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Accusations of Abuse in Institutions

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The Southland Times
July 5, 2002

Programme to help children to talk about sexual abuse
by Julie Asher

Programmes in school encouraging children to speak up about sexual abuse should mean it would be dealt with immediately and not left for decades, the Otago-Southland Diocesan chief executive Father John Harrison said yesterday.Police had one complaint last week from an Invercargill man who claimed he was abused by a priest at the St John of God school, in Christchurch, in the 1960s and a Dunedin man had come forward with allegations of abuse by a priest at St Clair in the late 1950s.

Four former Christchurch Catholic brothers have had complaints of sexual abuse made against them. None remains in the order.

The St John of God order has paid out $300,000 to five New Zealand complainants, who claimed to be abused in the 1960s to the 1970s, on the condition they kept their claims and payments secret.

Last weekend, allegations surfaced that former Marist priest Alan Woodcock abused several teenage boys in the Wellington region in the 1980s.

In 1993, Father Robin Paulson admitted six charges of indecently assaulting three boys at St Peter's College, in Gore.

Father Harrison said people had been reluctant to speak up about abuse in the past for fear of not being believed. Hopefully, school programmes such as Keeping Ourselves Safe would mean children would talk about abuse and adults would believe them.

The church had a protocol to deal with allegations of abuse for about 10 years. It was not a reaction to recent allegations, he said. It was being written when he returned from overseas in 1992-93.

It was revised in 1998 and would change as required.

The principle was to ensure the victim was listened to and could tell their story, Father Harrison said.

Part of the process was the church letting the victim go to the police, he said.

When the police became involved, it was necessary to stop the church process as the two could not happen together.

There was a commitment to the victim that they would get counselling and any other help needed to put right the wrong that had been done.

Ten years ago, priests were told the likelihood of being put back into public ministry was very small if they were guilty of abuse, Father Harrison said.

Most were moved to other work and some were returned to the secular community.