Cardinal George Pell scheme ‘discouraged abuse reporting’: Royal Commission report

By Shannon Deery
news.com.au
September 14, 2015

http://www.news.com.au/national/victoria/pell-scheme-discouraged-abuse-reporting/story-fnii5sms-1227526760871

A scheme introduced by George Pell to deal with complaints of sexual abuse discouraged victims from going to police, the child abuse Royal Commission has found.

Cardinal George Pell leaves the Royal Commission into child abuse after giving evidence last year.

Cardinal George Pell giving evidence at the Royal Commission.

A CONTROVERSIAL scheme introduced by George Pell to deal with complaints of sexual abuse actually discouraged victims from going to police, the child abuse Royal Commission has found.

In a major blow for Melbourne’s Catholic Archdiocese, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse today released its report into Cardinal Pell’s Melbourne Response.

As well as finding the scheme worked to stop victims taking complaints to authorities, the commission also hit out at the Vatican hierarchy saying it worked to obfuscate the removal of paedophiles in its ranks.

Introduced in 1996 by then Melbourne archbishop George Pell, the Melbourne Response was one of the Church’s first schemes to offer redress to victims of paedophile priests.

But in its report released today, the royal commission found compensation model’s independent commissioner discouraged victims from taking complaints to police.

“Advice about the approach that the police might take to any prosecution, and the likely outcome, should have been left to the police” the commission said.

“Administrators or decision makers in a redress scheme should never give advice to applicants about likely outcomes of a report to police, even if they are independent from the relevant institution.

“Giving such advice will always be inconsistent with their function and potentially confusing for applicants who, understandably, see them as being in a position of authority.”

Cardinal Pell and current Archbishop Denis Hart gave evidence that the Melbourne Response operated independently of the Archdiocese.

But the royal commission disagreed, finding the legal advisers to the Archdiocese also provided services to the Independent Commissioner.

Documents created as part of the scheme were also held by the lawyers who acted for the Archdiocese of Melbourne, raising a clear potential for conflict and difficulties with confidentiality.

The commission’s report also criticised the church’s handling of paedophile priests, questioning why it took church authorities so long to take action against them.

Highlighting the case of notorious paedophile priest Michael Charles Glennon, who died in January, the commission found the church refused to dismiss him on two separate occassions.

“We are troubled that although Father Glennon had been convicted of child sexual abuse offences in 1978, the Congregation for the Clergy refused to dismiss him from the priesthood,” the report said.

Attempts were made in 1990 and 1994 to dismiss Glennon, who abused dozens of kids, before he was finally removed from the priesthood in 1998.

“It took eight years from the time of the Archdiocese’s first petition, and 20 years from his first conviction,” the commission found.

“We are concerned that the application of canon law by members of the relevant dicasteries of the Holy See operated to obfuscate the removal of priests who had been convicted of child sexual abuse.”

The report found more $17 million had been paid to more than 300 victims of abuse since 1996.

Of the total almost $10 million was paid as compensation and $7.5 million was paid for medical and counselling costs.

But the figures could have been higher under the church’s national Towards Healing redress scheme.

“Because Towards Healing did not cap the financial payment, it may have and has resulted in more generous payments to survivors than the Melbourne Response, which was initially capped at $50,000,” the commission found.

Cardinal Pell has accepted that introducing the Melbourne Response when he did meant the Catholic Church’s Towards Healing program adopted a few weeks later was not a national response.

Similar complaints may not have been treated in a like manner and it meant consistency of outcome would not be achieved, the commission found.

In a separate report handed down today the commission called for the Federal Government to introduce a national redress scheme.

It also flagged legislative changes to stop churches and charities hiding behind property trusts when abuse survivors sue for damages.