AUSTRALIA
The Courier
By TOM MCILROY @TomMcIlroy
Dec. 7, 2012
MORE than seven months after it was established, Victoria’s parliamentary inquiry into child sexual abuse by members of religious organisations will hold its first regional hearings in Ballarat today.
Witnesses will tell the inquiry of the tragic legacy of abuse by Catholic priests and brothers in the Ballarat region as well instances of mishandled allegations which saw one priest offend against further victims in the United States.
Calls for an official inquiry grew too loud to be ignored after an internal Victoria Police report was leaked in April, linking as many as 40 suicides in Ballarat to abuse by Catholic clergy.
Witness Helen Watson will tell the inquiry that a Catholic priest who abused her son Peter in the early 1990s was moved around the Diocese of Ballarat before he abused children in the United States.
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