The board for the Royal Commission: Bob Atkinson, Prof Helen Milroy, Justice Peter McClellan AM, Justice Jennifer Coate, Robert Fitzgerald and Andrew Murray. Source: The Daily Telegraph
AT least 5000 people could tell their traumatic stories to the royal commission into child sex abuse.
And the commission says the reputations of individuals or institutions will not be spared if naming and shaming was justified.
Justice Peter McClellan, the chair of the six commissioners, said they would not hesitate to air allegations if they felt they were justified - but they would allow those people or institutions to be represented by lawyers.
It was also revealed yesterday that the commission would look at the sentences handed down in the courts for child predators.
The commission has already begun exercising its wide powers to uncover child sexual abuse and the response of institutions to it.
Justice McClellan said orders to produce documents have been served on the Catholic Church and the Salvation Army and the DPP in New South Wales.
Counsel assisting the commission, Gail Furness, SC, reiterated that the commission was neither a court nor a prosecutor.
"It will not make findings that a named individual was sexually abused by a named person within an institution," she said.
"It will, however, in appropriate cases, and after according procedural fairness, make findings about the conduct of institutions and individuals within those institutions in responding to allegations of child sexual abuse."
Motel function rooms in regional towns will be used for child sex abuse victims to reveal their darkest and most painful secrets.
The commission will spread its net wide to cover more than the Catholic Church and other religious institutions.
Offences may have happened when victims were Scouts, Girl Guides, orphans, at kindy or at swimming, netball or little athletics.
The six commissioners and staff are bracing themselves for the job of listening to harrowing accounts, many of which will be spoken about for the first time because there has been no one to listen.
"The commissioners accept that on behalf of the nation they have been asked to bear witness to the past experiences of those who have suffered child sexual abuse in institutions," Justice McClellan said.
"We have been told that many of the accounts we receive will contain serious and often shocking allegations."
The commission, established late last year by the Federal Government, yesterday declared itself officially open for business with a brief hearing in Melbourne.
Bravehearts founder Hetty Johnson said the commission was starting to understand the depth of its task.
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