AUSTRALIA
The Australian
Parents of schoolgirl victims upset by lawyer’s description of abuse as ‘relatively minor’
AUGUST 21, 2014
Pia Akerman
Reporter
Melbourne
A SENIOR lawyer representing the Catholic Church has described a notorious priest’s sexual abuse of a young girl as “relatively minor”.
The royal commission investigating institutional responses to child sexual abuse today saw a letter Corrs Chambers Westgarth partner Richard Leder, who has advised the Melbourne archdiocese since it established a scheme to compensate victims of clergy sexual abuse,
wrote to then Vicar-General Denis Hart in 1998 about the case of Emma Foster.
Emma and her sister Katie were abused as schoolgirls in the 1990s by priest Kevin O’Donnell, and nearly 20 per cent of all compensation paid by the Melbourne Response relate to his crimes.
“This is plainly a situation where special efforts are needed to try and solve a horrendous problem,” Mr Leder wrote.
He wrote that while Emma was reluctant to give details of the abuse she suffered, it appeared she had been fondled and not penetrated by O’Donnell.
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