Wednesday, 25 May 2022

Carmel Rafferty

Ms CROZIER: If I can just raise another important issue, former Catholic primary school teacher at Holy Family School, Doveton, in the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne Ms Carmel Rafferty lost her career in 1993 over clergy sexual abuse and subsequently gave evidence to the Victorian Parliament’s Family and Community Development Committee in January 2013 as part of its inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious and other organisations. I was very privileged to have chaired the inquiry, which led to the royal commission, and our report, Betrayal of Trust, went around the world.

I saw and chatted to Carmel at the De La Salle, Malvern, commemoration prior to COVID. Carmel has subsequently contacted me. The committee report unfortunately contained an error relating to Ms Rafferty’s evidence. On page 415 another witness, Graeme Sleeman, testified to having received ongoing payments from Peter O’Callaghan QC for eight years followed by a lump sum payment with a deed of release. The error regarding Ms Rafferty appears at the top of page 416, giving the impression that she too received ongoing payments. However, she only received one payment— (Time expired)