Evidence of sex abusers key to royal commission

By Tessa Akerman
Australian
July 07, 2015

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/in-depth/evidence-of-sex-abusers-key-to-royal-commission/story-fngburq5-1227431431137

The sex abuse royal commission will call more perpetrators to give evidence when it resumes the Ballarat public hearings later this year to further understand why the abuse occurred and how the institutions responded.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard evidence from serial abuser and former priest Gerald Ridsdale at Ballarat in May this year.

Commission chairman Peter McClellan said the evidence of perpetrators was of considerable significance in the commission’s work.

“They have a capacity to tell us of the relationship between themselves and more senior members of their institutions, including the bishop or archbishop if they come from a religious institution,” he said.

“They can tell us if others knew of their offending conduct and help us to understand how the church responded or failed to respond to that conduct.”