Posted
| UpdatedSexual abuse in Australia's Catholic schools didn't come from nowhere. It took hold in systems where violence was not just condoned, but encouraged.
Topics: catholic, religion-and-beliefs, community-and-society, royal-commissions, law-crime-and-justice, child-abuse, sexual-offences, brisbane-4000, qld, australia
Posted
Eileen Piper has spent more than two decades waiting for the Melbourne Archdiocese to accept one of its priests abused her only daughter, Stephanie, who later committed suicide.
Topics: royal-commissions, law-crime-and-justice, child-abuse, catholic, sexual-offences, australia
Posted
| UpdatedThe Archbishop of Sydney, Anthony Fisher, tells a royal commission the response by Catholic Church leaders to allegations of child sexual abuse amounted to "criminal negligence".
Topics: royal-commissions, sexual-offences, catholic, child-abuse, sydney-2000, melbourne-3000, brisbane-4000, adelaide-5000, perth-7300
Posted
| UpdatedCatholic Archbishops fronting the royal commission into child sex abuse admit the Church's response was a failure in leadership and culture, asking "what can possibly have gone wrong" to have led to so many offences. See how their first day of testimony unfolded in our blog.
Topics: catholic, community-and-society, child-abuse, sexual-offences, law-crime-and-justice, royal-commissions, sydney-2000
Posted
| Updated92-year-old widow Eileen Piper has spent the last 25 years seeking justice from the Catholic Church for her daughter's alleged abuse and subsequent death and has travelled to Sydney to confront Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart at the royal commission.
Topics: royal-commissions, child-abuse, religion-and-beliefs, australia
Posted
Five of Australia's Catholic archbishops will give evidence today in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. This is who they are, what they've said and their relationship to Cardinal George Pell.
Topics: royal-commissions, child-abuse, sexual-offences, catholic, australia, sydney-2000, perth-6000, adelaide-5000, melbourne-3000, brisbane-4000
Posted
A union questions how psychological testing of current child protection workers in South Australia will be done and what will happen to any staff who fail.
Topics: government-and-politics, states-and-territories, children, family-and-children, child-abuse, community-and-society, child-health-and-behaviour, law-crime-and-justice, adelaide-5000, sa
Posted
| UpdatedA secrecy culture of "don't ask, don't tell" could explain allegations of child sex abuse within a religious order with one of the highest numbers of alleged abusers, the royal commission is told.
Topics: royal-commissions, child-abuse, sexual-offences, catholic, beaudesert-4285, sydney-2000
Posted
Parents are being reminded to pre-vet every app their young children download amid renewed concerns that virtual reality gaming is exposing minors to sexual advances.
Topics: internet-culture, games, child-abuse, family-and-children, sexual-offences, australia, darwin-0800
Posted
| UpdatedA royal commission will quiz senior government officials about the Commonwealth's response to a report into the sexual abuse of children in immigration detention centres.
Topics: royal-commissions, law-crime-and-justice, child-abuse, immigration, community-and-society, sydney-2000
Posted
A former school traffic warden will plead not guilty to more than 300 child sex offences, the Perth Magistrates Court is told.
Topics: child-abuse, law-crime-and-justice, sexual-offences, perth-6000, wa
Posted
| UpdatedThe Catholic Church is continuing to cover the legal bills of convicted paedophile and Christian Brother Robert Best, who has admitted to sexually abusing a further 20 boys in his care, a Victorian court is told.
Topics: sexual-offences, law-crime-and-justice, child-abuse, melbourne-3000, ballarat-3350, geelong-3220
Posted
| UpdatedPolice in Western Australia's north are concerned about an increase in children committing sexual assaults, a trend child advocates say is being seen nationally.
Topics: child-abuse, sexual-offences, law-crime-and-justice, broome-6725, wa
Posted
| UpdatedA man is sentenced to 12 years in prison for a series of attacks described in court as "terrifying" and "brutal" on young women in Western Australia in the early 1990s.
Topics: sexual-offences, child-abuse, police, gosnells-6110, albany-6330, perth-6000
Posted
| UpdatedSt Patrick's College in Ballarat, infamous for its history of child sexual abuse, is determined to make amends and become a leader in child protection.
Topics: community-and-society, child-abuse, religion-and-beliefs, catholic, royal-commissions, ballarat-3350, vic, australia
Posted
| UpdatedThe Catholic Church reveals which schools and children's homes had more than 20 claims of child sexual abuse — one institution alone faced 219 accusations.
Topics: catholic, schools, child-abuse, sexual-offences, royal-commissions, australia, hamilton-2303, new-norcia-6509, box-hill-3128, cheltenham-3192, goodwood-5034, bathurst-2795, wandering-6308, engadine-2233, hunters-hill-2110, ballarat-3350, morisset-2264, marion-5043, sunbury-3429, westmead-2145, adamstown-2289, tardun-6628, pearce-2607, nudgee-4014, geelong-3220, south-melbourne-3205, bindoon-6502, wilson-6107, waterford-6152, beaudesert-4285
Posted
Topics: human-trafficking, law-crime-and-justice, child-abuse, laws, united-states
Posted
| UpdatedHollywood actor and tech investor Ashton Kutcher tells a US Senate committee about the children his anti-trafficking organisation has rescued, saying "I've seen things no person should ever see".
Topics: actor, arts-and-entertainment, human-trafficking, law-crime-and-justice, crime-prevention, crime, child-abuse, united-states
Posted
| UpdatedClose to 4,500 people made claims for alleged incidents of child sexual abuse between January 1980 and February 2015 but the earliest incidents reported to a claim were in the 1920s, the child abuse royal commission hears.
Topics: royal-commissions, law-crime-and-justice, child-abuse, sexual-offences, catholic, religion-and-beliefs, sydney-2000
Posted
| UpdatedPrivate schools Brisbane Grammar and St Paul's School harboured sexual abuse and accused children of lying rather than properly investigating allegations against school counsellor Kevin Lynch, a royal commission finds.
Topics: sexual-offences, royal-commissions, secondary-schools, courts-and-trials, child-abuse, brisbane-4000
Posted
| UpdatedThe largest class action in the Northern Territory's history is settled in favour of 71 former residents of the Retta Dixon Home, who alleged years of abuse by staff, in what is the first compensation win as a result of evidence heard by the royal commission into child abuse.
Topics: child-abuse, child-care, indigenous-policy, indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, youth, royal-commissions, darwin-0800
Posted
| UpdatedA 49-year-old man is sentenced to four-and-a-half years' jail for a sex attack on a young girl in public toilets at a suburban Perth oval 11 years ago.
Topics: child-abuse, law-crime-and-justice, perth-6000, wa
Posted
| UpdatedFor lawyers representing institutional abuse survivors, a career of being exposed to the most horrific stories can take its toll.
Topics: royal-commissions, law-crime-and-justice, child-abuse, community-and-society, laws, south-melbourne-3205, collingwood-3066
Posted
Tasmanian survivors of sexual abuse linked to the Anglican Church plan to launch legal action after damming findings by the royal commission.
Topics: child-abuse, anglicans, sexual-offences, royal-commissions, tas
Posted
| UpdatedOne of Australia's most senior child protection bureaucrats expresses concern with the way governments monitor incidents of child abuse within religious institutions.
Topics: child-abuse, children, nsw