How journalism got Australia the child abuse royal commission

Joanne McCarthy and the Newcastle Morning Herald’s investigation of the Catholic Church’s response to the sexual abuse of children by clergy in the Hunter region of New South Wales was a decisive factor in Julia Gillard’s decision to appoint the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. This is the story of how that journalism was done and how it galvanised other institutions, including police and politicians, to create a climate in which the clamour for a royal commission became irresistible. It also shows what is at stake if the financial crisis afflicting the media cripples investigative reporting.

In 1995, police in the Hunter region of New South Wales investigated Vincent Gerard Ryan, a Catholic priest, for sex crimes against boys spanning 20 years. Brought to trial in 1996 and 1997, he pleaded guilty to multiple offences including sexual intercourse by anal and oral penetration and was sentenced to 16 years jail, with a minimum of 11. He served 14 years.