They were sexually abused by the clergy and then found themselves targeted by the Church’s lawyers. Why did it happen and who was responsible for the strategy?
This week on Four Corners, reporter Quentin McDermott reveals the systematic way the Catholic Church sought to conceal the sexual abuse of children, using lawyers to minimise the potential financial impact to the organisation.
The Catholic church will not go quietly. True, the archbishops of both Melbourne and Sydney have welcomed the Victorian report into clerical sex abuse. But they signalled at the same time that despite everything the church is still fighting to defend its patch.
Tears and ovations greeted the tabling of the report in the Legislative Council on Wednesday. “The words from the politicians just rang in my heart,” Chrissie Foster told Guardian Australia. “There they were saying what I’d wanted to say for so long and they have the power to change things. It was astounding.”
Former teacher Graeme Sleeman lost his career, health and financial security when he took a stand against a sexually abusive priest in Doveton.
GRAEME Sleeman knew Peter Searson was trouble even before Searson arrived as parish priest of Doveton in 1984. Searson liked to dress in military fatigues, often carried a revolver, and had a bad reputation when it came to money – and sexually abusing children.
As a child and young man, Tony Hersbach was regularly sexually abused by a Catholic priest. He told no one for more than 20 years, and when he finally revealed all to the church hierarchy, it did nothing.
TONY Hersbach was 42 when he told his wife that the man who married them and played grandfather to their children had regularly molested him during his youth. Lu Hersbach’s reaction to this bombshell was disbelief. The priest whom her husband had accused of despicable acts had been a dominant influence in their lives ever since he married them as 19-year-old sweethearts.
Nigel is a Board Director of In Good Faith Foundation with a Graduate Diploma in Psychology and Master’s Degree in Literary Theory from Monash University. Nigel is a registered Counselling Psychologist, founder and Co-Director of Integrative Psychology, Melbourne. He collaborates with global leaders in psychological research and theory including trauma recovery. Nigel facilitates therapy and group support for adults abused in religious communities, as well as group support for survivors wishing to advise institutions on reforms. He is a professional educator on the nature and impact of abuse in institutions and assists with the development and delivery of IGFF’s Community Education Programs.
Rachel has worked at IGFF for almost a decade providing Case Work, Community Development and Education Project Management. She has contributed over 30 years of voluntary service supporting the Australian movement for justice and recognition to all religious institutional abuse Survivors. Rachel supported the development of In Good Faith Foundation as a nationally recognised and sustainably funded ‘specialising’ support service. In her current role as the Advocacy and Redress Manager, Rachel enjoys working with diverse clients; from all walks of life and understanding their life experiences and individual needs. She has lobbied successive governments and institutional hierarchies on behalf of Survivors, with shared concerns. She has also organised and run community forums and education events to greater develop Survivor support and professional care understandings. Rachel’s collaborative approach to advocacy, assists IGFF clients with enhanced access to therapeutic care and justice pathways. She continues to develop her work practices from a deep commitment to human rights and respect for the Survivor’s journey.
Neil has trained as a Clinical Psychologist and has worked in private practice and as a professional advisor with the Australian Psychological Society over many years. Neil worked with military veterans for 15 years and continued to provide mental health assistance to people exposed to other forms of traumatic experiences including victims of crime, victims of natural disasters, and people working in high risk occupations such as police and fire brigade officers. He has a strong interest in best practice in the treatment of psychological trauma; working with IGFF to offer assistance to survivors of institutional abuse and assisting in the development of a Community Education Program.
Jim received an Electrical Engineering education at University of Melbourne and contributes his organisational competency to IGFF as a Board Director and a leader of the MVC. As a secondary survivor, Jim is a tireless advocate for survivors of religious institutional abuse, their families and communities presenting to a conference ‘Sexual Abuse in Religious Contexts’ held at the University of NSW in 2008. Jim has provided submissions to the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry and the Royal Commission, making active contributions to the research and documentation compiled by IGFF.
Fr Dillon is a Founding Board Director of IGFF and the Parish Priest of St Simon’s Parish, Rowville with over 45 years’ active ministry. In 2014, Fr Dillon founded Lifeboat Geelong to provide practical pastoral support to victims of church related sexual abuse including some financial support. Father Dillon attributes his years of pastoral care to Vietnam War veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder to his recognition and compassionate responses for survivors of sexual abuse. He is a tireless advocate and pastoral minister to hundreds of religious institutional abuse survivors and their families in Victoria.
Clare has worked at IGFF for nearly a decade, assisting individuals, families and communities to engage with the Royal Commission and Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry. She has extensive consultative experience providing written and verbal testimony to both State and Federal Government Inquiries, legislative and policy reviews, organisational restructuring and child safe standards. Graduating from the University of Melbourne with a background in Humanities, Clare possesses extensive case management, community development and engagement experience with governance and organisational oversight experience. She is driven to provide an accessible support service to survivors, families and communities impacted by institutional abuses. Clare is privileged to have shared in the recovery journeys of many survivors and is committed to enhancing public awareness of the needs of institutional abuse Survivors.
Phil has recently joined IGFF to assist with further strengthening the Foundation’s governance and helping develop strategies for continuing growth and development. Phil has over 30 years of experience in Commonwealth government and the private sector, with a focus on complex commercial, procurement and contracting projects, governance, risk management and business transformation. The last decade of this experience was as a Senior Executive, followed by three years of consulting back to government.
Joe Stroud has come onboard as our Head of Government Relations. He has spent the last five years working in Federal Politics and has a background in Community and Political Organising. He has extensive experience as a senior Campaign Adviser and was most recently Campaign Director for the Federal seat of Maribyrnong. Joe has a BA from Monash University.
After completing her BA/LLB(Hons), Hannah worked as a judges’ associate and legal researcher at the Victorian Court of Appeal and the Family Court of Australia before completing her Masters in Social Work. She is passionate about the pursuit of individual and communal justice and wellbeing. Hannah has experience in roles focused on advocacy, education design and delivery, counselling, and service reform, with a particular specialisation in disability. Hannah is also a Board Member of Pathways Melbourne, an organisation which provides peer support and practical resources to people leaving or changing their relationship with their personal Jewish faith or religious community, and one of the few non-autistic Co-Directors of A_tistic, a majority neurodivergent-led arts, education and consultancy collective dedicated to spreading understanding of autism and neurodiversity. She is dedicated to supporting survivors with a focus on collaborative, accessible approaches adapted to each person.
Ruairi is a social worker with over 20 years of experience in community services, having worked in urban and regional areas in Australia, the UK and Canada. He has a diverse history, having worked in youth and homelessness services, disability support and addictions recovery services. He has also been active in human rights campaigns, particularly around gender-violence and sex-worker rights. Over the last five years his practice has focused specifically on counselling and advocacy for Survivors of sexual assault. Ruairi is pleased to be welcomed in to the IGFF team and is excited to be putting his skills as a trauma-informed practitioner to good use in a case work context.
Ingrid recently joined the IGFF team in December 2019. She has an interest in mental health, and providing advocacy and support for our most vulnerable people within the community. She has a Diploma of Community Services, and has been actively involved with school community committee groups while her children attended school. Ingrid has housed exchange students, volunteered at centres for the poor, and most recently volunteers at a retreat, helping children from disadvantaged countries that require life saving medical treatment. She also has experience in family health support.
Angela has an Arts/Law degree and is the Founder and Director of Angela Sdrinis Legal, specialising in Comcare and institutional sexual abuse claims. Angela is a passionate advocate for the rights of children abused in care and was a Director of IGFF between 2014 and 2016. She has been instrumental in developing a settlement protocol in claims involving the State of Victoria and other non-Government organisations with multiple submissions on institutional abuse to the Senate inquiry into Forgotten Australians, the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into The Handling of Abuse by Religious and Other Organisations, and to the Royal Commission into institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse.
Reverend Alexandra’s commitment to healing through justice is central to her spiritual support role at IGFF. She has provided pastoral care to members of IGFF’s community including clients, MVC members and supporters, core staff and associates. Following the completion of an Arts degree majoring in international Development Studies, Alexandra played a significant role at the Carlton and Atherton Gardens Housing Estates, where she worked breaking down barriers dividing residents and local community. She is currently the Uniting Church Minister at St Andrew’s Uniting Church, Fairfield.
Linda is a registered Counselling Psychologist with a Masters in Counselling Psychology from Swinburne University. She is a founder and Co-Director of integrative Psychology and works closely with IGFF on research and best practice community education seminar delivery. She has extensively researched institutional abuse and has expertise in responding to institutional misuse of power and control within communities. She works therapeutically with survivors of institutional trauma and has coordinated an individual and group therapeutic response to survivors of a spiritual organisation in Victoria.
David studied Law at Monash University and was admitted to practice in 1996. David’s main areas of practice include land valuation and compensation, equity, property, planning and environment law, as well as general commercial litigation. From 2010 to 2014, David represented Western Victoria in the Legislative Council of Victoria and was a member of the Victorian Parliamentary inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and Other Organisations. He is a strong political and social advocate for survivors of institutional abuse and represented clients approaching the Royal Commission.
Graeme is the former Principal of Holy Family Primary School, Doveton with a strong commitment to the education and protection of children. As an ambassador for IGFF, Graeme is a leader of the MVC community, frequently contributing to meetings as a guest speaker. Since 2012, Graeme has been contributing to IGFF submissions and was a public witness to the Victorian Parliamentary inquiry and the Royal Commission. Graeme is a passionate advocate for primary survivors and families of religious institutional abuses, recognising the work of whistle-blowers in drawing attention to this critical social issue.
Richard’s long-term advocacy over the last 15 years demonstrates his outstanding commitment to advocating on behalf of survivors. In choosing to share his story as a survivor across all avenues of media, Richard has empowered many others to speak out. His public relations, media communications and political lobbying background has assisted in many of IGFF’s successful campaigns for survivor justice and institutional reform. Contributing to the MVC over many years, Richard has also worked with IGFF and other survivors to establish a Memorial at Xavier College. He was a Founding Board Director of IGFF.
Matthew Quoi joined the IGFF Board in 2020. An experienced commercial executive, with expertise in strategic development, general management and digital transformation. Mathew has held senior positions within a number of international organisations and global brands, with a focus on sustainability, corporate communication and business development.
