by MSSAT Aotearoa | Mar 13, 2019 | News
It was hard this week – watching R Kelly jump up and down on CBS while claiming his greatest problem was being “big-hearted”, and sitting through four hours of Michael Jackson revelations – to hang on to the idea that the truth has implacable meaning. In both cases, the sense of outrage from the accused parties (in Jackson’s case, his estate) was palpable and brought to mind another example of male-pattern entitlement: that of Brett Kavanaugh during his supreme court confirmation hearing.
Published in The Guardian
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Mar 11, 2019 | News
The Anglican Church is facing a landmark case from a parishioner arguing it should be responsible for abusive priests – one of whom allegedly harassed her in counselling sessions after her baby’s death.
It will be the first time a New Zealand church has been tested as an employer under human rights law, and if successful could prompt wholesale changes in the hiring and training of ministers.
Published in NZ Herald
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Mar 7, 2019 | News
The author, who spent more than a decade covering the scandal for V.F., shares the key revelations and insights that viewers of the new HBO documentary Leaving Neverland need to know.
Published in Vanity fair
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Mar 5, 2019 | News
Kia ora koutou,
Welcome to our newsletter which provides news about the Ministry of Social Development’s work programme to strengthen family violence and sexual violence services.
Published in Ministry of Social Development
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Mar 5, 2019 | News, Public Inquiry
New Zealand’s pending royal commission into historical abuse will include the actions of predator priests who targeted children in family homes, on day trips and in other out-of-church settings, it has been confirmed.
The outcome, announced yesterday, has been praised by survivors advocate Liz Tonks and the Catholic Bishop of Dunedin, the Most Rev Michael Dooley.
Ms Tonks, a spokeswoman for the Network of Survivors of Abuse in Faith-based Institutions and their Supporters, told ODT Insight she was delighted by the news.
Published in Otago Daily Times
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Mar 5, 2019 | News, Public Inquiry
Priests who abused children in their own homes will be included in a Royal Commission into historical sexual abuse.
The move is being described as a change-in-scope by advocates but the Royal Commission says it is only a clarification of the exiting scope.
After the Government bowed to pressure and added abuse in faith-based institutions to the Royal Commission, victims and survivors were concerned the scope was too narrow, because it only looked at abuse in bricks-and-mortar institutions.
Published in Stuff
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Mar 1, 2019 | News
One of New Zealand’s most senior Catholic clergy has clashed with abuse victims over his claim bishops have no powers to remove predatory members of religious orders from their dioceses.
Wellington’s Cardinal John Dew is still in Rome after attending a critical four-day Vatican summit on clerical child sex abuse, which finished this morning.
The 22-25 February meeting was billed by the Vatican as the beginning of a worldwide series of reforms.
Published in Radio New Zealand
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Mar 1, 2019 | News, Public Inquiry
The Catholic Church has set up a new body to liaise with the Royal Commission’s abuse inquiry, but its make-up has raised questions over its capacity to deliver truth.
A leading world expert on clerical child sex abuse told RNZ that if Te Rōpū Tautoko remained top-heavy with Church officials it would “only do the bidding of the bishops” and would have no credibility.
Published in Radio New Zealand
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Feb 27, 2019 | News
Church was a refuge for Trina McKillen when she was young. Growing up in Belfast, Northern Ireland, during “the Troubles” of the 1960s and ’70s, her neighborhood was a hotspot for political violence. When bomb scares threatened her elementary school, McKillen and her classmates were led into a nearby church for safety.
Published in Los Angeles Magaazine
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Feb 27, 2019 | News
Warning: This article and accompanying video contain details about child abuse that may disturb some readers.
A heartfelt haka briefly took centre stage during protests on the final day of the Pope’s summit on child sex abuse.
Hundreds of Catholic Church leaders participated in the summit – but abuse survivors say they’ve been excluded and claim nothing’s changed.
Published in Newshub
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Feb 23, 2019 | News
WARNING: Distrubing content:
A UK man who was violently assaulted, stabbed and burnt by his abusive girlfriend has revealed for the first time the extent of his horrific injuries in a documentary.
Alex Skeel, 22, was “days from death” when police arrived at his home in June 2017. This led to an investigation and the arrest of Jordan Worth, who was the mother of his two children.
Worth was the first female in the UK to be convicted of controlling or coercive behaviour and grievous bodily harm.
Published in NZ Herald
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Feb 23, 2019 | News, Public Inquiry
A year after it was announced – and more than a month after it was scheduled to begin – there has been little action.
Abuse survivors are beginning to lose faith in New Zealand’s nascent royal commission after months of poor communication, delay, at least one privacy breach and one survivor’s details being lost twice.
In February 2018 the New Zealand government announced it would hold a royal commission or judicial inquiry into abuse in state care, which it said would begin in January 2019.
Published in The Guardian
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Feb 23, 2019 | News
An Auckland rugby coach found guilty of 95 charges of sexually abusing young boys has been sentenced to 22 years’ jail.
Alosio Taimo, 56, will serve a minimum imprisonment period of 10 years for crimes committed across three decades against boys aged between 9 and 16 at the time.
Today in the High Court at Auckland, Crown prosecutor Jasper Rhodes argued for Taimo to be sentenced to preventive detention due to the seriousness of and his denial of the offending.
“We cannot say that his risk will be reduced at any point in the future.”
Published in NZ Herald
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Feb 23, 2019 | News
A man tied up in a false rape claim has backed a call for a men’s refuge after he was kicked out of his flat and left homeless for a week.
Brett, who has asked for his last name to be kept secret, says he had nowhere to go after his ex-girlfriend reported a rape that never happened, and rumours began to spread.
Since speaking about how the allegation “destroyed” his life, Brett has thrown his support behind a call for an agency to support men, similar to Women’s Refuge.
Published in Stuff
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Feb 18, 2019 | News
The sexual abuse of male children is more common than many people think. One New Zealand study (1) found that one in five sexually abused children is male, and overseas research suggests that 16% of males will experience sexual abuse before the age of 18 (2). The majority of the sexual abuse that boys experience is perpetrated by family members (‘incest’).
Published in Rape Prevention Education
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Feb 18, 2019 | News
Former US cardinal Theodore McCarrick has been expelled from the Roman Catholic priesthood after he was found guilty of sexual crimes against minors and adults.
Pope Francis decided the ruling, which followed an appeal by the man who was a power-broker as Archbishop of Washington DC from 2001 to 2006, was now final.
A Vatican statement on Saturday said his crimes were made more serious by “the aggravating factor of the abuse of power”.
Published in Newshub
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