NEW ZEALAND
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BEN HEATHER
Four Catholic priests or brothers have never faced justice for sexually abusing children, despite the church accepting their guilt.
The Roman Catholic Church in New Zealand has, for the first time, revealed the number of sexual abuse claims it has received, many of which are still being investigated.
They show the number of people coming forward is growing every year, decades after they were abused. But few, if any, are resulting in fresh complaints to police.
Victims have said that, even now, the church remains unwilling to dig into the darker parts of its past.
“If a victim came to me now, I’d say, ‘Stay away from the church’,” one victim said.
Bill Kilgallon, the church official handling sex abuse complaints, has confirmed that details of known abusers were not passed on to police unless victims lodged a complaint. …
In four years to December 2014, the church has received 58 fresh child-sex abuse complaints, and accepted 26 as “proven”. A further 24 are still under investigation.
The number has risen every year – 25 complaints lodged in 2014 – and Kilgallon expects the stream to continue.
The proven complaints implicated 21 priests, monks, nuns and teachers. Most are dead but of eight who are alive, four have never been charged. Police did not provide figures for how many child abuse complaints involving the Catholic Church it had received.
Kilgallon said all four had retired from the church and were not a risk. Their victims had chosen not to go to police because they could not endure a court case and no longer trusted police after a previous bad experience.
“Some are very fragile in their mental health and couldn’t cope.”
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