On 3 May 2021, the Australian Human Rights Commission released its final report on the Independent Review of Gymnastics Australia.

The review looked into culture and practice at all levels of gymnastics in Australia following the release of the documentary ‘Athlete A’. The documentary caused gymnasts worldwide to come forward on social media with reports of institutional abuse, with many reports coming from former Australian athletes and parents of athletes.

Shockingly, the findings of the report revealed a toxic culture at Gymnastics Australia that enabled serious sexual, physical, and other abuse of young Australian gymnasts for decades across the country.

Law firm Chamberlains is looking into current and historical incidents of institutional abuse in Australia.

The firm is urging victims, witnesses of abuse, or anyone with information about abuse that took place within Gymnastics Australia to come forward.

Many victims are not aware that they could be entitled to compensation, nor that it is possible to lodge a claim against an institution. We hope that by raising awareness among victims of institutional abuse, we can get more to step forth and to share their stories.

Chamberlains have offices in Canberra, Sydney, Perth, and Newcastle where anyone with information on these matters is encouraged to come in to discuss their potential claim.

We are urging witnesses Australia wide to contact us. Our specialists in institutional abuse, Directors Jon May and Alison McNamara are both operating out of our Canberra office, but we can remotely assist clients from anywhere in the nation.

Further Information

To contact a lawyer about your experiences with institutional abuse at Gymnastics Australia, contact Chamberlains Law Firm:

Alison McNamara

• Email: alison.mcnamara@chamberlains.com.au
• Phone: 02 6188 3600

Jon May

• Email: jon.may@chamberlains.com.au 
• Phone: 02 6188 3600

If you, or someone you know, is a victim of sexual or physical abuse contact the following services to seek support.

Lifeline Australia 13 11 14
www.lifeline.org.au

The Australian Institute of Sport Mental Health Referral Network (MHRN) The MHRN provides support to current and alumni athletes and their families, and current and former staff of the AIS and their families.

• Phone: +61 2 6214 1130 (Monday – Friday 9am-5pm AET)
• Email: mentalhealth@sportaus.gov.au
• www.ais.gov.au/mhrn

Beyond Blue 1800 512 348
Mental wellbeing telephone and online support service.

• beyondblue.org.au

Eheadspace 1800 650 893
Online and webchat support and counselling for 12-25 year olds, their family and friends.

• www.headspace.org.au/eheadspace/

MensLine 
Professional telephone and online support and information service for Australian men.

• Phone 1300 78 99 78 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week). 
• MensLine online counselling.

1800Respect
Confidential counselling, information and support for people impacted by sexual assault, domestic or family violence and abuse via phone or online chat.

• Phone: 1800 737 732 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week). 
• 1800Respect online chat

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has released 85 recommendations aimed at reforming the Australian criminal justice system. The proposed sweeping changes are aimed at providing a fairer response to victims of institutional child sexual abuse.

The Criminal Justice report released today recommends a number of important and necessary legislative and policy changes, including reform to police and prosecution processes, evidence of complainants, sentences and appeals, and grooming offences.

It also recommends new offences, including ‘failure to report’ and ‘failure to protect’.

A snapshot of key recommendations for law reform

Sentencing standards in historical cases

That all states and territories introduce legislation so that sentences for child sexual abuse offences are set in accordance with sentencing standards at the time of the sentencing, instead of at the time of offending. The Royal Commission recommends that the sentence must be limited to the maximum sentence available for the offence at the date when the offence was committed.

The reason for this is that many survivors of institutional child sexual abuse do not report the offence for years, and sometimes decades after the abuse. Applying historical sentencing standards can result in sentences that do not align with the criminality of the offence as it is currently understood.

Tendency and coincidence evidence and joint trials

That law reform allows greater use of evidence by multiple victims in relation to a single perpetrator. This is known as tendency and coincidence evidence and joint trials.

The Royal Commission found that there have been unjust outcomes in the form of unwarranted acquittals because of the exclusion of tendency or coincidence evidence.

Grooming children and those around them

That legislation is introduced or amended to adopt a broad grooming offence that captures any communication or conduct with a child with the intention of grooming the child to be involved in a sexual offence.

The Royal Commission recommended that governments introduce laws to extend their grooming offences to the grooming of persons other than the child, such as a parent or carer, for example, by giving a perpetrator access to the child. The outcome of such reform would be to help to protect the child and recognise that grooming behaviour can also harm those who care for the child.

Failure to report and the religious confessional

One of the most significant recommendations made in today’s report is to recommend that failure to report child sexual abuse in institutions is a criminal offence. The recommendation extends to information given in religious confessions. The Royal Commission found that clergy should not be able to refuse to report because the information was received during confession.

Persons in institutions should report if they know, suspect, or should have suspected that a child is being or has been sexually abused.

The Royal Commission heard of cases in religious settings where perpetrators suffering guilt sought forgiveness by making a religious confession to sexually abusing children and then went on to re-offend. The report recommends there be no exemption, excuse, protection or privilege from the offence granted to clergy for failing to report information disclosed in connection with a religious confession.

Failure to protect a child within an institution

The report recommends that failure to protect a child within an institution from a substantial risk of sexual abuse by an adult associated with the institution should be made a criminal offence.

The Commission heard of many cases where perpetrators were moved between schools and other sites operated by the same institutions when an allegation against them was raised and who continued to abuse children in new locations.

The Royal Commission found that all states and territories should introduce a ‘failure to protect’ offence with legislation already introduced in Victoria providing a useful precedent.

Our thoughts

As the Royal Commission found, where allegations against clergy are made, perpetrators are moved between schools or other sites and incidents involving children disclosing abuse at confession have gone unreported. Given the ubiquitous nature of abuses suffered by children and other vulnerable victims at the hands of perpetrators in institutions such as the Catholic Church, it is unclear what measures will be taken to implement the ‘failure to report’ or ‘failure to protect’ recommendations and how they will effectively be enforced.

Unless strong legislative action is taken by governments, it seems likely that sexual abuse will continue to occur, as it has for decades, and that there will be even more opportunity for such heinous and sickening abuses of power to not only continue but also remain hidden behind the veil of institutional walls.

Further Information

To read the full report visit the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse.