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Accusations of Abuse in Institutions

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The Press
April 20, 2002

Predators pledge by churches
by Andrew Moffat and NZPA

Church leaders say every effort is being made to protect children under their care from sexual predators.

This week in the Christchurch District Court, George Darren Cant, 35, admitted charges of indecently assaulting four boys and a girl while he was taking part in church group activities. A boy, aged six, and his seven-year-old sister were among the victims.

The name of the church group has been suppressed. Cant will be sentenced in June.

New Zealand's most senior Catholic cleric, the Most Rev Cardinal Tom Williams, said he did not believe there would be "any surprises" for the Catholic Church in New Zealand.

"It's just from what I know of my men primarily. They are a hard working and loyal group and honest to God about their ministry."

Cardinal Williams said the church in New Zealand had developed detailed procedures for handling complaints of sexual abuse.

Catholic Communications director Lyndsay Freer said she understood the church's complaints committees had dealt with four cases of inappropriate sexual conduct by priests in recent times.

Three cases did not involve children or teenagers and the fourth, which did, was historical and the alleged perpetrator had since died.

There were no Catholic clergy in prison for sexual offences, she said.

City New Life Church senior minister Leo Hanssen said his church, based in central Christchurch, co-ordinated regular activities for between 250 to 300 young people and the character and background of adults associated with them were screened carefully.

People who were new to the church were supervised by others until it was clear they were trustworthy.

"We don't let people into leadership roles until we know them very well," he said.

Mr Hanssen said that while protocols to protect children were in place, the Christchurch case was a timely reminder of their importance.

"I think on some of these things you need to keep upping the ante all the time just to be sure," he said.

"We know there are people like that out there and we are aware we need to keep our eyes open for these sort of people."

Duane Major, leader of the Spreydon Youth Community, which is aligned with the Spreydon Baptist Church, said the group had very detailed policies governing behaviour which were spelled out to all their volunteer youth leaders.

Most volunteers had "come up through the grades" of the community and were already very well known. Others were regular church attendees.

Mr Major said senior leaders provided comprehensive supervision and a ratio of about one leader to five youths meant there was virtually no chance for anything untoward to happen.

Parent helpers attended many events and plans were under way to institute police checks on all leaders for an extra level of safety.

"We are taking all the precautions we possibly can," he said.