AUSTRALIA
ABC News
[with video]
A Victorian Parliamentary inquiry has released a scathing report accusing the Catholic Church of a systemic cover up of child sex abuse cases over years.
Transcript
LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: It was another day of reckoning for the Catholic Church today with the Victorian parliamentary inquiry releasing a scathing report accusing the Church of a systemic cover-up of child abuse cases over many years. Other churches and institutions were also slammed for failing in their duty of care to children. The findings could open up hundreds of claims for financial compensation in the courts, as national affairs correspondent Heather Ewart reports.
LES LAST: I’ve got about four plants in the house, and if they can survive, then I think there’s a chance for me.
HEATHER EWART, REPORTER: It’s the simple things that help ease a lifetime of suffering for Les Last.
LES LAST: I’ve been such a failure at so many things for so many years, it still amazes me that I have any desire to attempt anything, you know.
HEATHER EWART: Les Last and his sister Helen share a terrible story. He was repeatedly sexually abused by a Christian brother at Melbourne’s Aquinas College in the 1960s from the age of 12.
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