Vic victim wants compassion from church

9 News
August 18, 2014

http://www.9news.com.au/national/2014/08/18/16/25/vic-victim-wants-compassion-from-church

Abuse victim Paul Hersbach doesn't want an apology from the Catholic Church. He doesn't want the church to burn. He just wants compassion.

Mr Hersbach was sexually abused for three years during the 1980s by the same Catholic priest who had also abused his father and uncle.

Father Victor Gabriel Rubeo had lived with the Hersbach family, was known to the children as "gramps" and even had a cap with the phrase "Super Gramps" embroidered on it.

But when Mr Hersbach made a complaint to the Catholic Church's Melbourne Response scheme for abuse victims in 2006, he said he felt like he was being interrogated.

Mr Hersbach told the child sex abuse royal commission in Melbourne he wants the church to show some compassion.

"I do not need or want a personal apology. I do not want the church burnt down.

"All I want is someone from the Catholic Church to show compassion and give me a call one day and say: 'Hi Paul, how are you doing these days. How are you and your family getting along? Can I do anything to help?'" Mr Hersbach said on Monday.

He said Melbourne Response independent commissioner Peter O'Callaghan QC discouraged him from going to the police and said he could not act on his claim while the matter was under police investigation.

Mr Hersbach told the inquiry Mr O'Callaghan said: "Look, I'm obliged to say you can go to the cops if you want, but based on what you told me I don't think anything is going to happen."

He was offered about $17,500 in 2006.

Rubeo pleaded guilty to two counts of indecent assault in 1996.

He died in 2010 on the day he was to appear in court on 30 fresh charges.

Mr Hersbach said he struggled for many years to understand why his father was unable to say `no' when Rubeo inserted himself into the family.

"For all the things Father Rubeo did to me, the worst by far was robbing a young boy of his father," Mr Hersbach said.

"It breaks my heart that he took this away from us."