Child Sex Abuse Inquiry Barely Scratches the Surface of Complaints

NEWS.com.au
March 31, 2014

http://www.news.com.au/national/child-sex-abuse-inquiry-barely-scratches-the-surface-of-complaints/story-fncynjr2-1226870368108

Frank Valentine allegedly assaulted kids at the Parramatta Girls home. Source: Supplied

ALMOST 150 paedophiles have been reported to police by the royal commission into child sex abuse as it investigates 13 ­institutions and more than 30 victims have come forward.

The commission has been so overwhelmed with reports of sexual abuse that it will be impossible to look into all of them, commission chair Justice Peter McClellan said yesterday.

There are 168 institutions, including orphanages and residential schools, where five or more victims have spoken to the commission. It said 62 per cent of complaints involved abuse in a religious ­institution, most of them Catholic.

“Although the royal commission has been given significant resources they could never be sufficient to allow the examination of more than a relatively small selection of the institutions in which we are aware there have been problems,” Justice McClellan said. “I am sorry many people will be disappointed their particular institution and their own story will not be publicly examined.”

The commission has referred 141 matters to police throughout Australia, including the former superintendent of Parramatta Girls Training School, Frank Valentine, who was accused of raping a girl, 13, in the school’s “dungeon” in the early 1970s. He vehemently denies the claims.

Justice McClellan said he had spoken to federal Attorney-General George Brandis about extending the commission beyond its schedule 2015 wrap-up date.