Act Sexual Abuse Crimes Dating Back to 1951 Investigated under New Police Operation
ABC News
Allegations of sexual abuse at ACT institutions covering a period of more than 60 years are to be investigated under a new police operation. In 2013, laws passed by the ACT Legislative Assembly recently removed the statute of limitations on historic abuse crimes. Previously, victims had to report the offence within 12 months or it could not be prosecuted. Operation Attest has now been set up to allow police to prosecute certain sexual offences allegedly committed between 1951 and 1985. Former Marist Brother John 'Kostka' Chute was convicted of multiple counts of acts of indecency on children under the age of 16. Last year the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse hearings in Canberra heard from some of Brother Kostka's victims while examining the response of the Marist Brothers to allegations of child sexual abuse in schools across the ACT, New South Wales and Queensland. But Chief Police Officer Rudi Lammers said seven charges had to be dropped because legislation at the time did not allow the prosecution of historical crimes. He said the Operation Attest team had been in consultation with criminal law firm Porter Lawyers, which has had ongoing contact with some victims of institutional abuse. "Sexual assaults are within that rare category of crime where police don't prosecute in our own right," Assistant Commissioner Lammers told 666 ABC Canberra. It's very difficult for a person who was abused 30 years ago, who is now married with children, who has a family who've been completely sheltered from this abuse, to suddenly come forward. Chief Police Officer Rudi Lammers "In most other crimes we can mount a prosecution, but with sexual abuse and sexual crimes we rely on the victim to come forward." He said victims could come forward privately to specialist detectives. "Although adults now, they were very young and very vulnerable children," Assistant Commissioner Lammers said. "I'm asking people now to come forward to talk to us about that abuse. "But the last thing police want to do is re-traumatise people, so people can come forward very discreetly. "We've selected some of our most experienced sexual abuse investigators, that have dealt with a range of sexual crimes... they are the most skilled detectives we have in this field." Assistant Commissioner Lammers said though time may have passed, it could still be difficult for victims to come forward. "It's very difficult for a person who was abused 30 years ago, who is now married with children, who has a family who've been completely sheltered from this abuse, to suddenly come forward," he said. "It doesn't mean that person hasn't been living with that grief for all those years." Government welcomes police operation after 'unjust law' repealed ACT Attorney-General Simon Corbell said the Government welcomed police investigations after the Government repealed "the unjust law" in 2013. As a community we are listening and responding to the terrible things that were done to them, that harm that has been caused to them and the injustice they have suffered. ACT Attorney-General Simon Corbell "I'm very pleased that the police are now commencing this operation asking people to come forward who may have been a victim of a sexual offence that was previously barred from prosecution," he said. "This legacy matter which dates back from the mid-1950s, barred young people in particular from coming forward and reporting sexual offences against them because of their age." Mr Corbell said while sexual offence cases from more than 60 years ago were sometimes difficult to prosecute, the important thing was that victims could have their voices heard. "People can go to the police and the police are able to properly investigate based on the evidence at hand," he said. "Previously people have been denied even that opportunity.
"People now have the opportunity to have their story heard, told and investigated by specially trained investigators. "As a community we are listening and responding to the terrible things that were done to them, that harm that has been caused to them and the injustice they have suffered, by people over a timeframe of many decades." Heather Ross from Porters Lawyers, the law firm consulted in Operation Attest, said that their lawyers had acted for more than 100 victims who suffered sexual abuse at Marist College in Canberra. "Porters has found that not only did the order know that there was abuse happening within its schools, but it also moved the perpetrators around within the schools that it operated," she said. More information about the operation is available through an open letter on the ACT Policing website.
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