This is also in reference to the thread \"could the 2x2s be sued for CSA in the church\".
The answer is YES and possibly won\'t be long before being tested.
A legal opinion in Australia is that when CSA happens on a convention ground, both the owners and the church \"authority\" responsible for running the event could be successfully sued for breach of duty of care. Basically the onus is on those responsible (viz. grounds owners and responsible church authority) to provide a safe environment for children.
Failure to take reasonable steps to do so would include but is not limited to, not having proper processes for awareness of the dangers, and not having processes for dealing with allegations of CSA and for helping victims.
It is foolish in law to suggest liability of the church does not exist because of informality of organisation. Just as convention grounds are not immune from health and safety and hygiene regulations, so are they not immune from Australian law dealing with victims of sexual abuse (whether child or adult).
A class action involving multiple victims such as in the state of Queensland would be most interesting not least because of:
Included in any such legal action as well as convention ground owners and the church authority (state overseer) would be any worker who became knowledgable but failed in any area of legal duty of care.
Any admissions by a perpetrator and/or police evidence in court would considerably tighten the case.
If a son or daughter was sexually abused by a worker while staying in the home as a guest, the issue as far as the church is concerned is less clear. Parents bear some degree of responsibility under such circumstances for the safety of their children. Nevertheless as victims of a crime, parents and the child could reasonably sue the perpetrator but in this instance any successful legal outcome might be rather pyrrhic due to the parlous bank balances of individual workers.
