Royal commission into child sex abuse updates and live feed The board for the Royal Commission: Bob Atkinson, Prof Helen Milroy, Justice Peter McClellan AM, Justice Jennifer Coate, Robert Fitzgerald and Andrew Murray. THE royal commission into child sex abuse will look at the sentences handed down in the courts for child predators. Counsel assisting the commission, Gail Furness SC, said the Scouts, Girl Guides, orphanages, swimming, child care centres, kindergartens and little athletics are among the institutions to be investigated by the royal commission into child sex abuse. They will come under scrutiny along with detention centres housing refugees, all religious organisations and their associated entities including schools and parishes, Ms Furness said in the opening statement on the first day of the commission's hearings. 10.37am: Commission chair Peter McClellan said the commission would not hesitate to air allegations which may damage the reputations of institutions and individuals. The commission will confine the allegations which it places into the public domain to circumstances where it believes that the airing of those allegations is justified, notwithstanding the risk of damage to a person or institution's reputation.. 10.34am: The child sex abuse royal commission has already taken legal action to seek documents from the Catholic Church and its insurer, the Salvation Army and the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions. Justice McClellan said sex abuse of children in a variety of institutions was already apparent from other inquiries and cases prosecuted in the courts. 10.25am: At least 5000 people are ready to tell their traumatic stories to the royal commission. Justice McClellan said it would be difficult for those survivors of sex abuse committed while they were children but it would also be hard to listen to. "We have been told that many of the accounts we receive will contain serious and often shocking allegations," he said today. Churches, schools, child-care centres, recreational bodies and any state-run institution providing residential care for children as well as non-government organisations responsible for foster care would all be examined under the commission's terms of reference. However he warned that the commission would only be able to report on six institutions before its interim report which is expected by June 30 next year. Our inquiries indicate that most institutions are not immediately able to provide the commission with documents which record their internal management practices and the manner in which they may have dealt with complaints of child sex abuse. 10.14am: Justice McClellan begun the commission's hearings by saying their job was to bear witness on behalf of the nation to the trauma caused by abuse. He said the community now acknowledged. that fundamental wrongs have been committed against children. He said that abuse had caused great trauma and lasting damage to those people. Justice McClellan said that while many witnesses would need support to tell their stories, itmwas important for them and for the nation to hear them. "The bearing of witness by other another can break the silence over the abuse that a person experienced, in many cases years ago," he said as the commission sat for the first time at the Victorian County Court in Melbourne. It allows the person to be heard, understood and have his or her experiences recorded. The information gained can be used to develop better responses for the future. To make it easier for victims to tell their stories, private meetings would be heard in hotel rooms, he said. "Australians of recent generations have lived through a period of rapid change across many aspects of our society," he said. One which is important for the work of this royal commission is our preparedness to challenge authority and the actions of people in power. The commission made their first hearing largely ceremonial with Justice McClellan flanked by the other five commissioners - former Queensland police commissioner Bob Atkinson, Family Court judge Jennifer Coate, productivity commission member Robert Fitzgerald, WA psychiatrist Helen Milroy and former Democrat senator Andrew Murray. Expectations and trepidations were running high among the survivors of child sex abuse and the representatives of victims and survivors groups in the public gallery. Among them was radio announced Derryn Hinch, an ambassador for Bravehearts, with Bravehearts founder Hetty Johnston.