Australian inquiry recommends prosecution of priests for not reporting child abuse confessions

Priests who fail to tell police about suspected child sexual abuse should face criminal charges, even if they learn of abuse during a confidential religious confession, Australia's most powerful investigative authority has recommended.

Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse - the nation's highest form of inquiry - recommended that all states and territories in Australia introduce legislation which would make it a criminal offence for people to fail to report child sexual abuse in an institutional setting. Clergy who find out about sexual abuse during a religious confession would not be exempt.