Support for push to investigate links between sex abuse and suicides

By Joanne Mccarthy
Newcastle Herald
January 14, 2015

http://www.theherald.com.au/story/2817123/support-for-push-to-investigate-links-between-sex-abuse-and-suicides/?cs=12

AUSTRALIA’S leading child abuse organisation has supported a Hunter group’s push for an investigation into possible links between convicted and alleged child sex offenders and the suicides of more than 30 Hunter boys, teenagers and men.

Adults Surviving Child Abuse (ASCA) president Dr Cathy Kezelman said it was vital because ‘‘when you’re looking at including the voices of people impacted by child sexual abuse the voices of those who have not survived are harder to hear, but they’re very significant voices’’.

‘‘What is a more profound repercussion of the crime than someone losing their life?’’ Dr Kezelman said.

ASCA supported the Hunter group’s submission to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, for the families of those who had already died, and to help prevent further suicides.

She agreed with Hunter group spokesman Bob O’Toole, who said many devastated families had been silenced in the past because of the sudden, shocking and unexplained deaths of family members, often after troubling behaviour.

‘‘The link between child sexual abuse and the risk of suicide is well established with a 2008 Australian study showing the rate of suicide for child sexual abuse survivors was 18 times higher than that of people who have not experienced child sexual assault,” Dr Kezelman said.

‘‘The tragedy is that lives are lost because of the secrecy and silence around the crime of child sexual abuse as many victims don’t tell anyone for a long time. The Royal Commission’s interim report found on average there is a delay of 22 years in disclosure. Part of this relates to the inappropriate shame and self blame survivors often take on as well as the fear of not being believed.’’