Melbourne Response Attaches Paedophile "Stigma', Investigator Says

By Jane Lee
The Age
August 22, 2014

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/melbourne-response-attaches-paedophile-stigma-investigator-says-20140822-1076bw.html

The Melbourne Response attaches the "stigma" of being a paedophile to priests, brothers and nuns it determines guilty of clerical abuse, the Catholic Church's independent investigator says.

The Royal Commission into child sexual abuse is investigating the effectiveness of the Melbourne Response, the church's internal process for handling victims' complaints.

Jeffrey Gleeson, QC, is one of its two Independent Commissioners who assesses victims' complaints. He appeared before the Commission on Friday and defended the scheme, saying it helped victims feel "believed". He also said it was his role to tell them they did not have to report to police if they did not want to.

The Commission's chairman, Justice Peter McClellan, asked Mr Gleeson whether his approach to complaints was driven by concerns about how his decisions would impact on clerics or for victims: "Because the redress scheme in itself has no consequences for the alleged abuser."

Mr Gleeson rejected this, saying that clerics were named when he found there had been abuse which meant "that person suffers the appropriate stigma of having been determined to be a paedophile."

He maintained that the Melbourne Response gave victims the satisfaction of being believed. Complainants always told him "it's not about the money and I believe them. It's about being believed that the priest, brother or nun abused them.

"I don't want to speak for all victims but my sense ... is that they need to know there's a factual finding that Father X did that."

The Church has given hundreds of victims ex gratia payments through the scheme since it was established by Cardinal George Pell in 1996, who was then Archbishop of the Melbourne Archdiocese.

Mr Gleeson, appointed in 2012, agreed that clerics should be disciplined, and all steps taken to make sure they did not re-offend.

He once advised the Melbourne Archbishop that a priest be stood down indefinitely, and said he would "expect to be informed" if this was disputed.

"But in the end I can only recommend," Mr Gleeson said.

Victims have criticised the Melbourne Response's other Independent Commissioner, Peter O'Callaghan, QC, of discouraging them from reporting abuse allegations to police by discussing their prospects of a conviction, which both he and Mr Gleeson rejected.

Victoria Police recently wrote to the Melbourne Response about the "perception that victims contacting police (believed this) necessitated a full investigation which it doesn't". They attached, at the Melbourne Archdiocese's request, a brochure on its child exploitation Taskforce SANO.

The brochure says victims can choose to make a formal report and initiate an investigation, tell their story and defer the decision, or make a statement and decide not to proceed formally with an investigation.

Mr Gleeson said he would provide victims all these options "and add another option which is not to go to police. I'd like every complainant to go to police but I'm not going to force them to."

He was asked by counsel assisting the Commission, Gail Furness, SC, about his duty to advise victims to seek independent legal advice.

Mr Gleeson said it was not his role to advise them to get independent legal advice about their prospects of taking civil action against the church of the offender.

He typically only advised them to get other legal representation when he realised that the alleged offender was deceased.