Priests to be liable in abuse confession

PRIESTS would be charged for failing to report confessions of child sexual abuse under recommendations by the child abuse Royal Commission.

It has made 85 recommendations in a criminal justice report published yesterday.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse says the proposed changes are aimed at reforming the criminal justice system to provide a fairer response to victims of institutional abuse.

Among the recommendations the commission has called for:

■ REFORM of sentencing practices in historical sex cases.

■ CHANGES to the way tendency evidence can be used in joint trials.

■ NEW legislation broadening grooming offences.

■ LAWS criminalising failure to protect children from abuse within an institution.

The recommendation to charge clergy who fail to report child sexual abuse disclosed during confession is expected to face fierce opposition.

The Catholic Church has repeatedly stressed its opposition to forced reporting because of the inviolability of the confessional seal.

Giving evidence to the commission during hearings in Ballarat, Bishop Paul Bird said he would not report crimes confessed to him, including sexual abuse.

The royal commission said it had heard evidence of a number of instances where disclosures of child sexual abuse were made in religious confession, by both victims and perpetrators.

There was significant risk perpetrators may continue with their offending if they were not reported to police, the royal commission said.

It recommended clergy be granted no privilege or exemption from failure to report offences disclosed during confession.