Catholic Church Sex Abuse Complaints Top 100 since Inquiry Began

By Barney Zwartz
Brisbane Times
October 24, 2013

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/victoria/catholic-church-sex-abuse-complaints-top-100-since-inquiry-began-20131024-2w2qv.html

More than 100 new complaints of clergy child abuse have been made to the Catholic Church in Victoria since the parliamentary inquiry into how the churches handled child sexual abuse began last year.

There were 95 new complaints in the 2012-13 financial year ended June 30, the Melbourne Archdiocese announced on Thursday, and church spokesman Shane Mackinlay said that victims had come forward "at the same rate" in the first three months of this financial year.

Because the figures came from different sources he did not have precise figures for this year, but it would be about 25. The church gave the updated figures to the Victorian inquiry on Wednesday.

The new complaints relate to abuse from the 1940s to the 1990s, and one parish priest has been stood down and had his faculties removed, Father Mackinlay said.

He confirmed that the priest was one about whom Fairfax Media reported last October, Father Peter Grasby, who was stood down on August 31, 2012, over serious allegations of sexually abusing a boy 30 years earlier.

Of the 95 complaints in 2012-13, 53 were made to the two church abuse responses, the Melbourne Response and Towards Healing, and 42 came directly to the church via lawyers. The Melbourne Response received 18 complaints, with 13 upheld so far, and Towards Healing 35, with 15 upheld so far. The other complaints are ongoing, of which seven victims have gone to the police. The church did not investigate while the police were doing so, Father Mackinlay said.

The 42 complaints via lawyers were made to the church groups that appeared at the Victorian inquiry, and 15 have so far been upheld. Father Mackinlay said most involved priests who were known offenders and the church tried to reach settlement with these victims to spare them the court process.

He said the number of victims had averaged 25 a year before the parliamentary inquiry began, followed by the royal commission, and the publicity around these inquiries had certainly helped victims to come forward.

This might continue for some time, but the church was very encouraged that the complaints all related to abuse before the late 1990s, suggesting that the rate of offending by priests since then had greatly diminished.

The fact that so many victims had chosen to use the Melbourne Response and Towards Healing showed they still wanted the church to provide a non-adversarial process for providing support and compensation, he said.

The church had made public the new figures in keeping with its commitment to greater transparency, he said.

“The abuse may be historical, but the long-term suffering of victims and their families continues. That is why it is so important to keep providing care and support, and to keep our community informed about all we are doing."