by MSSAT Aotearoa | Dec 22, 2019 | News
A New Zealand church abuse survivor says the Vatican’s decision to abolish secrecy clauses for Catholic clerical sex crime cases is “far too late”.
Pope Francis this week announced “pontifical secrecy” would no longer apply to child abuse complaints. The decision meant abuse victims and witnesses would be freed from confidentiality obligations.
New Zealand author Mike Ledingham said the Papal announcement was “bull”, many years overdue, and a reaction to the perception churches could no longer dodge being held to account for child abuse.
Published in Stuff
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Dec 22, 2019 | News
This literature review brings together current evidence about effective approaches to support men who have been sexually abused (as children and/or adults) in their journey of recovery. The Ministry of Social Development (MSD) commissioned this literature review to inform service planning. Because of the limited evidence base we have taken a broad exploratory approach to examine what is known about supporting men, and what is considered emerging good practice.
Read article (PDF)
From the Ministry of Social Development
October 2019
by MSSAT Aotearoa | Dec 20, 2019 | News
Interventions are needed to increase use of preventive care after experiencing sexual assault among young adults experiencing homelessness.
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By American Journal of Preventive Medicine
December 2019
by MSSAT Aotearoa | Dec 20, 2019 | News
A 37-year-old woman has been jailed for two-and-a-half-years for sexually abusing students while she taught at Marlborough Boys’ College.
She could only be charged with sexual conduct with a person under 16, not anything more serious.
Male Survivors Aotearoa national advocate Ken Clearwater says they’ve been lobbying for changes for more than 20 years.
He says ACC refused to pay male victims in 1998 because the law didn’t count females sexually abusing men.
By Newstalk ZB
Published in NZ City
18 December 2019
by MSSAT Aotearoa | Dec 13, 2019 | News
Nearly 500 babies, children and teenagers in Oranga Tamariki care experienced physical, emotional and sexual harm, and neglect in just one year.
The first full annual report on harm in care by Oranga Tamariki, released on Wednesday, showed 5.6 per cent of children in state care (or 464 children) were not kept safe in the year ending June 30.
The report, titled Safety of Children in Care, says 6590 children and young people in Oranga Tamariki’s custody were kept safe and “had the support they needed to ensure they could thrive and flourish in loving homes”.
Published in Stuff
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Dec 11, 2019 | News
The MSA discussion paper is issued to inform a policy development conversation and to provide guidance for its member organisations.
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Dec 9, 2019 | News
Two Roman Catholic priests were each sentenced to more than 40 years in prison in Argentina for sexually abusing deaf children, a court in the western city of Mendoza ruled Monday.
Published in France 24
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Dec 9, 2019 | News
Within Aotearoa/New Zealand’s justice system and help-providing professions, little is known or understood about LGBTQI experiences of sexual harm. In this research report, which is based on research I conducted as part of my Masters of Public Policy, I demonstrate that institutional and legal frameworks, as well as wider societal understandings of sexual violence, create intersecting barriers to help-seeking and justice for LGBTQI people who have experienced sexual harm.
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Nov 22, 2019 | News
A woman molested as a five-year-old girl by a high-profile Catholic theologian is outraged at a church leader justifying his abuse.
A Catholic leader is accused of telling a woman who was attacked when she was a girl by a high-profile priest, that he was “healing himself” when he had sex.
Rangi Davis is apologising.
But this has caused more ructions for the Church with the Royal Commission on abuse, already shaken by Bishop Charles Drennan’s resigning over his affair with a young woman.
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By Phil Pennington (Morning Report)
Published in Radio New Zealand
21 November 2019
by MSSAT Aotearoa | Nov 19, 2019 | News, Public Inquiry
Two abuse survivors have quit a Royal Commission advisory group in fallout from being unknowingly exposed to a paedophile.
The two men accuse the new chair Judge Coral Shaw of spreading misinformation about the matter, and the commission as a whole of sidelining the survivor group.
Phil Pennington reports (Morning Report).
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Nov 19, 2019 | News
Former altar boys have claimed they were molested by priests inside the Vatican, as a lingering scandal surrounding widespread abuse in the Catholic Church erupts at its headquarters once again.
Several anonymous former altar boys at the Vatican’s youth seminary alleged at least two priests kissed and fondled three of them in the Nineties.
The claims will be aired on Sunday on Le Iene (“The Hyenas”), an Italian investigative TV programme, which first broke allegations in 2017 that the senior seminarian, now a priest, had sexually abused teenagers who served as altar boys at papal masses in St Peter’s Basilica.
Published in Independent
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Nov 18, 2019 | News, Public Inquiry
Survivors are given a voice at first public hearings of investigation into historical abuse of thousands of children in state and faith-based care.
On the morning Annasophia Calman is due to testify in public about a childhood destroyed at the hands of her father and the state, she eats scrambled eggs on toast and paces back and forth in the hallway outside her hotel room.
Published in The Guardian
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Nov 13, 2019 | News
Following the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, we are witnessing a wave of legal reforms across Australia aimed at helping survivors seek justice.
Most visibly, there is the National Redress Scheme, which provides victims access to counselling, a response from the institution where they were abused and payment of up to $150,000.
Published in The Conversation
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Nov 12, 2019 | News
For the first time in its four-decade history, Dunedin’s Rape Crisis centre will work with sexual abuse victims of all genders.
The shift is part of a major overhaul of the organisation, which also includes changing its name to the Otepoti Collective Against Sexual Abuse (OCASA).
Published in Otago Daily Times
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Nov 9, 2019 | News
Ribbons have been tied to the fence of the Catholic Cathedral in downtown Auckland by attendees and witnesses from the Royal Commission into Abuse.
Published in Radio New Zealand
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Nov 9, 2019 | News
The majority of 23,000 sexual violence incidents reported to police during the past five years were experienced by children or young people, according to a new Ministry of Justice report.
It reveals that for every 100 sexual violence incidents reported to the police, only 31 made it to court, 11 resulted in a conviction and six in imprisonment.
The report, Attrition and progression: Reported sexual violence victimisations in the criminal justice system, which was released on Friday, analysed 23,739 incidents that were reported between July 2014 and June 2018. The figures will now be updated annually.
Published in Stuff
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