Child abuse inquiry opens in Australia places of worship, orphanages, community groups and schools
An unprecedented Australian inquiry into church and institutional child abuse began Monday, with warnings that widespread and shocking allegations would be heard against places of worship, orphanages, community groups and schools.
Justice Peter McClellan, the chairman of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, launched public hearings on Monday, as the panel said more than 4,000 victims had come forward.
"It is now well known that the sexual abuse of children has been widespread in the Australian community, however the full range of institutions in which it has occurred is not generally understood," McClellan said in his opening address.
The inquiry was established in November by former Prime Minister Julia Gillard in response to a series of child sex abuse scandals involving pedophile priests, though she insisted the probe would be much broader than the Catholic Church. A hotline set up for survivors of abuse to contact the commission had so far received 4,301 relevant calls, McClellan said.
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/9/16/child-abuse-inquiryopensinaustralia.html