AUSTRALIA
SBS
The majority of child sex abuse claims brought before two churches have not been referred to police, an inquiry has heard.
Two of Australia’s largest churches say it’s up to the people who were sexually abused as children to go to the police.
The Anglican and Uniting churches in Victoria have together paid more than $2.25 million in compensation to victims over the past 10 to 15 years but have only referred a small number of allegations to authorities, a Victorian inquiry has heard.
Melbourne’s Anglican Archbishop Dr Philip Freier says a culture of disbelieving children who complained of sex abuse and an unwillingness to face up to difficult and shameful things had helped the crime go undetected.
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