Community Development and Justice Standing Committee
Title: Identities of abusers should be listed on church websites, WA child sexual abuse inquiry finds
Authors: Daryna Zadvirna and Nicolas Perpitch
Publisher: ABC News
Date: 15AUG2024
The names of known child abusers should be published prominently on church websites and the WA government should create a centrally accessible list of all known perpetrators, an inquiry into institutional child sexual abuse has urged.
The Community Development and Justice Standing Committee handed down its final report on Thursday after examining the support available to survivors of institutional child abuse.
It found the Catholic Church and other religious entities had prioritised their own institutional and financial wellbeing over the needs of those that had been abused by their members.
“Institutions that maintain an unholy wall of silence can only be doing so as a strategy to limit their financial liability rather than providing just outcomes for victim/survivors,” the committee said in its report.
“Transparency would be a game changer.”
‘Conspiracy of secrecy’
The committee singled out the Christian Brothers, accusing them of moral failure by trying to hide information on the abuse of children under their care to protect their financial viability.
It claimed they refused to attend the inquiry — despite every effort made to accommodate them — giving reasons “that did not bear scrutiny”.
“It is the conspiracy of secrecy and institutional denial around abuse that not only adds to the trauma suffered by those who were abused but also obstructs their path to justice,” committee member Christine Tonkin told state parliament on Thursday.
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