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| Child Sexual Abuse Royal Commission: Victims Pleased with Commission's Progress after One Year
By Dan Conifer
The ABC News
January 11, 2014
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-11/sex-abuse-victims-pleased-with-royal-commission-progress/5195450
Sex abuse survivor groups say they are pleased with the progress of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse after its first year of operation.
The commission was established on January 11, 2013, before private hearings began in May and public hearings began in September.
More than 1,000 victims have shared their stories with the commission.
About two-thirds of people taking part in private sessions were male and 70 per cent were over 50.
A third of institutions identified in private sessions were children's homes, including religious ones, while about a fifth were religious schools and 16 per cent were religious organisations
About 50 per cent of victims were between 10 and 14 when abuse began.
Two of Anthony Foster's daughters were the victims of a Melbourne priest and one of his daughters eventually committed suicide.
Mr Foster says the commission is already uncovering answers for victims.
"We're quite pleased with the way the royal commission is headed," he said.
"We're encouraged by the format of the hearings, the strength of the questioning and the insistence on answering that we've heard.
"It's good to hear institutions actually having to answer questions, which they've dodged for a long time.
"It's good to see them having to answer to our legal system, rather than just trying to use their own internal processes."
Dr Wayne Chamley, of victims' group Broken Rites, says most people are satisfied.
"They certainly are moving at quite a speed, but I think they've got the staff to do that, highly professional," Dr Chamley said.
Commissioners learn of long-lasting effects of child sex abuse
The Commission's CEO Janette Dines says sexual abuse is often accompanied by serious physical abuse.
She says many victims were not believed when they raised their concerns at the time.
"The private sessions have been important to the royal commissioners," she said.
It's good to hear institutions actually having to answer questions, which they've dodged for a long time.
Father of abuse victim Anthony Foster
"For many victims, telling their story is difficult, even traumatic, but what they have told the commissioners have helped provide a level of knowledge that would otherwise have been very difficult to obtain."
Ms Dines says the commissioners have learnt the impact child sexual abuse has on adult lives, including mental health, substance abuse and relationship issues.
Dr Chamley says the commissioners' understanding of abuse has risen sharply during the inquiry's first year.
"The numbers of people and also the lifelong impacts of abuse when it occurs in childhood - they're the big things that have really come home to these commissioners," he said.
"When they started they had no realisation of this."
Public hearings to continue with interim report due in June
In the first half of 2014, 21 weeks of public hearings will be held in Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and the ACT. Some will be concurrent.
The commission says it will aim to offer 800 private sessions to victims.
It will also release more issue papers and hold four roundtable discussions.
The commission's first interim report is due on June 30.
Dr Chamley says the report will help show the commission's future direction.
He says the report will help the public to better understand the "systemic nature" of the abuse.
"The commissioners will say, 'This is the scale of this problem, this is the systemic nature of it, and this is how it's been responded to in church-based organisations and non-church-based organisations'," he said.
The former Labor Government had requested a final report by the end of 2015, but the interim report is set to identify when a final report will be completed.
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