Anthony Foster, advocate for child sex abuse victims, has died

Victims of child sex abuse have lost one of their biggest allies following the death long-time advocate Anthony Foster.

Foster, 64, died last night after his family made the decision to switch off his life support, the ABC reports.

It comes after he had a fall and hit his head last week. He never regained consciousness.

It’s another tragic blow for the Foster family, whose sad tale and hard-fought advocacy are one of the biggest influences in the establishment of the royal commission into child sex abuse.

Two of Foster’s daughters, Emma and Katie, were raped by a notorious Melbourne pedophile priest in primary school in the 1980s.

Their hard-fought case led to a tragic string of circumstances, with Emma battling alcohol addiction before she was left permanently disabled after she was struck by a drunk driver in 1999 and Katie overdosing on drugs and dying in 2008 at age 26.

The Fosters had a 10 year battle with the church in the ’90s and ’00s with Cardinal George Pell’s Church’s Melbourne Response, which eventually led to them being awarded $750,000 in compensation.

Since then, Foster became a tireless advocate for child sex abuse victims, particularly those affected by the church.

ABC presenter Paul Kennedy, who co-authored a book with Foster’s wife Chrissie in 2010, led the tributes to the 64-year-old – describing him as “a hero”.

“They (the Fosters) just wouldn’t let the injustice of how survivors were treated stand,” he told the ABC.

“Their personal grief was immense, still is, immense, and now even more so.”

Lawyer Dr Vivian Waller said Foster stood for “everything the church is not”, while child abuse royal commission chairman Justice Peter McClellan told the ABC the commission was “deeply shocked and saddened” by the news.

Such a tragedy!

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