Former Priests Cop Legal Bill

By Joanne Mccarthy
Newcastle Herald
November 7, 2013

http://www.theherald.com.au/story/1894687/former-priests-cop-legal-bill/?cs=305

FORMER Anglican Dean of Newcastle Graeme Lawrence and another priest must pay a diocese legal bill of more than $450,000 after failing to overturn sexual misconduct findings against them.

Mr Lawrence declined to say how the bill to the diocese’s insurer would be paid, other than: ‘‘That’s to be worked out’’.

But he ruled out bankruptcy, saying it was ‘‘not an option’’.

Mr Lawrence and former Cardiff priest Graeme Sturt must pay the bulk of a legal bill of about $550,000 to the diocese’s insurer after a cost assessor’s recent decision.

This was in addition to their own legal costs of more than $200,000 after an unsuccessful appeal to the NSW Supreme Court to quash sexual misconduct findings against them.

The appeal was launched after the Newcastle Anglican diocese professional standards board found against the priests in December 2010 after allegations of group sex involving a male, 19, at a Narrandera motel in 1984.

Mr Lawrence was also found to have breached his pastoral responsibilities by allegedly having a sexual relationship with the male from 1981, which allegedly continued after his appointment as Dean of Newcastle in 1984.

In April last year, Supreme Court Justice John Sackar rejected Mr Lawrence and Father Sturt’s argument they had been subjected to ‘‘illegitimate, unfair, harsh and oppressive procedures’’.

He also rejected that they had been denied procedural fairness in hearings before the professional standards board headed by retired NSW magistrate Col Elliott.

The two priests ‘‘adopted a considered and deliberate forensic strategy’’ of denying the allegations, but refusing to defend them at the hearings, Justice Sackar found.

‘‘They were entitled to take that course but they should, in my opinion and in the interests of justice, abide by its consequences.’’

In September last year, former Newcastle Bishop Brian Farran removed the holy orders of Mr Lawrence and placed Father Sturt on a prohibition order preventing him from performing any functions of a clergyman for five years.

Mr Lawrence had been a priest for 39 years.

Bishop Farran also removed the holy orders of priests Bruce Hoare and Andrew Duncan, and confirmed that former church worker and Anglican school teacher Gregory Goyette would not be permitted to hold a position in the church in future.

The three men denied sexual misconduct allegations from the late 1970s and early 1980s but did not take part in the December 2010 professional standards board hearings.