Thank you Amanda. This is an insightful view of the options of the abused child who is essentially powerless in having few options other than to succumb to violation.

I agree by and large with your assessment of the child's need to 'revert to the primitive survival instincts: fight, flight or freeze'.

I was disappointed, however, that you failed to answer the crucial question that you yourself raised at the outset: << one might wonder why the story has taken more than 20 years to hit the newspapers>>.

Is it because the community has been in denial? If so, why, and what awakened them?

Is it because Australians are essentially apathetic conformists who like to believe that so-called men of God can do no wrong?

Is it because to Australians (and others) children are not seen as people with rights but are the mere playthings of adults?

Is it because....? OLO posters please help me. I don't understand why the public has been so passive about child abuse.

I wonder if the reason it has taken so long to report is because we have had some high profile judges, teachers, artist, sports coaches, environmentalist, scouts, brownies, atheist, agnostics etc etc who themselves are padeophiles.

The problem of clergy child abuse is encouraged by church leaders who consider themselves above the law. Rather than report serious crime, which they are obliged to do under common law, church hierarchies choose to handle it internally, keep it secret, cover it up.
This culture of secrecy to protect the church has had very serious results for children abused by known offenders who were simply forgiven and transferred only to repeat offend. It is probably continuing today. Why are our police and legal authorities failing to prosecute church leaders who deliberately flout the law?

One might also wonder why it is that abuses (not necessarily sexual) of children, by the sisters in various convents around the country have also not seen the light of day.

David

HI TO ALL THE FORGOTTEN AUSTRALIANS
we are victims abused and raped by the same type of people that worked in the state institutions as those of the church homes

the reason we victims were never to speak of what we were suffering in these institutions and homes was because we were told never to tell anyone as we would be kept locked up for as long as possable

a lot of us victims have suffered mager break downs of which has let our stories come to life because we hid the secret of what happend to us victims for too long
our stories are real and true

the goverment knows it and the churches know this and they still to this day try to cover up the rapes and abuse and physical assults and slavery humiliation and much more

we victims have been silent for too long and for over ten years our stories have been told

the institutions that are involved with the abuses that occurred to us victims have been covering up each other for far to many years
and its about time the state goverment and the comonwealth goverment stand up for the victims and addmitt to the truth of the abuse we victims endured by these pedophiles that worked in any of these institutions whether it be a church home or a state run home

we are real and we are not going away and we will no longer be forgotten

its about time parliment and the courts act for the victims and not the pedophiles

lets hope that the courts will give us victims justice and stop the goverments and the chuches cover ups

the judges are in a reserverd judgement disission of the appeal i lodge against the state for the rapes and abuse i suffered as a child and i can only hope they will give justice to i the victim and stop the state from covering up any more of these cases that are before the courts of which their are so many lined up in sydney supreme

kind regards huffnpuff

Perhaps, it is only in the last 10 years that the issue has been recognised in the media and in society's consciousness as a crime. Surely the victim's fear of confronting the issue prevents disclosure to authorities. It must be an ordeal to disclose even to a confidant to say nothing of going public on the issue. Of course there is also the fear of both the perpetrator and the institution they are a part of, to admit publicly what they have done. We need more people like Father Chris Riley saying that any matter of abuse must be taken straight to the police rather than dealt with internally by any organisation. These calls must be acted upon. Having said all that I hesitate to generalise about and stereotype these criminals and assume anything about their motivation or intent. Some of them, for example, were sexually abused themselves in the 1950's, when there was even less awareness.

The comments reveal the real issue - sexual predation is manifest everywhere. In beating up the Church all the time, the real extent of the problem is hidden and rationisations of why it happens can and are restricted to celebacy, gay repression etc etc.

Married and single doctors, football coaches, state school teachers, police officers, social workers, legal professionals, step-parents, mums and dads are all involved.

All people we wouldn't readily attribute mental illness to and who are involved in this activity with a level of consciousness and responsibilty unlike the genuinely ill.

It just doesn't make sense. The urge to sexually abuse or take advantage of another is just overwhelming for such a large number of the population.

Thank you for your simple insight into a disastrous situation. Thank you to all the people who have answered from their hearts...who have revealed difficult things to reveal. Most of the revelations we have heard in the media do deal with matters happening over twenty years ago. Today, we are told that in churches and in wider society, structures have changed and are continuing to change in order to protect children from those who are more powerful. We need to remain vigilent to love and care for our children and to continue to protect them. Weneed to remain open to and care for those who have been hurt in the past.

RUNNER is on the money here.. if we can have a supreme court justice masterbating at Winyard station while observing males...(public record) then..who knows what the other judges are doing?

Not only them..but every strata of society.

a friend at Gym told me of an attempted abuse by a Priest.

They were at a church/school camp. The priest said ".... do you want to goto the shops?" he said.."sure" and off they went in the Priests car..but not to the shops. Priest asks "... how are you going at school?" he replies "could be better"..Priest "What can we do about that eh?" He says "Don't know".. Priest says"How about you get out of the car.. pull your pants down and I spank you!" he refused and threatened to tell his mother..and after a few more attempts to grope the boy he relented when he was assured the boy would tell his mum.

The same boy was ALSO molested by a non Church person, who happened to be the Footy club MASSEURE! So, it's not just priests, but it IS allll bad.

mykah

That's not a bad list of plausible reasons to explain why it's taken so long for past offences to come to light.
<<The cunning of the perpetrators.
<<The cloud of secrecy, silence and shame.
<<The long, painful process that victims go though to see the past objectively.
<<The deification of the church and its ministers.
<<The lack of interest and support from parents.>>

The last one surprises me more than any other. I can understand it in relation to State Wards and children in foster care or institutions where by definition parents are not in a position even to know let alone take action. But if children in regular families are sexually abused surely their parents would be appalled and angry enought to want to take action against the abuser?

Reality Check,

<<Married and single doctors, football coaches, state school teachers, police officers, social workers, legal professionals, step-parents, mums and dads are all involved. All people we wouldn't readily attribute mental illness to and who are involved in this activity with a level of consciousness and responsibilty unlike the genuinely ill. It just doesn't make sense. The urge to sexually abuse or take advantage of another is just overwhelming for such a large number of the population.>>

Surely you're not proposing that, because sexual abuse of children is sometimes done with a 'level of consciousness', that the perpetrator is not 'genuinely ill'? The vast majority of adults are not predators and, if they do have urges to sexually abuse children, they would seek help. All abusers are mentally ill, surely?.

Runner,

Ki Meekins' book, "Red Tape Rape" illustrates your point about the power of some pedophiles.

Bloods,

At what point in time was sexual abuse of children not a crime?

Hello to huffnpuff. Good to see you're still on the case!

HI TO ALL THE FORGOTTEN AUSTRALIANS

Thanks spikey for the suport ,
just letting you all know im not one for sitting back , ive been trying to get justice for over ten years of which , some olo members are aware of,

i had appealed the courts dissission of 20 september 2006 , of which the court still found in favour of the state and not the victim,

well the appeal was heard on the 18/08/2008 , at sydney supreme banco court room , , the three judges that heard the case are justce beazley, cheif justice spigleman ,and justice handley, at the end of the court session the judges stated that they will reserve their dissission of the case ,
so now i have to wait until the judges come back with their answer to the appeal , when that will be i have no idea as no date was set in the court room for the answer to be returned ,
we are real victims and the state and the courts know this as do the members of parliment and that of the prime minister

yet the courts and goverment are doing nothing and continue to cover up the abuses we victims suffered ,

maybe justcie might be given in my case we can only wait to find out ,

and can only hope the courts find in favour of the victim and not the state that continue to cover up the abuse we suffered
kind regards huffnpuff

Mykah.. wise words.. much deeper than many of your observers realize.

SPIKEY SAID...
Surely you're not proposing that, because sexual abuse of children is sometimes done with a 'level of consciousness', that the perpetrator is not 'genuinely ill'? The vast majority of adults are not predators and, if they do have urges to sexually abuse children, they would seek help. All abusers are mentally ill, surely?.

hooray :)

Sahih Bukhari Volume 7, Book 62, Number 64
Narrated 'Aisha:
that the Prophet married her when she was six years old and he consummated his marriage when she was nine years old, and then she remained with him for nine years (i.e., till his death).

(he was in mid 50s at this time)

Finally Spikey understands by his own admission..why such acts are inherrently 'abuse' .... good.. we are now on the same page.

Having power over people 'spiritually' whether it is by a claim to prophethood..or priesthood.. can easily lead to abuse, and often does.

It did for many priests and it did for many calling themselves 'prophets'

-Joseph Smith
-David Koresh
-Jim Jones
-Mohammad bin Abdullah

Boazycrap: << It did for many priests and it did for many calling themselves 'prophets'

-Joseph Smith
-David Koresh
-Jim Jones
-Mohammad bin Abdullah >>

What about those who call themselves the 'elect vessel'

-Bruce Hales ?

Mykah

Yes I agree with you on boarding schools. They're so out of my league that I'd overlooked them.

On reflection, in many respects boarding schools and orphanages have a lot in common. A principal difference of course is that parents use boarding schools as a means of outsourcing their responsibilities for child-rearing, while the parents of orphanage children (where there are parents) usually have no choice in the matter.

In either event, the sexual abuse of children is sickening and wherever it is humanly possible the evil perpetrators should be brought to trial. No in-house processes, call in the authorities every time. Perpetrators must be held accountable for their perversion but so must the institutional management for their failure to provide supervision and a duty of care.

As usual Pollywaffle distorts the meaning of what I was saying for his own exploitative purposes. Butt out Polly...we have never been "on the same page" because you're reading from the wrong book - probably visiting the wrong library. Go hawk your bi(b)le somewhere else.

Hello Michael, nice to hear from you again mate.

Having sex with children is learned behaviour. Many perpetrators learned this behaviour as victims themselves, others choose to do it because they can with little or no consequence. No they are typically not mentally ill - many are mentally very acute - you have to be for a successful and undiscovered career in child sex abuse.
Gaining access to children is a necessary antecedent which can be achieved by 1. breeding your own victims 2. partnering with a mother with victims 3. achieving a position of trust and control over victims with the consent and knowledge of families due to your social role/profession (eg priests) 4. manipulating a rift between the victim and the protective family 5. having institutional power over victims (eg schools)6. purchasing child sex here or overseas 7. opportunist offending (in toilets/parks/shopping centres)8. joining with other offenders to share victims.
For centuries the Catholic church has reasoned thus:
Priests are God's chosen princes on earth but they are tempted by evil. Those who cause priests to sin are therefore evil.
Therefore the church protects its princes against the evil of seductive and tempting children/women/men who do the work of the devil. Of course this also protects the church's reputation, money,property, parishioners and power.
Jesus is on record saying that anyone who defiles a child should have a millstone put around their neck and be cast into the sea. This measure would stop many offenders having long and successful careers but the sea level would rise.