AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM
[with audio]
The Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into the handling of the Sexual Abuse of Children has heard evidence in Ballarat where several paedophile priests have served. Victims and their families and supporters have told the inquiry that bishops were aware some priests were prone to abusing children but simply moved them to different parishes.
Samantha Donovan
Transcript
MARK COLVIN: Victoria’s inquiry into the handling of child sexual abuse has heard more harrowing stories of clerical abuse today.
For the first time, the inquiry sat outside Melbourne in the Victorian town of Ballarat.
Police are investigating whether dozens of suicides in the town can be directly linked to abuse suffered at the hands of Catholic clergy.
Samantha Donovan reports.
SAMANTHA DONOVAN: The Victorian town of Ballarat gained fame as a booming gold rush town in the 1850s. But now it’s also notorious as having been home to several paedophile priests.
One abuse victim, Philip Nagle, gave evidence at today’s inquiry.
PHILIP NAGLE: Ballarat’s St Alipius Primary School in Victoria Street was certainly not the place to be if you were a Catholic boy going to school in the 1970s.
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