Justice Peter McClellan 28 / 1 / 2014

As I said a moment ago we have a long way to go in the Commission's work but what we hear over and over again through private sessions and in some of the public hearings so far is that the context in which sexual abuse occurs in institutions where there were young people is one where there is very significant physical abuse and what we would describe today as physical deprivation not confined to The Salvation Army.

Now this inquiry will not answer the question of whether or not one causes the other. Further on in our work we will look at the question of why in an informed way with I hope we can gather as much expert knowledge as we can and it will be clearly on the agenda of that part of the inquiry that we will look at the arrangements which were made by these institutions in which the abuse occurred and the manner in which the children were cared for beyond caring for their sexual safety.

It will be on our agenda in this inquiry to make findings about the physical circumstances beyond the sexual abuse but which are related to the way in which the children were mistreated and sexually abused in the institution. Your client should clearly understand that and if there is something to be said in the course of this public hearing or other public hearings in relation to The Salvation Army about the manner in which these institutions were conducted then it should be said even though it goes beyond expressly sexual abuse because we are looking at sexual abuse and related matters and it is beyond question that the way in which the discipline was imposed the physical circumstances in which the children were treated - and one can see clearly the type of submission that's coming in relation to the relationship between that treatment and the sexual abuse. Then if your client wishes to deal with that it should do so in the course of this inquiry and the opportunity to do it will certainly be made available.

Justice Peter McClellan 28 / 1 / 2014

 

ROYAL COMMISSION INTO INSTITUTIONAL RESPONSES TO CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE

 

Public Hearing

(Day 37)