Case Study 28: Ballarat, May and December 2015, February 2016
The Royal Commission is holding a public hearing into clerical and religiuos sexual abuse of children in the Ballarat diocese.
The hearing will be held in three parts, the first in Ballarat in May 2015, the second in Melbourne in December 2015 and the third back in Ballarat in February 2016.
The scope and purpose of the first part of the case study is to hear from residents, students and others of their experiences of child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy and Brothers in a number of differnent schools, parishes and other places in Ballarat.
It will also hear from members of the local community about the impact of child sexual abuse on the community of Ballarat.
The first part of the hearing went from 19 May to 29 May 2015.
The Royal Commission held the second part of the Ballarat public hearing in the County Court of Victoria, Melbourne from 7 December 2015.
This hearing will be co-ordinated with the public hearing regarding the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne and evidence from witnesses common to each hearing will be received.
The second part of the hearing went from 7 December to 15 December 2015.
The Commision returned to Ballarat for the third part of this case study on 22 February for some two weeks to continue hearing evidence including from former Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns.
Sitting in Sydney from 29 February 2016 the Royal Commission heard evidence from Cardinal George Pell by video link from Rome concerning Case Study 35.