Abusers may be at large, says church (AUS)

Some child sex abusers might still be among Uniting Church clergy because of  poor record keeping and failure to investigate cases, the church conceded on  Monday. The Victorian inquiry into how the churches handled sex abuse instructed the  church to investigate previous cases. In other evidence, church spokesmen said it had no records of victims seeking  compensation before 1998 because of inadequate record-keeping and that since  then it had paid $2 million  to 63 victims from the 1940s to 1986 but had not  reported any cases to the police. There have been seven cases of child abuse since 1998, all of which were  reported to the police, the inquiry heard. When committee member Nick Wakeling asked if failure to report to police and  to keep records meant  some abusers might still be operating inside the church,  church lawyer Philip Battye said it was ”theoretically possible”. Read more: The Age, April 23, 2013