Victim criticises judge over abuse hearings

By Dan Box
Australian
July 24, 2014

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/in-depth/victim-criticises-judge-over-abuse-hearings/story-fngburq5-1226999301514

A CHILD sex abuse victim has criticised the royal commission over an alleged “opportunistic personal attack” on a senior prosecutor during a recent public hearing.

Peter Gogarty, who was repeatedly abused by a Catholic priest, wrote privately to commission chairman Peter McClellan about the treatment of Margaret Cunneen SC, a barrister who led a separate commission of inquiry into child sex abuse.

Earlier this month, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse spent days dissecting confidential advice provided by Ms Cunneen in 2004 about the prosecution of Olympic coach Scott Volkers for allegedly abusing teenage swimmers.

“In all of the circumstances, I am forced to the conclusion that Ms Cunneen during her evidence … was the subject of an opportunistic personal attack unrelated to the question at hand,” said Mr Gogarty’s letter said. “Given my public and strident support of ... (the) commission, I am very disappointed that the media has been offered the spectacle of an apparent ‘in-house’ spat.”