Australia's Anglican Church 'ashamed' after inquiry finds over 1,000 complaints of child sexual abuse

The Anglican Church of Australia said it was ashamed after an inquiry held on Friday (17 March) said that around 1,100 people had filed child sexual assault claims against the church over a period of 35 years.

The Royal Commission inquiry also heard that most of those abused during the period between 1980 and 2015 were around the age of 11 years. About AUS$276m ($212m, £9.72m) was paid in compensation to silence the victims, a report published by the same inquiry said.

The report by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was published after a month of high-level probe into child sexual abuse.

Melbourne Archbishop Philip Freier said he felt a "personal sense of shame and sorrow" at the way the church had apparently silenced victims.

"Anglicans have been truly shocked and dismayed at the unfolding in the Royal Commission of the scope of our failure to tackle child sexual abuse within the Church and the depth of survivors' pain and suffering.

"We are deeply ashamed of the many ways in which we have let down survivors, both in the way we have acted and the way we have failed to act," Freier said in a statement.

According to the Royal Commission report, the allegations have been made against 569 church figures, including 247 ordained clergy. It added that around 1,082 people had lodged complaints about 1,115 alleged incidents during the same 35 years while they were under the care of the Anglican Church.

Few of the incidents dated to as far back as1950, the report said.

"We have witnessed firsthand the suffering of those who have shared their stories.

"We have seen in their faces and heard in their voices not only the pain of the abuse they suffered as a child, but the further damage we inflicted when they came forward as adults, seeking justice and comfort, and we pushed them aside," Anne Hywood, general secretary of the church's general synod, said.

Meanwhile, The Newcastle bishop, Greg Thompson, resigned on Thursday, a day before he was due to give evidence to the commission, after trying for years to force reforms within the church.

Thompson, who is an abuse survivor, quit saying the pressure had taken a toll on his health, the BBC reported.