Christian Brothers Settle More Payouts to Child Sex Abuse Victims Following Royal Commission Hearings
By Jade Macmillan
The Christian Brothers has reached settlements with more victims following the Perth hearings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The royal commission last year examined abuse allegations at Christian Brothers colleges in Bindoon, Tardun, Clontarf and Castledare between 1947 and 1968. Victims described being sexually and emotionally abused as well as being subjected to hard labour. Many also complained about the amount of compensation they had received. The royal commission found the Christian Brothers leadership was aware of abuse allegations for decades but failed to act. It also found at least one Brother who had been accused of abusing children was moved to another institution. At the time of the hearings, Christian Brothers promised to re-examine the cases of victims who felt they had been settled on "unjust and unreasonably low terms". In a statement, it said it had now received 130 requests for re-examination and had settled 64 of them. "These resettled matters now account for 49 per cent of the requests received by the Christian Brothers Oceania relating to the Western Australian institutions," the statement said. "The Christian Brothers are confident of continuing to make further progress in these matters over the coming months." The Brothers declined to reveal how much the settlements were worth. Victims' support group Care Leavers Australia Network (CLAN) said victims deserved more compensation but should not have to deal with the Christian Brothers again. "There are probably many men who won't go back to the Christian Brothers to seek a payment because they're so full of rage and anger," CLAN spokeswoman Leonie Sheedy said. "They don't want to deal directly with the abusers, they want an independent person to assess the level of compensation, redress to victims." Ms Sheedy said the new settlements had come too late for some of the former students. "Lots of people have died never getting any compensation and their families have been severely hurt," she said. "I think they were shamed into re-opening them. They would never have looked at these previous payouts had they not been called at a public hearing."
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