Child Abuse
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Catholic Church blocks Melbourne abuse victims' path to further compensation
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The Catholic Church's Melbourne Archdiocese rejects an independent review's recommendation to extend compensation for child sex abuse victims to their families or carers.
Topics: religion-and-beliefs, catholic, sexual-offences, child-abuse, melbourne-3000, vic
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Child protection minister issues mea culpa over Safe Pathways request
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The minister responsible for Tasmania's child services is forced to correct the record after being caught out over an email conversation discussing the ABC's request for information about protection provider Safe Pathways.
Topics: government-and-politics, child-abuse, tas
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Clerical abuse victim walks out on 'shameful' Vatican commission
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A survivor of clerical sexual abuse leaves the Vatican's commission, accusing those involved of hiding behind "silence and secrecy" to avoid dealing with the issue.
Topics: sexual-offences, law-crime-and-justice, religion-and-beliefs, child-abuse, catholic, holy-see-vatican-city-state
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'Get rid of the bong': Man recalls reaction to finding daughter dead
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A Brisbane man tells the Supreme Court his first thought upon discovering the body of his daughter on his lounge room floor was to get rid of a bong before calling police.
Topics: murder-and-manslaughter, courts-and-trials, child-abuse, brisbane-4000
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Man added to sex offenders register for Facebook messages
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A Tasmanian man who tried to seduce a 14-year-old girl over Facebook is added to the sex offenders register and sentenced to community service.
Topics: courts-and-trials, child-abuse, tas
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Perth primary school teacher charged over child exploitation material
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A West Australian Catholic primary school teacher has been charged with possessing and distributing child exploitation material after a search of the 29-year-old's home.
Topics: sexual-offences, child-abuse, teachers, perth-6000
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What it's like to live with dissociative identity disorder
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A woman who spent most of her life living with dissociative disorder explains how it began, how she was treated, and why she sometimes misses her "parts".
Topics: mental-health, health, child-abuse, community-and-society, australia
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Photo IDs for parents at child care: Overkill or good security?
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A Perth childcare operator introduces photo identification badges for parents in a bid to further bolster security, saying despite the inconvenience it's necessary to protect kids.
Topics: child-care, family-and-children, child-abuse, safety, human-interest, perth-6000
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Church houses former priest accused of inappropriate conduct near schools
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The Catholic Church confirms it removed a NSW parish priest amidst allegations of inappropriate conduct towards children, but continues to house him on property neighbouring two Canberra schools.
Topics: child-abuse, catholic, religion-and-beliefs, community-and-society, canberra-2600, act, tumut-2720, nsw, australia
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Wellbeing of NT children a 'humanitarian crisis', lawyer says
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A senior territory lawyer urges the Government to take a proactive approach to helping children, saying if you can compare their wellbeing to those in under-developed countries "something is very, very wrong".
Topics: child-health-and-behaviour, children, child-abuse, human, darwin-0800, nt
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British Government 'betrayed children' sent to Fairbridge farms
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An historic inquiry into child sexual abuse in Britain will hear that up to 60 per cent of the child migrants sent to Fairbridge farms in Australia were sexually abused.
Topics: child-abuse, government-and-politics, england, australia
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Money on offer in bid to encourage working families into foster care
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The Queensland Government is hoping financial incentives will help to bring working families into the foster care system as it seeks to find more homes for the rising number of children in urgent need of placement.
Topics: carers, child-care, public-sector, child-abuse, brisbane-4000
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Sexual abuse redress scheme should be separated from church: redacted report
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The Melbourne Archbishop should not oversee the Catholic Church's scheme to address sexual abuse within the archdiocese, a redacted report recommends.
Topics: royal-commissions, sexual-offences, catholic, child-abuse, melbourne-3000, vic
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Public sex offenders register would be 'ineffective': expert
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A high-profile expert on the behavioural patterns of paedophiles has questioned the value of Senator Derryn Hinch's proposal of a public register for sex offenders.
Topics: sexual-offences, child-abuse, australia
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Archbishops split over 'confessional' abuse reporting
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Sydney's Catholic Archbishop says reporting abuse to authorities that he heard about during a confession would be like "bugging the confessional".
Topics: royal-commissions, sexual-offences, catholic, child-abuse, sydney-2000, adelaide-5000, melbourne-3000, brisbane-4000, perth-6000
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As it happened: 'Gift' of celibacy a factor in abuse but not cause, archbishops say
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Senior leaders in the Catholic Church tell the royal commission into child sexual abuse that mandatory celibacy is a contributing factor, but not the cause of abuse. See how their second day of testimony unfolds in our live blog.
Topics: catholic, community-and-society, child-abuse, sexual-offences, law-crime-and-justice, royal-commissions, sydney-2000
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The Archbishop of Sydney describes the way the Catholic Church dealt with child sexual abuse complaints as "criminal negligence" Video
Video
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The Archbishop of Sydney, Anthony Fisher, has told 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-6000
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I went to Catholic school, but I was one of the lucky ones Analysis
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Sexual 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
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'It's wrong. It's unfair': A mother's 23-year search for a Church apology
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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
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Catholic Church's response to child sexual abuse was 'criminally negligent'
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The 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
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As it happened: Archbishops admit 'totally inadequate' response to Church sex abuse
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Catholic 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
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‘They just don't believe Stephanie but she was right all the time. They must apologise,’ says Eileen Piper. Video
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92-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
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Who's who of Catholic archbishops giving evidence at royal commission
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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
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Union fights testing of current SA child protection staff
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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
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Catholic brothers' secrecy culture hid child sex abuse: royal commission
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A 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
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