by MSSAT Aotearoa | Nov 3, 2019 | News
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
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Nov 3, 2019 | News
Less than a third of sexual violence cases reported to the police make it court, according to a new report released by the Ministry of Justice.
Out of the almost 24,000 cases of sexual violence reports made to police between July 2014 and June last year, just 11 percent resulted in a conviction.
The government and advocacy groups say progress is being made, but a lot more work needs to be done.
Published in Radio New Zealand
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Oct 30, 2019 | News, Public Inquiry
Analysis: A long time coming. Finally, after months of haggling over terms of reference, years of steadily growing political discussion and decades of pressure from those who experienced this vast subject first-hand, the Abuse in Care Royal Commission is ready to roll.
An avalanche of new material is in store for those whose job it will be to sift the evidence that will for the first time be publicly given at a preliminary contextual hearing in Auckland starting this Tuesday.
Published in Radio New Zealand
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Oct 30, 2019 | News, Public Inquiry
Survivors of historical cases of child rape, violence and neglect at state-owned care institutions are being officially heard for the first time.
Witnesses on Tuesday began giving evidence at the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care, the biggest inquiry ever to have looked into what happened to children, young people and vulnerable adults in care between 1950 and 1999.
Keith Wiffin told the commission he was first abused aged 10 by a house master while he was at Epuni Boys Home. He’d been sent there after his father’s death left Wiffin’s mother unable to care for her four children.
Published in Stuff
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Oct 30, 2019 | News, Public Inquiry
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.
Watch video (from TVNZ)
Published in TVNZ
30 October 2019
by MSSAT Aotearoa | Oct 29, 2019 | News, Public Inquiry
Warning: This story discusses issues related to rape and sexual violence.
As the Royal Commission of Inquiry into State Abuse begins public hearings, its survivor advisory group is in disarray. Laura Walters talks to these survivors about the ongoing issues, and why they still think others should come forward to share their stories.
On Tuesday, a group of abuse survivors will stand outside the Rydges Hotel in Auckland in a show of solidarity with others coming to share their experiences with the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care.
They are all members of the seminal Survivor Advisory Group – a group that has been plagued with ongoing issues.
Published in Newsroom
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Oct 22, 2019 | News, Public Inquiry
Jehovah’s Witnesses church elders in New Zealand have been told to destroy documents, and child sex abuse survivors fear that will lead to the cover up of cases.
Published in Radio New Zealand
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Oct 17, 2019 | News
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
by MSSAT Aotearoa | Oct 14, 2019 | News
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
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Oct 14, 2019 | News
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
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Oct 14, 2019 | News, Public Inquiry
Warning: This story discusses issues related to rape and sexual violence.
Survivors have extended an olive branch to those running the Royal Commission of Inquiry into state abuse. Laura Walters reports on growing frustrations over a lack of communication a fortnight on from revelations survivors were exposed to a convicted child sex offender.
Published in Newsroom
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Oct 11, 2019 | News
A Melbourne man is fighting to hold the Catholic church accountable for three clerics and a teacher who sexually violated him as a boy in Otago. Marc – RNZ won’t use his surname – has come back to New Zealand to give evidence and to beg the Royal Commission to weigh in on his second bid for some kind of justice. Phil Pennington reports.
Listen the the story
By Morning Report
Published in Radio New Zealand
11 October 2019
by MSSAT Aotearoa | Oct 5, 2019 | News
The man whose child sex abuse case gripped the city of Christchurch and the nation, has died.
Peter Ellis’ death comes just five weeks before his last bid to clear his name before the Supreme Court.
The 61-year-old was jailed for a decade in 1993, on 16 counts of sexual offending against seven children at the Christchurch Civic creche.
Published in News Hub
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Oct 5, 2019 | News, Public Inquiry
A Catholic bishop who is part of the church’s response to the Royal Commission of inquiry into state abuse has offered his resignation to the Pope.
Published in Radio New Zealand
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Oct 4, 2019 | News
The Catholic bishop of Palmerston North is expected to resign after less than eight years in the job.
Stuff understands Pope Francis has been asked, or will be asked on Friday, to accept 59-year-old Bishop Charles Drennan’s resignation. The reasons for the resignation are not known.
Drennan has been the only bishop on the support group known as Te Rōpū Tautoko, which was set up to manage co-operation between the Catholic Church and the Abuse in Care Royal Commission.
Published in Stuff
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Sep 29, 2019 | News
Abstract: The rate of violent victimization against children with disabilities is thought to be lower than the rate for children without disabilities but several studies shows otherwise.
This paper is available at Science Direct
December 2019
