"WE Did Not Do Enough to Help You": Hollingworth Apologises to Abuse Victims

7 News
November 13, 2015

https://au.news.yahoo.com/qld/a/30089149/we-did-not-do-enough-to-help-you-hollingworth-apologises-to-abuse-victims/

Former governor-general Peter Hollingworth has begun giving evidence at the child sex abuse royal commission, apologising unreservedly to survivors.

The former Archbishop of Brisbane made the statement after taking the stand and said he deeply regretted that he didn't press harder to have complaints investigated more thoroughly.

"It's clear to me now that we did not do enough to help you, and actions of the diocese and the school compounded your distress and suffering," he said in reference to St Paul's, one of the schools examined by the inquiry, prior to being questioned.

"My apology is offered to the children, now adults, and the families of those who have been abused," he said.

"It's offered to all of you who have suffered great pain and disillusionment that your complaints were not dealt with from the outset as they should have been."

Dr Hollingworth said he was appalled by the abuse suffered by former students of the Anglican-run school at Bald Hills in Brisbane's north by two staff members, referring to the late Kevin John Lynch and twice-convicted pedophile Gregory Robert Knight.

"I am saddened about the way these matters were dealt with during my time as archbishop," he said.

The former governor-general, who resigned in 2003 over the church's handling of the abuse allegations, conceded if he had exercised "stronger authority" these matters may well have been addressed more promptly and effectively.

Dr Hollingworth said he'd spent the years since reading and learning about the damage suffered by those abused and had an enriched understanding of the consequences.

"I now understand far more about the ... emotional and psychological damage inflicted on the survivors," he said.

Hollingworth did not encourage principal

The principal of Anglican-run school St Paul's that employed two pedophiles had "over-enthusiastically" misinterpreted then Hollingworth's support of him applying for a promotion.

Gilbert Case was the head of St Paul's from 1979 to 2000, a period in which both Kevin John Lynch and twice-convicted pedophile Gregory Robert Knight worked at the school.

Mr Case on Friday told the child sex abuse royal commission he felt Dr Hollingworth had encouraged him to apply for the role of executive director of the Anglican Schools Office of the Diocese of Brisbane in April 2000.

He said they talked about it at a group meeting some time before he applied, during which Dr Hollingworth remarked: "Well, Gilbert's here".

Dr Hollingworth's lawyer Caroline Kirton, QC, said the former governor-general felt he'd only supported an application, not encouraged it, and Mr Case had rather "over enthusiastically" interpreted the sentiment.

She told the hearing Dr Hollingworth recalled a different meeting with Mr Case to assess his interest in the position and probe his handling of sexual misconduct complaints.

"Dr Hollingworth will say that there was nothing in your responses to him to indicate that you had not responded appropriately to the sexual abuse revelations at St Paul's," she said.

But she suggested that if the evidence given by Lynch's victims from St Paul's that they had alerted Mr Case to his behaviour before he committed suicide in 1997 was found to be true, then Mr Case had misled the archbishop and authorities.

"On that line of argument, yes," Mr Case conceded.

He has denied any knowledge of Lynch's sexual abuse prior to his death.

Mr Case was earlier presented with a letter he wrote to a lawyer citing complaints made by two victims of Lynch that the counsellor had spread confidential information about their penis sizes in September 1995.

After being pressed by counsel assisting David Lloyd to concede such a complaint was alarming, Mr Case later said: "I suppose I saw it as a slip up or a silliness".