‘shunned’ Victim of Pedophile Priest Turns on Royal Commission

By Dan Box
The Australian
September 30, 2014

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A FORMER victim of a pedophile priest has accused the child abuse royal commission of treating him “with the same lack of ­respect shown to me by the Catholic Church” after his complaint about the conduct of an inquiry went unanswered.

Peter Gogarty, who was repeatedly abused by a Catholic priest during the 1970s, has written twice to commission chairman Peter McClellan about the hearing into unrelated alle­gations of child abuse, held earlier this year.

His first letter, sent in July, criticised the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse for what Mr Gogarty alleged to be “an opportunistic personal attack” on a senior barrister giving evidence.

A second letter, sent this month, criticised the commission’s lack of response, saying: “I have either been forgotten, or I am being ignored and treated with the same lack of respect shown to me by the Catholic Church.”

Mr Gogarty yesterday received a five-sentence reply from the commission’s chief executive, Philip Reed, saying: “I have brought (both letters) to Justice McClellan’s attention.