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World|politics|October 22, 2018 / 01:55 PM
Australia offers rare national apology to victims of child sex abuse

AKIPRESS.COM - Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday offered a rare national apology, only the second since 2008, to victims of institutional child sexual abuse and their families, bringing some survivors to tears, Reuters reports.

The gesture followed a five-year inquiry into child sexual abuse that delved into more than 8,000 cases of sexual misconduct, most of them at religious and state-run institutions responsible for keeping children safe.

“Today, as a nation, we confront our failure to listen, to believe, and to provide justice,” Morrison told lawmakers in the Australian capital, Canberra.

“We say sorry. To the children we failed, sorry. To the parents whose trust was betrayed and who have struggled to pick up the pieces, sorry.”

Expressions of national regret such as Monday’s are reserved for egregious misdeeds in which the state has played a role.

Australia set up a redressal scheme this year to pay abuse victims compensation of up to A$150,000 ($106,000) each.

But the conservative government has yet to decide if it will adopt recommendations from the wide-ranging national inquiry, most notably one requiring Catholic priests to report child abuse they may learn about in the confessional.

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