The Salvation Army is back in the box at the child sex abuse royal commission on Monday to give evidence into its handling of allegations against its officers in NSW and Queensland.
The organisation has faced two commission hearings, the first in January which looked at its response to sexual abuse at boys' homes in Indooroopilly and Riverview in Queensland and at Bexley and Goulburn in NSW.
A second hearing in March looked at how it handled further claims of sexual abuse by two officers.
In that hearing, Salvation Army leader James Condon gave evidence that he accompanied an officer, Colin Haggar, to a Sydney police station in 1990 to report Haggar's abuse of an eight-year-old girl.
Mr Condon said they were told nothing could be done in response to their initiative unless the victim's family came forward.
On Friday, the commission published recommended findings by counsel assisting, Simeon Beckett.
Mr Beckett said it was open for the commission to find Mr Condon did attend the police station but police were given insufficient information to start an investigation.
However, the NSW government has also made a submission, describing Mr Condon's evidence as "highly improbable".
Standard procedure at the time would have required the allegations being formally reported to detectives and for both Salvation Army officers to be interviewed before police sought to contact the victim's family.
No records have been found of the visit to a police station.
Among the other findings recommended by Mr Beckett was that in the boys' homes "the culture of frequent physical punishment permitted certain officers and employees of The Salvation Army to sexually abuse boys in their care with little fear of discovery".
Mr Beckett also said the public hearing revealed a number of structural, systemic and cultural problems within the Salvation Army which permitted the sexual abuse of children on such a wide scale and over considerable time.
He found there was no effective process of oversight to detect and discipline those responsible.
"Further, when allegations were passed on they were often not properly investigated and The Salvation Army was defensive," Mr Beckett recommended the commission find.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/24292960/salvos-back-in-box-at-abuse-inquiry/
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