A young girl who was sexually abused by a paedophile priest, after already suffering abuse at the hands of a family member, was later asked by police if she was "wearing a neon sign above your head saying 'come and get me'," the royal commission has heard.

Julie Stewart told the child abuse royal commission that she was nine years old when Doveton parish priest Peter Searson forced her to sit on his lap during confession and indecently assaulted her.

"He would say to me: 'Do you love father?' And I said 'yes'. He would ask me to kiss him on the lips. I did," she told the hearing on Wednesday.

Ms Stewart, now 40, said the abuse continued throughout 1984 and 1985 and that she started wearing tracksuit pants or stockings into the confessional to make it harder for the priest to abuse her.

During her last confession she said Searson lifted her onto his lap and pushed her against his erect penis while telling her she was forgiven for her sins.

"He whispered in my ear: 'You are a good girl. The Lord forgives you'."

Ms Stewart said she "snapped" and pushed her way out of the confessional. The distraught child was taken by a teacher to see then principal of Holy Family School, Graeme Sleeman, but she did not tell him what had happened.

Mr Sleeman testified on Wednesday that he heard the Grade 3 student screaming after running out of the confessional.

"I still have the visions of that little girl coming out," Mr Sleeman said. "I came to the firm conviction that Searson had molested her. That is the day that I became extremely concerned about what other children in my care were going to be damaged by this guy."

Mr Sleeman, whose career was destroyed after taking a stand against Searson, said he was convinced the Melbourne Archdiocese had "no concern" for the parishioners of Holy Family Doveton or which priests were sent to the church.

Ms Stewart said in late 1990, aged 15, a detective from Dandenong's sex crimes unit contacted her wanting to talk about Searson. She said the detective interviewed her at the kitchen table while her parents were in another room.

"I initially felt comfortable so I told him that I had also been sexually abused by a family member. And he said to me, 'Oh God, what were you wearing a neon sign above your head saying 'come and get me'.

"When he said that I shutdown and I felt I could not tell him all the details of what happened. I felt he was blaming me, which was hard because I blamed myself."

Ms Stewart said the detective eventually said there was not enough to take the matter further. She never heard from the police again.

Ms Stewart received $25,000 from the church through its Melbourne Response program in 1988, a process she said left her "retraumatised".

As a teenager she attempted suicide and in adulthood has been treated for severe depression. She said she had since moved interstate and when visiting Melbourne "never stepped foot in Doveton again".

Ms Stewart, through tears, said she was getting on with her life but still cried for the girl she once was.

"The little girl that never got to be a normal little girl, doing all the things that little girls should do. The little girl who always just wanted to fit in, but always felt like a weirdo, like a problem. Nothing can ever give that back to me. It's a life sentence and every day I make a choice to keep going.

"I'm not ashamed any more, and I no longer blame myself. I will no longer be a victim."

The royal commission's 35th inquiry is probing the Catholic Church's handling of sex abuse allegations in Melbourne from the 1980s to 1996, with a focus on clergy associated with the Holy Family Parish and primary school.​

Data produced to the royal commission shows four people claimed child sexual abuse at the hands of Searson between 1974 and 1985. The church paid out $291,000 to three victims via the Melbourne Response program.

Searson died in 2009 before facing any child sex charges.

The hearing in Melbourne continues.