Child sex abuse royal commission: Melbourne Response investigator 'encouraged' victims to see police

By Helen Vines
ABC News
August 19, 2014

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-19/church-investigator-encouraged-abuse-victims-to-see-police/5681098

Peter O'Callaghan QC told the hearing he encouraged victims to go to police, but some did not follow his advice.

The head of the Catholic Church's response to sexual abuse allegations encouraged victims to go to the police, the child abuse royal commission has heard.

Peter O'Callaghan, QC, has been the independent commissioner for the abuse complaint handling process, known as the Melbourne Response, since it was set up in 1996 by then Melbourne Archbishop George Pell.

Mr O'Callaghan has come in for criticism during the current proceedings, with two witnesses telling the commission he discouraged them from taking their claims to the police.

Giving evidence to the commission, Mr O'Callaghan said he encouraged victims to go to the police, and some followed his advice, while others did not.

He agreed with counsel assisting Gail Furness SC that if police were investigating a complaint, his own investigation stopped because "it would be a concurrent investigation and quite inappropriate".

Mr O'Callaghan said he established a procedure for dealing with claims of abuse that involved inviting the person making the claim to visit him.

He told the hearing how he would then take a statement and submit it to the victim for approval or amendments.

If the priest involved was still alive he would refer it to him and invite a response.

He said he felt the church's response to complainants was "very rapid redress" and they aimed to resolve matters in six months.

The commission heard Mr O'Callaghan made adverse findings against 65 priests out of 330 complaints to the Melbourne Response.

Twenty of the adverse findings were against priests who were still active.

Mr O'Callaghan said some priests who had been the subject of adverse findings had never been prosecuted by police and many of those were on administrative leave and not allowed to practice.

He said there was a 97 per cent success rate with complainants who came to him.

He told the commission he was a truly independent investigator when it came to investigate claims of abuse.

"As far as I'm concerned I made decision without fear or favour or influence from other persons," he said.

The commission spent some time discussing the case of the Foster family, whose two daughters were abused by priests.

Mr O'Callaghan said he first met the Fosters in March 1997 and later formally found their daughter Emma had been a victim of "grievous" abuse.

He recommended an ex gratia payment of $50,000 from the church.

However, he said in his view, while her parents were badly affected by what happened, they were not victims themselves.

Later Mr O'Callaghan received an application regarding the Foster's other daughter, Katie, who was also abused.

He said he understood the Fosters were angry with him for not providing a formal finding about Katie's claims, even though he had formed the view years earlier that she had been abused.

Mr O'Callaghan said he was not concerned that the Fosters might take legal action, saying if he had known, he would have taken no further action.

He said he would not have provided a finding if they were taking other proceedings outside of the church's Melbourne Response.

The commission has been told complaints have been upheld against 81 members of the Catholic Church in Melbourne since 1996.

Mr O'Callaghan said 64 priests, five sisters and 10 lay people were among those to have been investigated by the Melbourne Response program.

More than 350 cases were taken to Melbourne Response and 326 were upheld.