Senior Catholic Official Admits ...

By Peter Bodkin
Telegraph
January 22, 2014

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/senior-catholic-official-admits-churchs-compensation-system-for-sexabuse-victims-is-problematic/story-fni0cx12-1226807706318

A SENIOR Catholic official has admitted the church's compensation system for sexual-abuse victims under the controversial "Towards Healing" process had been "problematic".

While one victim received up to $850,000 from the church for the exploitation they suffered at the hands of a priest, another man who was routinely sexually and physically abused over a six-year period from when he was 12 years old was offered just $80,000.

The victim, known as DK, reported being repeatedly abused by three Marist brothers, including one named Ross Francis Murrin, while boarding at St Augustine's College in Cairns between 1976 and 1981.

In 2010 he attended a Towards Healing session in Brisbane led by Michael Salmon, who DK claimed had been introduced to him as "an independent mediator and lawyer" - only to later discover the man was really the director of the church's NSW Professional Standards Office.