BIBLE THOUGHT

“FOR as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” (Romans 8:14 AKJV) How do you know you are a child of God? You are led by the Holy Spirit. cially in matters relating to historical child sexual abuse.

There is no such thing, as Mr Webb puts it, as “a total lack of evidence”.

Where victims of sexual abuse make a formal statement to police, the content is vetted, evidence is gathered to support or strike-out allegations, and many professionals such as police, social workers, psychologists, medicos, etc. are involved in appraising, weighing-up and challenging the evidence against thresholds of probability, likelihood and actuality.

A matter wouldn’t even be presented to the DPP unless leading detectives were certain the matter had a good chance of success.

Now, as for the idea that “there was no physical evidence” – what do you call a victim? A victim is a living and speaking physical being capable of experiencing life, creating memories and remembering things.

A child victim can often remember many things – even 30 or 40 years later - including situations, sights, actions, smells, odour, clothing and locations.

A child victim can well remember who stuck their thing into their pri- and what he or she was coerced or forced to do.

As a person who had the good fortune of living in Ballarat during those dark days and the misfortune of having a direct association with St Patrick’s College and the St Alipius Church, I can tell you quite categorically that what many perceive as the far-fetched stories and impossible memories and fantasies of so-called victims really happened!

If you weren’t there, then to you and all of those who support the likes of Cardinal Pell, I say you have no right to pass judgement on victims in favour of disgraced clergyman and others.

Who or what Cardinal Pell is now, may not well be the case of what he was back then.

GEORGE W. HELON, abuse victim and survivor advocate, Kearney’s Spring

BIRTHING KITS

THE government is supposedly going to give pregnant women out west birthing kits. Give a traveller with a broken-down car a toolkit and could he fix the car? Sometimes, yes and sometimes no.

Birthing kits could have the same result.

Of interest, a mother to be in Middlemount CQ, Sara Berghauser,was muddled between three hospitals before giving birth in her bathroom at home, helped by her husband and talked through it by a paramedic via phone. At 3am she woke up in pain. She rang Dysart Hospital, a 45 minute drive away to be told, ‘We don’t do birthing here, you’ll need to go to Emerald’. Emerald was 150 km away. A good hour and a half drive.

She had previously had three quick deliveries so wasn’t keen to drive so far.

She rang 000 and the paramedic said to be prepared to have the baby at home. She said, ‘No, I need an ambulance’ but the baby had different ideas. She said that when her water broke she was alarmed by the amount of blood, but the 000 operator talked her through it.

Would a birthing kit have helped? Who can say? Ambos transferred her to Emerald then.

A shock to the parents when they went to register the birth. The registry sent the paperwork back saying that they couldn’t prove it was their baby as no doctor was present at the birth.

They needed to do a statutory declaration at Dysart saying that the baby was really theirs. Lest they kidnapped it?

Who of us would like to have that experience?

RAY HARCH, Toowoomba