Mountain Views
Mail Covering the foothills of the Yarra Ranges & Murrindindi Shires
5 Tuesday, 11 September, 2018
Cash for black spots
7
Maternity push for Healesville
A Mail News Group publication
20-22
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Now, HEAR this By Kath Gannaway When Pam Kristic, Ian Lawther and Jo* started HEAR - Healesville Education and Awareness Raising re Clergy Professional Misconduct and Sexual Abuse in 2008 it was about protecting children at a grassroots level. It was a response to criminal abuse by St Brigid parish priests Fr David Daniel who served from 1990 to 1994 and Fr Paul Pavlou who served from 2005 to 2007. Both were convicted of sex offences against children in Healesville and put on the sex offenders’ register. Ian is a parent of a victim of Daniel, Jo a parent of a victim of Pavlou and Pam was a teacher at St Brigid’s Primary School at the time of the offences. In November 2013 they expressed some hope for the future safety of children with the release of 15 recommendations of the Victorian Government Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and Other Organisations. It’s taken another five years for the Federal Government’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse to hand down 400 recommendations. Their input into the Inquiry and Royal Commission was significant. For Ian, Pam and Jo, it’s another wake-up call, rather than a victory. While they applaud the work of the Royal Commission, and acknowledge that there has been some movement on legislation around mandatory reporting, they say the culture that allowed abuse to happen remains. “Reportable conduct is now legislated and that makes a huge difference because people in the church, and teachers, know its could be a criminal offence not to report,” Pam said. “But all the effort is going into how you police that legislation and I don’t think enough work is going into education for culture change. “There is also a lot of push back from parents, teachers and others who think it’s gone too far and that it’s too huge a task to work out how to police it.”
Pam and Ian said when they formed HEAR it was not about finding criminals, but about raising awareness of how the abuse that happened in Healesville could have happened right under everyone’s nose. “I still don’t think enough of that has been done.” They welcome a recommendation that the parish priest should not be the employer of teachers and other school staff. “The church is saying they don’t think that needs to be changed, but it needs to be legislation and I believe they will be pressured into it,” Pam said. It ties into their concern that not enough has been done to protect whistleblowers.
YARRA RANGES
Speaking out in a small community, and in their case a tightly manipulated church and school community, has come at a huge cost. Pam speaks openly about her loss. “It’s huge,” she says. “Lost my sanity for a while; I lost my health, friends, the ability to hold my head up in public for a long time, the money I would have earned. “My family has lost the me I used to be.” When Ian found out about the abuse of his son his rage was so intense he lost the sight in his left eye when blood vessels burst. His sight has deteriorated over the years. “I lost my trade. I lost my sight and I lost a great deal of my self-respect when I realised as a Christian that I could kill,” he says.
For Jo, the fight for justice for her and her family is ongoing. She lost the community she thought would support her, and much more that is too hurtful to voice publicly. What none of them can understand is why it is so hard for people in the parish to acknowledge that it is through their pain, loss and courage, that the St Brigid’s children, and so many others, are safer. On the Royal Commission recommendations, their hope is that there is the political will, and the guts, to make the legislative changes that will protect the children, and change the culture of institutions that covered up so much abuse. *Jo is not her real name.
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