In Australia, a boy of 10 is raped by an Anglican clergyman, who cuts
his victim with a small knife and smears blood over his back. This
happened in the 1960s ... but only now has this and other decades-old
stories of sexual violence and degradation been heard, catalogued and,
crucially for many victims, believed.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
is an unprecedented investigation into an epidemic of depravity across
Australia. The ... inquiry began in 2013 and has heard from thousands of
survivors of paedophiles who worked, or volunteered, in
sporting clubs, schools, churches, charities, childcare centres and the
military. It has the power to look at any private, public or
non-government body that is, or was, involved with children.
The
Commission's task is to make recommendations on how to improve laws,
policies and practices to protect the young. To date, it has held more
than 6,000 private sessions, along with several high-profile public
hearings. The chief royal commissioner, Justice Peter McClellan ... is
one of six commissioners; two women and four men, and they include a
former Queensland police chief, a consultant child psychiatrist and a
retired federal politician. When it hands down its final report at the
end of 2017, this painstaking inquiry will have lasted for almost five
years. Already, more than 1,700 cases have been referred to the
authorities, including the police. More prosecutions will almost
certainly follow.
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