Catholic Church Had Evidence to Support John Ellis Abuse Claim

The Guardian
March 21, 2014

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/21/catholic-church-evidence-support-john-ellis-abuse-claim

Cardinal George Pell was said to be concerned about how the media would interpret the John Ellis case. Photograph: Andrew Medichini/AP

The Catholic church continued to dispute former altar boy John Ellis was abused even though it had evidence that supported his claim, a senior church official has told an inquiry.

Cardinal George Pell’s private secretary Dr Michael Casey told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse he accepted the church should not have continued to dispute Ellis’s credibility in the supreme court.

The hearing in its second week is looking at how the church handled the complaint of Ellis, who was abused by a priest at Bass Hill in Sydney between 1974 and 1979.

Earlier evidence showed that the church accepted Ellis was a victim of abuse when he went through the internal process, and the veracity of his allegations was supported by a church-appointed independent assessor.

But when the case went to the NSW supreme court, the fact of the abuse was vigorously disputed.

On Monday, it was revealed that another complainant had come forward about abusive priest Aidan Duggan, and that an independent witness had seen the priest kiss Ellis when he was about 14 years old.

Counsel assisting the commission Gail Furness SC asked Casey if he accepted that that information should have given rise to the dispute being revisited.

“Yes,” Casey said.

He said the church would have talked to its legal advisers as to how it should respond.

Casey’s role was to convey Pell’s instructions to John Dalzell, the solicitor instructing Corrs Chambers Westgarth, who were acting for the church.

He said he recalled a phone discussion with Dalzell, who was going to make further inquiries about the new evidence. Casey said he could not recall hearing the results of those inquiries.

He also said he could not recall talking to the cardinal about whether disputing the abuse should continue.

He said the legal advisers made the decision not to introduce the new evidence.

“Without instructions from the church?” Furness asked him.

Casey: “Well that’s, perhaps that is the case.”

He also told the commission on Thursday that Pell was concerned about how the media would interpret the Ellis case.