AUSTRALIA
Illawarra Mercury
By EMMA SPILLETT Nov. 9, 2014
A Wollongong lawyer, whose client was embroiled in a battle with the Catholic Church, claims new measures to help survivors of institutionalised child sex abuse fail to address fundamental legal problems with the church.
Mark Johnston spent nearly a year trying to get a fair settlement for a man who had allegedly been repeatedly abused by a Christian Brother at Edmund Rice College.
No criminal charges have ever been laid against the brother over the alleged abuse.
Mr Johnston claims the man’s case exposed the failings of the church’s “Towards Healing” program, its internal settlement regime used to allegedly steer people away from legal action, in exchange for compensation.
While Mr Johnston welcomed initiatives introduced by the state government last week in light of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, he believes more work needs to be done.
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