Two abuse survivors have quit a Royal Commission advisory group in fallout from being unknowingly exposed to a paedophile.
The two men accuse the new chair Judge Coral Shaw of spreading misinformation about the matter, and the commission as a whole of sidelining the survivor group.
Phil Pennington reports (Morning Report).
Former altar boys have claimed they were molested by priests inside the Vatican, as a lingering scandal surrounding widespread abuse in the Catholic Church erupts at its headquarters once again.
Several anonymous former altar boys at the Vatican’s youth seminary alleged at least two priests kissed and fondled three of them in the Nineties.
The claims will be aired on Sunday on Le Iene (“The Hyenas”), an Italian investigative TV programme, which first broke allegations in 2017 that the senior seminarian, now a priest, had sexually abused teenagers who served as altar boys at papal masses in St Peter’s Basilica.
Published in Independent
Survivors are given a voice at first public hearings of investigation into historical abuse of thousands of children in state and faith-based care.
On the morning Annasophia Calman is due to testify in public about a childhood destroyed at the hands of her father and the state, she eats scrambled eggs on toast and paces back and forth in the hallway outside her hotel room.
Published in The Guardian
Following the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, we are witnessing a wave of legal reforms across Australia aimed at helping survivors seek justice.
Most visibly, there is the National Redress Scheme, which provides victims access to counselling, a response from the institution where they were abused and payment of up to $150,000.
Published in The Conversation
For the first time in its four-decade history, Dunedin’s Rape Crisis centre will work with sexual abuse victims of all genders.
The shift is part of a major overhaul of the organisation, which also includes changing its name to the Otepoti Collective Against Sexual Abuse (OCASA).
Published in Otago Daily Times
Ribbons have been tied to the fence of the Catholic Cathedral in downtown Auckland by attendees and witnesses from the Royal Commission into Abuse.
Published in Radio New Zealand
The majority of 23,000 sexual violence incidents reported to police during the past five years were experienced by children or young people, according to a new Ministry of Justice report.
It reveals that for every 100 sexual violence incidents reported to the police, only 31 made it to court, 11 resulted in a conviction and six in imprisonment.
The report, Attrition and progression: Reported sexual violence victimisations in the criminal justice system, which was released on Friday, analysed 23,739 incidents that were reported between July 2014 and June 2018. The figures will now be updated annually.
Published in Stuff
The Children’s Commissioner has told the Abuse in Care Royal Commission that his office has failed to properly monitor the state care system.
Since 1989, the Office of the Children’s Commissioner has had the role of independent monitor of the practices and policies of Child, Youth and Family, which became Oranga Tamariki.
Published in Radio New Zealand
A clinical child psychologist has told the Royal Commission on Abuse in Care that children were often better off in state care than staying in families where they were abused.
The commission is currently holding hearings in Auckland.
Published in Radio New Zealand
A woman has told the Royal Commission investigating abuse in care she was moved between at least a dozen care homes and raped multiple times – all before she turned 16.
The inquiry investigating abuse in state and faith-based care heard yesterday from Dallas Pickering, who detailed publicly for the first time the violent abuse she experienced as a child.
Published in Radio New Zealand
A decision to change a controversial school’s name has been put on hold while Dunedin’s Bishop waits for word from Rome.
Published in Radio New Zealand
The Vatican’s repeated refusal to cooperate with official investigations into paedophile priests and its delay in stripping convicted offenders of their clerical status has been condemned by the UK’s child sexual abuse inquiry.
In a highly critical attack on the papacy’s stonewalling response to decades of complaints, the lead counsel to the inquiry, Brian Altman QC, said it was “very disappointing” that significant evidence and statements had been withheld.
Published in The Guardian
Witnesses have this morning begun giving evidence at the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State Care.
One of the first to appear will be high-profile former prisoner Arthur Taylor, who will describe the abuse he suffered in a boy’s home.
Twenty-eight people will share their experiences of being in the system between 1950 and 1999 over the coming weeks.
A final report from the inquiry is not expected until 2023.
Published in TVNZ
30 October 2019
Peter Lineham talks about the issues arising from the unlikely defence by children’s author, Joy Cowley, of a disgraced bishop.
Listen online at Radio New Zealand
By the Panel
Published in Radio New Zealand
16 October 2019
The handling of historic sexual offending within the Catholic Diocese of Dunedin by then-Bishop John Kavanagh has been referred to the Vatican by New Zealand’s top Catholic.
Published in Radio New Zealand
A support group for survivors of sexual abuse by priests wants more transparency over an agreement struck with the Catholic Diocese of Dunedin.
But the call by Dr Christopher Longhurst, representing the New Zealand branch of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (Snap), has also triggered an acrimonious exchange with another support group.
Published in Otago Daily Times