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Church response to Melbourne victims of child sexual abuse 'a betrayal'
By Melissa Davey
Victims have told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse that the scheme established by the Catholic archdiocese of Melbourne to investigate their claims lacked compassion and independence and left them feeling betrayed. During an emotional day marred by a power blackout that delayed the hearing by more than two hours, victims also questioned the so-called independence of commissioners appointed by the church to investigate sex abuse claims, and spoke of feeling pressured by senior church officials into meeting them and accepting compensation. The hearing taking place in Melbourne over the next fortnight is scrutinising the scheme, known as the Melbourne Response, established by Cardinal George Pell in 1996. Reading her witness statement on Monday morning, Chrissie Foster described how two of her three daughters, Katie and Emma, were repeatedly abused by Father Kevin O’Donnell at Sacred Heart primary school in Oakleigh. At times her husband, Anthony, took over reading for her. After Emma’s application to the Melbourne Response for compensation, the Fosters submitted invoices for her medical treatment to Carelink – the counselling and support service offered by the church. But in 1997 the Fosters received a letter from the Reverend Monsignor Denis Hart, the vicar general of the archdiocese. He said Medicare and/or private health insurance should be relied on to pay Emma’s medical costs. “I thought that this was inappropriate,” Chrissie Foster said. “It seemed to me that the Catholic Church wanted to transfer responsibility for Emma’s medical expenses from itself and on to taxpayers through Medicare and on to our private health insurer.” She and her husband also repeatedly objected to Professor Richard Ball being appointed as the person responsible for the provision of Carelink services. Ball had defended O’Donnell in his sentencing hearings in 1995. O’Donnell was charged with 49 child sex offences and jailed for 39 months but was released on parole on the following year. “Anthony and I were profoundly shocked that Professor Ball was responsible for the counselling arm of the Melbourne Response,” Foster said. “I felt that this was not fair to victims. To me, it demonstrated a lack of understanding of how victims might feel and the need for a separate, independent and safe place for victims to go for help.” In 1998 Emma received a letter signed by Pell apologising for the abuse she had suffered. But a separate letter from the church said the $50,000 in compensation being offered to her should provide “an an alternative to litigation that will otherwise be strenuously defended”. Foster told the court she took that as a threat not to take legal action. “I felt betrayed. I felt there was an apology and then a threat. It was just more of the same from the church.” Ultimately, the Fosters withdrew their claim under the Melbourne Response, which capped compensation payments to victims at the time at $50,000. They pursued legal action and reached a settlement with the church for $750,000. Foster called for all cases handled by the Melbourne Response to be reopened and for compensation payments to be uncapped and determined in line with the civil legal system. “We also support the introduction of a redress scheme funded by the responsible institutions as an alternative to, but not replacing, victims’ recourse to the legal system.” Earlier in the day, the court heard the Melbourne Response had cost the church $17m in payouts and $17m in admin. This covered 351 complaints made to the scheme between October 1996 and March 2014, of which 326 were upheld. In the afternoon another witness, Paul Hersbach, gave a heartbreaking account of how Father Victor Rubeo abused his father and uncle before ingratiating himself into his family and abusing him as well. Despite at times being overcome with emotion, he told the court he was sexually abused between the ages of eight and 11, from 1985 to 1998. “Both my father and his twin brother were groomed and sexually abused by Father Rubeo, and neither twin knew of each other’s abuse until later in life,” he said. “In 1997 my parents got married and Father Rubeo officiated at their wedding and, after marriage, gave them $10,000 towards purchase of a house in Gladstone Park.” He ingratiated himself into the family, said Hersbach, who has three siblings. He was present at family milestones and holidays and, after coming over for dinner on Sundays, would stay the night. He also opened the family’s mail, paid bills and bought groceries. He had the family stay with him at his presbytery in East Brighton for six months while a new house was being built for them. “He took over running of family and behaved like he was in charge,” the witness said. Hersbach and his siblings called Rubeo “grandpa”. It wasn’t until Hersbach was 16 that his father told him he had been sexually abused by the priest as a child. In 1996 Rubeo pleaded guilty to two counts of indecent assault against Hersbach’s father and uncle. In 2010 fresh charges were laid against him but he died on 16 December 2011, the same day he was due in court for his committal. Hersbach did not go into detail about his own sexual abuse and said it had taken him a while after his father’s revelation to realise that he too was a victim. “Of all those things Rubeo did to me, the worst was robbing a young boy of his father,” he said. “For 16 years he inserted himself between us by behaving and making decisions as though my father. This was far worse than any physical abuse could ever have been, and it breaks my heart he took this away from us.” Hersbach claimed assistance through the Melbourne Response and told the court he had met one of the church’s independent commissioners, Peter O’Callaghan QC, one-on-one in his chambers. “He said words to effect, ‘Look, I’m obliged to say go to the cops if you want, but based on what you told me, I don’t think anything is going to happen.’ ” Hersbach said he had accepted the advice at the time but in retrospect felt it was inappropriate. This meeting was followed by a letter from O’Callaghan which said: “With respect to the unsurprising haziness of your memory there would not appear to be much point in your taking the matter to the police. However, that is a matter for you.” He had never been encouraged to seek independent legal advice or go to the police. “I felt there was no room in the process for compassion, debate or for me, the victim,” Hersbach said. He was ultimately given a payout of $17,500, though he had no idea how the church arrived at that figure. It had taken him a year to bring himself to sign the deed of release. “My feelings have changed in the last five years towards the deed of release I signed,” he said. “Now it causes me angst – the church has taken so much from me over years. “I want the church to acknowledge that the deed of release adds to victims’ burden and for those victims that desire it, I want the church to release the victims from obligations under the deeds. “And I want the church to acknowledge the value of payments grossly undervalues the impact of sexual abuse on victims.” He echoed the Fosters’ call for all claims assessed by the church to be reopened, and said Carelink should be redesigned and should not be the only counselling service victims were told about. It was inappropriate that his wife had been asked by the church to hand over her Medicare details, he said, adding she had refused to do so. The church should be forced to disclose how much had been claimed for counselling through Medicare. “I would like my wife to be able to easily access Carelink counselling services and to not have to explain to strangers why she qualified, or worry about how many sessions entitled to, or to be asked for her Medicare details,” he said. “I feel that the mental health and healing of survivors are not core issues driving the church’s approach to the issues.” He said two Carelink staff, including a psychologist, had asked him intimate questions about his sex life. “I found it confronting,” he said. The final witness of the day, identified only as AFA, told the court how he was sexually abused by Father Michael Glennon on three separate dates, starting from when he was 15. Like Hersbach, he was also interviewed by O’Callaghan under the Melbourne Response scheme. He told the court he felt as though O’Callaghan had discouraged him from going to the police. O’Callaghan was also expected to give evidence on Monday afternoon. But the power outages meant he is now to appear first thing on Tuesday. The hearing continues.
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