Facing the truth ...

For a child victim to detect the exploitation, the cruelty and the perversion when it is shrouded by the loving, the kindness and the normal, is obviously a very difficult task. Their desire to escape the abuse by reporting it is severely hampered by the confusion inflicted upon them by the offender.

Pedophiles are known to groom not only their victims but also the child’s protectors including parents, teachers, headmasters and senior clergy. If a child, or even an adult who has suspicions, reports an alleged crime, the child’s parents and the offenders’ managers are already primed to disbelieve the allegations.

It is only when the allegations against a cleric cannot be denied because of some empirical proof that the second defence, of excusing crime as sin, swings into action. Many of these factors came into play in the Mountford case, as Bryan Littely reported in the Adelaide Advertiser on June 7, 2004.

Littley interviewed Bangkok’s Shrewsbury International School headmaster Stuart Morris who said Mountford had "made a mistake" but was an excellent teacher of children and should not be stopped from working at schools despite being accused of sexually assaulting three students of Adelaide's St Peter's College in the early 1990s. "John made a mistake ... which he happily ... well, he admits to, some years ago. He's put it behind him," Mr Morris was quoted as saying.

Mr Morris went on to say that he had helped Mountford in an application for work at Trinity International School. "I'm a trusting sort of guy and when a person I've worked with for a number of years admits to some silly indiscretion way back in 1991 ... and I've seen him practicing as a consummate professional, I tend to see the evidence with my own eyes," Mr Morris said.

Given the mitigating factors against children ever reporting sexual crimes committed by clergy it is both overwhelming and deeply saddening to read on www.clergyabuseaustralia.org the hundreds of priests in this country who have been convicted of sexual crimes against children.

What can be done?

The scale of the problem of pedophile clergy in Australian churches needs to be squarely faced by state and federal parliaments in a forum such as a senate inquiry or royal commission where witnesses can be compelled to give evidence. It is beyond an accident that so many pedophiles have infiltrated the churches over such a long time. The mechanisms by which pedophiles have gained virtual immunity from crime need urgently to be investigated and addressed.

Insurance companies which have allowed churches to pay premiums to protect themselves from damages claims by victims of crimes and then to use legal loopholes to protect churches from their moral responsibilities, need to be investigated. But most importantly, parishioners need to inform themselves of the issues and require that their church leaders ensure that all clergy who know about alleged offenders in the church are reported to police, no matter how long ago the offences may have occurred.