On February 11, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse released reports on the John Ellis case and on the Church's Towards Healing protocol.

The four cases dealt with in the reports were the subjects of public hearings last year.

Cardinal George Pell and Sydney archdiocese were found to have fought a legal claim against a victim, John Ellis, to discourage others from attempting the same.

Mr Ellis was put through "distressing and unnecessary cross-examination" and threatened him with legal costs.

In 2007, Mr Ellis lost on a technicality in the Court of Appeal, which ruled the Church could not be sued.

The commission's report outlined how the Church initially acknowledged Mr Ellis had been abused, but went on to "vigorously defend" itself.

This included denying the abuse had occurred.

The Church also failed to disclose that a witness to Mr Ellis' abuse and another victim of the same abusive priest had come forward during the litigation process.

The report found that the Archdiocese of Sydney "fundamentally failed" Mr Ellis by not complying with its own policies on sexual abuse claims under Towards Healing.

The commission agreed with Cardinal Pell's admission in evidence that "the archdiocese, the trustees and he as archbishop, did not act fairly from a Christian point of view in the conduct of the litigation against Mr Ellis".

The Church was also found to be unfair, mean and in breach of its own protocols in other cases.

Actions included placing a gag order on a victim as part of a compensation deal, denying and covering up evidence, and a conflict of interest by Church personnel.

The royal commission's report into Towards Healing found a raft of "systemic issues".

It said it was "surprised" by the Church's submission which posited the Towards Healing protocol was a position statement and the suggestion of "possible steps" in a "flexible" process.

This served to excuse or justify departures from the protocol, the report stated.

Sources

• The Guardian
• ABC
• Sydney Morning Herald
• Image: The Standard

This followed an apology to John Ellis in statement by the cardinal that was previously sent to the commission.

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Cardinal Pell said this in giving evidence before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse in Sydney.

The Melbourne Response, which Cardinal Pell instigated in the 1990s, had a $50,000 cap on payouts.

It gave the Church control over how much compensation a victim could receive when its liability could not be established.

Cardinal Pell said he had set up the Melbourne Response in 1996 after the Victorian Premier, Jeff Kennett, told him "Now you clean this thing up and there won't be a Royal Commission".

The cardinal's moral choices in dealing with sex abuse cases have come under sustained challenge at the Royal Commission.

He said his instructions when Archbishop of Sydney to "vigorously" and "strenuously" defend claims by abuse victim John Ellis were intended to discourage claimants.

This was so they would "think clearly" before litigating against the Church.

The cardinal had defended disputing in court whether Mr Ellis was really abused.

Cardinal Pell said his lawyers assured him it was a "proper" legal tactic and Mr Ellis was a senior lawyer who would have understood he was not disbelieved.

The cardinal admitted he accepted Mr Ellis' allegations, just as the Church's own review had done.

But even so he gave the instructions which resulted in Mr Ellis being subject to four days of gruelling cross-examination in court on whether and how he had been abused.

He said he had "moral doubts" about it, but he didn't think his lawyers would have suggested anything "improper" to him.

He said that from a Christian perspective, Mr Ellis had not been treated fairly.

Mr Ellis was abused by the priest Aidan Duggan in the Bass Hill parish from when he was a 13-year-old altar boy.

Mr Ellis lost his landmark damages case against the Sydney archdiocese, which established a defence which has shielded the Church from damages claims in similar litigation.

The litigation finished up costing the Church A$1.5 million, including A$568,000 in ex gratia payments to Mr Ellis.

Sources

• Sydney Morning Herald
• ABC
• Image: Herald Sun

The diocese, in the Hunter Valley north of Sydney, has settled at least 78 claims, with about 25 outstanding.

These settlements are for victims of abuse alleged to have taken place between the 1960s and 1990s, involving at least 10 alleged perpetrators, including priests and teachers.

Many relate to one priest, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and they include what is thought to be the largest such settlement in Australia, of more than $NZ2.5 million.

Lawyer John Ellis, whose firm of David Beggs and Associates has negotiated many of the settlements, said the culture of alleged abuse was likely to be worse in Maitland-Newcastle than in other Catholic dioceses in Australia.

"Maitland-Newcastle had a large number of serial offenders, some of whom operated over many years, even decades," Mr Ellis said. "The other striking feature is the strong evidence of senior Church officials knowing about the abuse and doing nothing to prevent it."

There is no suggestion that current diocesan officials knew about the historical abuse, although police are investigating "alleged cover-ups" of assaults by one priest.

Mr Ellis said the diocese has a dark history. "What has happened in that diocese over the period, and the claims that we've dealt with go over several decades, is just an extraordinary.

"Concentration of claims over that period of time is quite in excess of anything we're aware of in any other diocese," he said.

The cost of settlements has taken its toll on the diocese, whose insurers are understood not to cover any claim where it can be shown the Church had prior knowledge of the alleged abuse.

Bishop Bill Wright of Maitland-Newcastle has said the costs "were a factor" in a 2010 decision to sell a number of aged-care facilities operated by the diocese across the Hunter region.

Sources:

The Australian

ABC

Image: OZinOH