Stolen Generation abuse accused acquitted

A former teacher at a Catholic Aboriginal mission in rural Western Australia has been found not guilty of molesting a member of the Stolen Generation in the 1960s.

Michael Francis Moran, 83, went on trial in the District Court of WA this week, charged with indecently dealing with a child.

The complainant, now 68, came forward after the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, filing a statement with police in 2015.

The court heard she was removed from her family, made a ward of the state and taken to the mission at age four, where she was initially raised by nuns.

She claimed she was molested by Mr Moran, her first white male teacher, not long after he started working at the school when she was aged 10.

But on Friday, he was acquitted of all seven charges against him and walked free from court.

More than a dozen of his supporters expressed relief, some of them crying tears of happiness and hugging.