have informed him he will not be considered a whistleblower.

He says that decision leaves him open to litigation.

Many people are hoping the scale of abuse will be revealed today, while there are reports the commission is struggling to deal with the amount of people wanting to give evidence.

As a schoolboy in the 1970s, Stephen Woods was repeatedly raped and bashed by Catholic clergy. He has been lobbying for a royal commission for 18 years.

Mr Woods told Lateline he expects the scale of the investigations to be "massive".

"There's so much information, there's so much crime, there's so many people who want to talk about their pain, and we're talking about pains of thousands of people," he said.

"What an amazing time for cleansing for the Australian population. I'm living with the effects and the lasting turmoil in my life because of these people and because of the cover-ups that went on."