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Anglican Church Should Have Disciplined Clergyman with Child Sex Convictions, Inquiry Told

ABC News
November 21, 2013

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-21/anglican-church-should-have-disciplined-clergyman/5109318?section=nsw

[with audio]

MARK COLVIN: Senior Anglican Church officials have criticised the way the Grafton Diocese in New South Wales handled abuse complaints from former residents of a Church-run children's home.

The Royal Commission into child sexual abuse has been told that the diocese which ran the orphanage in Lismore was more concerned about its own finances than helping abuse victims.

The inquiry also heard that the leadership of the Grafton Diocese contributed to the mental distress of the victims who were seeking redress and compensation.

PM's Emily Bourke reports.

EMILY BOURKE: Yet more Anglican Church officials are being quizzed by the Royal Commission about how the church dealt with dozens of abuse victims from the North Coast Children's Home.

But today the inquiry also looked at how the Church handled offenders in its ranks.

Philip Gerber was a professional standards director in the dioceses of Sydney, Grafton and Newcastle. He told the commission that he regrets taking more than a year to inform police about a suspected paedophile.

PHILIP GERBER: When I look at it now I'm very unhappy with myself, quite embarrassed, and apologise that it might have potentially put other people at risk. I am appalled that my actions might have caused that.

EMILY BOURKE: He was questioned about what action the church took to discipline Reverend Allan Kitchingman.

Kitchingman had been the chaplain of the children's home in Lismore, and he was convicted in 2002 for offences dating back to the 1970s.

Mr Gerber told the counsel assisting, Simeon Beckett, that when Kitchingman was released from jail the church didn't strip him of his title.

SIMEON BECKETT: So he could represent to the world really that he remained an ordained minister of the Anglican Church?

PHILIP GERBER: Yes, that's correct.

SIMEON BECKETT: Yes. And you didn't consider that there was a particular danger to that in terms of, well both reputation of the Anglican Church but also in terms of those people who would come in contact with him?

PHILIP GERBER: I now would say yes and agree with you entirely. At the time, I think I was putting him in category of a person who had been dealt with because he had been convicted, and he was now no longer licensed and he was retired.

EMILY BOURKE: Other evidence presented today painted an unflattering portrait of how the Grafton Diocese handled claims from one abuse victim, Tommy Campion.

Reverend Pat Comben, the then registrar in Grafton, was initially sympathetic when Mr Campion came forward to the Church in late 2005. But that changed in a matter of months.

Jenny Woodhouse was the church's contact person for Tommy Campion.

JENNY WOODHOUSE: There was a remarkable and distressing change of position from Mr Comben. It was distressing because Mr Comben seemed more concerned about the finances of the diocese than he did about the many people who had been abused in the North Coast Church of England Children's Home.

EMILY BOURKE: She the detailed her surprise at the response by the then bishop of Grafton, Keith Slater.

SIMEON BECKETT: You were surprised to see that bishop Slater had described any financial assistance to Mr Campion as a betrayal of the other victims?

JENNY WOODHOUSE: I was surprised that the bishop felt it was his responsibility to determine whether Mr Campion felt he could receive the money or not. The language obviously plays upon a victim's sense of being betrayed by the church and now we have the head of that particular diocese suggesting that the victim himself might become a betrayer.

EMILY BOURKE: Peter Roland is a retired solicitor and a former diocesesan advocate who provided legal advice to the Grafton Diocese. He was questioned by Justice Peter McClellan about what was driving the church's legal approach to the group compensation claim in 2006.

PETER ROLAND: Well presumably to deal with the matters in a compassionate way, as far as possible, without prejudice to the church's legal position.

PETER MCCLELLAN: What did you perceive to be the Christian response that you were to assist with that might not prejudice the Diocese's legal situation?

PETER ROLAND: Well to offer them perhaps some compensation without prejudice basis, or counselling or some other response. That's what the letter asked me to do, so I would have considered it.

PETER MCCLELLAN: Did you discuss it at that stage with Mr Comben?

PETER MCCLELLAN: I would have had a discussion with Mr Comben before taking the matter further.

PETER MCCLELLAN: Did you discuss with him the elements of the Christian response?

PETER MCCLELLAN: I don't believe at that stage that side of it was pursued to any great extent, no.

EMILY BOURKE: The former bishop of Grafton, Keith Slater, and the former registrar Pat Comben are yet to appear before the Royal Commission.

MARK COLVIN: Emily Bourke.

 

 

 

 

 




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