'Not all child abusers pedophiles'

Sky News
April 15, 2014

http://www.skynews.com.au/national/article.aspx?id=967859

People who sexually abuse children are not all paedophiles and the Salvation Army would dispute having one in their ranks, a senior official at the church says.

Its former secretary for personnel, Major Peter Farthing, on Tuesday also told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse he did not launch an investigation into allegations of sexual abuse of two women because such inquiries were not 'second nature' to him.

The commission has heard that former Salvation Army officer Colin Haggar admitted abusing an eight-year-old girl in a central western NSW town in 1989.

But this did not necessarily make him a pedophile, Mr Farthing said.

'My understanding is that a pedophile is somebody whose primary sexual orientation is towards children or adolescents, and not all offenders are paedophiles,' Mr Farthing told the commission.

'Some people offend in a kind of crime of opportunity - a situational crime.

'Left alone with a child, they might have some brokenness, something going on in their own life which may make them vulnerable to offend and they will abuse a child.'

He said the impact of abuse on the child was always the same and 'serious'.

'But the nature of the offender is not the same. They are not all paedophiles,' he said.

Mr Farthing pointed to NSW law, which recognises not all offenders should be treated the same.

Some offenders can apply under the law to work with children following a risk assessment of the individual, taking into account years since the offence, the life the person has lived since the offence.

Mr Farthing also took issue with reports the Salvation Army had a pedophile in its ranks.

'We would dispute that,' he said.

Mr Farthing said he did not launch an investigation into allegations Mr Haggar also indecently assaulted two adult women in 1990 because 'it wasn't a contemporary action'.

'It is not second nature to me. It is not something I'm greatly familiar with, and it is not something the Salvation Army have habitually done,' he said.

'So you know, my mind didn't immediately run (to) I have to investigate this.'

Mr Haggar was dismissed from the Salvos in 1992, but later readmitted.

He was involuntarily retired last year.

James Condon, now in charge of the army's eastern region, gave evidence last week that he accompanied Mr Haggar when he went to police in 1990 to report the offence.

Mr Condon, who was a captain at the time, could not recall details but said police had told Mr Haggar no action could be taken without the victim making a complaint.