Sunday, October 02, 2011

Archbishop says he understands parents' pain

Adelaide's Archbishop Philip Wilson doesn't believe an independent inquiry is needed into the sexual abuse of disabled children but says he understands the pain suffered by their parents, said an AAP report in the Sydney Morning Herald.

"It is a terrible thing to see the reality that was shown ... on Four Corners, everything about that is just really terrible, I wish it had never happened," Archbishop Wilson told ABC radio.

"I don't think there is any need for an independent inquiry ... since 2001 we have dealt adequately and properly with all these matters.

"I really understand the terrible pain that these people have experienced, because of what has happened, and I really have done all I could to help them in that."

The ABC's Four Corners program about a bus driver's sexual abuse of disabled children at South Australia's St Ann's Special School between 1986 to 1991 said the church was given legal advice not to mention sex abuse charges when it sacked Brian Perkins in 1991.

The parents of some of the children believe there was a cover-up and are calling for a full independent inquiry.

South Australian Dignity for Disability MP Kelly Vincent says governments are failing people with disabilities but it can be stopped.

She wants education for children and video cameras placed in buses carrying intellectually-disabled children.

South Australia's Education Minister Jay Weatherill - a former minister for disability - told parliament yesterday that he had ordered a trial of CCTV and GPS on 12 buses for school transport runs, reports The Australian.

Mr Weatherill, who will replace Mike Rann as premier on October 20, said he had "deep sorrow for the fact that, as a government, we were not able to protect these children".