Commissioners say they have heard evidence that disclosures of child sexual abuse were made in confession but were not passed on to authoritiesClergy who refuse to report child sexual abuse because the information was received during a religious confession could face charges if recommendations for new institutional criminal offences are accepted. The child abuse royal commission wants failure to report child sex abuse in institutions to be a criminal offence, extending to information given in religious confessions. “Victims have always been advocating that there is no logical reason, none whatsoever, that child abuse should ever be hidden,” he told Guardian Australia. “However, we heard evidence of a number of instances where disclosures of child sexual abuse were made in religious confession, by both victims and perpetrators,” the report said. The commissioners also recommended expanding laws – which differ between states and territories – around mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse or suspected abuse.

Source: The Guardian August 14, 2017 02:23 UTC