Picture: Gregorio Borgia/AP
Cardinal George Pell has been sentenced to a maximum of six years imprisonment. He will be eligible for parole after serving three years and eight months.
Pell will appeal his conviction. The Court of Appeal has set two days aside in June to consider the Cardinal’s application to appeal his conviction.
The Vatican will wait for the appeals process to conclude before considering Pell’s titles and status within the Church. Similarly, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will not release its findings into the conduct of the Cardinal until the appeals process has concluded.
For now, Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric and one of the most powerful men in the Vatican is behind bars, a convicted child sex offender.
Justice Peter Kidd denounced George Pell. Kidd spoke of trust broken and power abused. It is the implicit nature of all child sex offences, the perverse exercise of authority over the vulnerable.
In his sentencing remarks, Justice Kidd referred to “the deluge of publicity” associated with Pell’s conviction.
It is that publicity that bothers me. It is as if all the guilt and shame from institutional child sexual abuse can be conveniently parcelled and packed away with one man.
The grave fear is that we will focus on this story and miss the totality of what has occurred in this country. The fact that the most senior man of one institution has been convicted of child sex offending should not detract from the guilt of other parties or other institutions.
What happened in Australia after World War II was an epidemic of child sex abuse, a crime against our society that is virtually beyond measure. In the wake of the abuse, senior people within institutions — state, religious, secular — committed crimes to cover up the abuse, perversions of the course of justice routinely occurred, culprits were moved on, incriminating documents were destroyed.
Forget the dismal what-aboutery arguments about child sex offending being more prevalent in the home.
While familial child sex abuse occurs in the shadows and reporting is fraught, what we do know is the number and frequency of criminal prosecutions of sexual abuse of children by persons entrusted with their care in institutional settings have no parallel. None.
The nature of the institution may have varied but the behaviour has always been the same.
Victims must be listened to
Principals within institutions reacted instinctively, rushing to protect the reputation of the institution with victims’ rights to justice ignored and with it, their pain amplified.
Victims must be listened to. They must be believed. They must be given the opportunity to attend a police station to make a complaint and know that complaint is subject to investigative rigour by law enforcement.
The Royal Commission examined the story of VicPol detective Denis Ryan who was cast out of the force for attempting to prosecute a paedophile priest in 1972. The Victoria Police Force accepted its corrupt protection of the priest in 2015. Disappointingly, the Commission did not extend its investigations further.
I have reported on credible accounts of corrupt interference in investigations of clerical paedophiles in Victoria up to 1985. Beyond that, retired police officers charged with investigating child sex offences claim they were unsupported by the upper echelons of the Victoria Police Force. Requests to establish strike forces to deal with the burgeoning number of complaints were ignored as late as the mid-1990s.
Victims’ allegations were kicked down the road.
In New South Wales, the Wood Royal Commission found evidence of members of the police force in that state receiving bribes from active paedophiles so they could commit offences against children without consequence. The Child Protection Unit was referred to derisorily by NSW coppers as the ‘Nappy Squad’, its members transferred to it as a form of punishment.
Slow to act
I am certain law enforcement has improved since those unhappy days but is it properly resourced, properly staffed with skilled investigators who will act without fear or favour?
State governments for the most part have been slow to act on the Royal Commission’s recommendations for law reform. The failure to report a child sex offence in most states remains an offence without any serious penalty. In Victoria and Queensland custodial sentences sit on the books but not once has a jail term been handed down. In other jurisdictions those who are convicted of failing to report a child sex offence face only a fine. In New South Wales, it remains an offence but there is no penalty, not even a monetary one.
If we don’t learn from this appalling episode in our social history, we simply cannot ensure that it won’t happen again.
Mumbled expressions of regret uttered in the Royal Commission have been replaced with sanguine, confident voices now that scrutiny has passed.
Just last week, the Catholic Bishop of Armidale, Michael Kennedy instructed Catholic school principals within the diocese not to ask priests for Working With Children Checks. Kennedy has since come forward to clarify his instructions, saying that all priests in the diocese have their WWCCs. But the politics of it were dreadful, not least of all because the Armidale Diocese has a wretched history perhaps as bad as anywhere with the exception of the dioceses of Ballarat and Maitland-Newcastle.
Meanwhile other guilty institutions drag their feet in signing up to the National Redress Scheme.
Less than 100 victims compensated
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse believes there may be as many as 60,000 claimants.
To date, some 3000 applications have been made seeking redress since the body was created in July 2018. Less than a hundred victims have been compensated with the average payment being around $85,000. There is a cap of compensation with a maximum payout of $150,000.
The application form from the National Redress Scheme is a voluminous rat’s maze of psycho-nonsense that has the effect of retraumatising people. It is too long, and asks pointless, intrusive questions. It needs to be dramatically simplified so that the victim is limited to detailing the abuse, when it occurred and where and under which institution or institutions it occurred.
Institutions have been given until 2020 to sign on. People seeking what is at best modest compensation will die waiting for these institutions to sign on. Some already have.
While some institutions have indicated they will sign on, as yet many have failed to do so. These include numerous Catholic orders, a dozen or more Anglican dioceses, the Assemblies of God, Swimming Australia, the Presbyterian Church, The Uniting Church, Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Scouts in four states. The list is shamefully long.
If we cannot get these things right after all that we know now, all the sorrow and pain that has been pushed to the surface, then we will all stand condemned. Worse, we will have ignored the potential risk that this terrible business will happen once again.
This epidemic of child sex abuse cannot be neatly tucked away with the conviction of one man. Pell’s sentencing today is just one step in a much larger process.
This column was first published in The Australian 14 March 2018.
drop the george pell shyte and get into counselling and compensation of the ruined…. all bastard organisations get garnisheed into paying.
Is fellatio recognised as a ritual of dominance, or of empowerment for males, in any cultures or institutions?
Without examining that question, especially as an all-male hierarchy, the RCC will be pushing it uphill in its search for honesty within its ranks, let alone for credibility in the wider community.
From my observations, Pell’s fall from grace has again highlighted the Catholic Church’s handling of historical child sexual abuse and it’s number one priority to minimize any damage to the RCC at the expense of it’s tortured victims.
To my horror I now know that Pell’s not the only dirty Catholic Cardinal in the world found guilty of child sex abuse & while their indecency disgusts me to the core, it’s the total indifference to the life-long psychological damage their chosen victims are left to survive through that just reinforces my total disdain for these jesus frauds.
Do they look down their noses at their gullible benefactors then use their children for their perversions as a form of power?
In some way I used to feel sorry for the few ‘clean’ priests who have good hearts & walk the talk they’re supposed to, then last week, amid this trial, I talked with a sweet ninety year old gentleman at work who came for aid, and he shared the story of his now deceased sister, a young nun, who was preyed upon weekly by two priests for three years until she left her vocation altogether back in the late 50s. He said none of the current revelations surprise him at all.
Wow, what a nest of vipers.
Monsters with power have no decency at all.
”The George Pell sentence: Where to from here?”
For many that will be early June and the result of his appeal which will no doubt make headlines, possibly will be broadcast live, and regardless of the outcome will provoke an outcry from some sections of the community. And yes, once again the big picture or most important matters will be put to the side, but Marr and Bolt and a few others will be front and centre spruiking their 5 cents worth. I’d even bet they are penning their comments now with 2 different outcomes in mind.
As for the Roman Catholic Church, it is still yet to be seen whether such a slow moving, conservative and relatively insular or closed organisation, has the acumen to face and deal either retrospectively or proactively on this issue. As we know this hasn’t just sprung up as a result of Pell. As a result, whilst many people may hang onto the basic tenants of their faith, many many more have lost their faith in the institution and its distant and removed hierarchy. And whilst the election of Pope Francis was met with a fresh enthusiasm, he’ll need to do something profound or else recede into ignominy.
” …………….. whilst many people may hang on to the basic tenants of their faith……………… ”
Yairs, them tenants are basic alright , sort of devout “Housos” in sheeps clothing I reckon.
Aside from that is anyone running a book on the appeal? Henry Forrest Gump Blofeld? Anyone?
I think complainants have a right to be heard and listened to, but they can’t be given a right to be believed.
They certainly do at complaint level, mate. Too often coppers have rejected the complaints at that stage. The complaint must trigger an investigation.
mm, maybe but even that is problematic, you can’t give someone an unfettered right to cause an investigation i don’t think, as that itself can be so damaging to a defendant.
common sense from the coppers needed, and i know as well as you do that it didn’t happen in the past.
as to beyond the complaint stage, well there can be no right to the believed, else we place a right to convict in the wrong hands, and you and I know human nature better than to think that will work out OK.
It’s pretty easy. If someone alleges they have been subject to sexual abuse, the police need to make inquiries re those allegations. What can’t happen is one or more coppers making a judgement that they will not investigate.
Sick to death of hearing how this is all just an attack on the Catholic Church from a bunch of brain dead apologists. No it isnt. Its about justice for raped children. The Catholics dont like that, when you outright call it rape. “Child Abuse” is such a sugar coating word, like you were just yelling at them.
No, rape it is. If they cant face the facts on one man, when are they going to?
I’m all for an attack on the Catholic Church, or any other church if it comes right down to it. And no apologies for that either.
The lack of action males one think that there are people in high places who do not want active investigations happening.
makes not males
I believe you are right. There will be a few people in high places, not just the church who will be very nervous about active investigations. Whether complaints against them, stonewalled at the time, ever got to be kept on record is doubtful they will be hoping a lot of street kids haven’t made it this far.
JTI, as you know we’ve just got back to the NT and I’m hearing some disturbing reports about the police response to child sexual abuse. In Alice Springs for example a friends daughter who has been in the NT Police for three years was recently posted into the child sexual abuse section where there are only 3 people working the area from Alice to Tennant Creek. This young lady is 24 and is behond stressed despite the fact that she worked very successfully out at the community of Santa Teresa. The powers that be in the NT Police have already admitted it’s all too hard, despite the fact she has written a report about how she feels the situation should be addressed, including the obvious one that more police personnel need to be brought into the section. It’s not just child sexual abuse here, it’s also total child neglect and no one has any clue how to deal with it. I should also add that although it is a real indigenous issue, there are schools, youth organisations and other institutions where the abuse being carried out is not just affecting indigenous children. They have moved this young lady out of the child abuse section and placed her in the domestic violence section….. because as she was told “she’s good at that type of thing”.
From all of this I am persuaded that one of the huge issues here is the fact that most State and Territory Police Forces do not have sufficiently trained personnel to be able to deal with this very real and ongoing problem.
That is troubling. It seems that the issues of policing are (happily) not associated with a distorted sense of loyalty as it was back in the bad old days but more an issue of resourcing.
More police resourcing, JTI, will not fix endemic social problems on a scale that swamps the Government’s ability to handle it.
The problem Penny writes of is further complicated by a community belief that the problems must be fixed within the communities themselves (eg shifting children to other families) and one gets to the stage we are at.
If one looks at the problems DOCS faces in NSW in ALL underprivileged poor communities, one realizes that the problems are on a scale that makes them almost insolvable.
These problems are all swept under the carpet, never openly discussed and the moment somebody makes an objective statement they are usually accused of demonizing a particular sector of the community.
The problems and possible solutions could do with the eloquence you bought to bear on historical child abuse because they are affecting far more kids now and destroying any hope that they have in leading a meaningful life.
Can I say I believe 24 is too young to be dealing with the public in high stress roles. I believe the Police forces should look to more mature age recruitment and as above I think dealing directly with the Public should not occur until recruits are at least 26/28. I do not believe the majority of people have the emotional intelligence to deal with situations like those Police are exposed to in their early 20’s.
Great post Penny. The first and biggest step is enough publicity to shame the nation into serious action. We need to pay the brightest and the best whatever it takes to come up with solutions. In the meantime, more boots and more sentinels on the ground, lots more.
What can one say, Mr Insider. He will be out of jail in just over 3 years after destroying many lives FGS!
And do suppose he will be jailed in a Protection Prison as was the dirt bag Rolf Harris in the UK.
Justice may well have been seen to have been done but has it really.
Great read as always Mr Insider.
A top article, and the only one that really goes beyond the sensation and hype.
On other commentators, I read the recent Marr and he comments that Operation Paradox was sort of ground breaking in catching paedophiles. But I also think that Marr was soft on Vic Police.
And as you state:
“The Royal Commission examined the story of VicPol detective Denis Ryan who was cast out of the force for attempting to prosecute a paedophile priest in 1972. The Victoria Police Force accepted its corrupt protection of the priest in 2015. Disappointingly, the Commission did not extend its investigations further.”
If VicPol accepted guilt then I believe they are also liable to paying compensation (as well as the Catholic Church)for all the victims of the subsequent offences by this priest as a result of their negligent behaviour.
This wide ranging wave of institutional child abuse, at least from the 50’s on, was all occurring during the time when we were described as ‘the lucky country’ – what a crock of shit! Of course back then the rule for kids was do as your told (or else), respect your elders and authority, basically speak when your spoken to, and when teachers could flog you and dad’s would get out the strap.