Peter Hollingworth Expected to Apologise to Victim of Child Sexual Abuse

The Guardian
January 26, 2016

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/jan/27/peter-hollingworth-expected-to-apologise-to-victim-of-child-sexual-abuse

Peter Hollingworth, centre, will give evidence and is expected to say his response to the alleged abuse of a boy in Brisbane in 1993 was a ‘serious error of judgment’. Photograph: Dan Peled/AAP

The former Australian governor general Peter Hollingworth is expected to apologise to a victim of child sexual abuse during a royal commission hearing in Hobart.

Outlining the evidence that will be presented during eight days of evidence, counsel assisting the commission Naomi Sharp said on Wednesday that Hollingworth had been alerted to the alleged abuse of a boy in Brisbane in 1993 when he was head of the Brisbane Anglican diocese.

“Archbishop Hollingworth will also give evidence and it is anticipated he will apologise to [the victim] and his family and say that the approach he took … was a ‘serious error of judgment’,” Sharp said.

Hollingworth is one of 28 witnesses expected to face the hearing, among a list of survivors and perpetrators from allegations dating back to the 1960s across Tasmania and in Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane.

The evidence linked to Hollingworth relates to John Elliot, who was a lay member of the Church of England Boys’ Society from the late 1950s. The first report of his misconduct against a boy was made to the Brisbane diocese in mid-1993 and was immediately escalated to Hollingworth, the commission was told.

Hollingworth had meetings with the boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and Elliot.

“It is anticipated that [the victim] will give evidence he told the archbishop Mr Elliot was a paedophile and that the abuse he experienced was not an isolated instance but was repeated over a number of years,” Sharp said.

After seeking further information Hollingworth wrote to Elliot in November 1993 saying “no good purpose can be served” in requiring him to step down.

“The archbishop imposed certain conditions upon Mr Elliot remaining … including that he avoid situations involving children and young people and that he apologise to [the victim’s] parents,” Sharp said.

Elliot retired from his position as rector at Dalby in 1996 but went on to work as a locum. In 2002 he was convicted of historic child sex offences.

The hearing’s evidence will also focus on cases linked to four other perpetrators: Louis Daniels, Garth Hawkins, Robert Brandenburg and Simon Jacobs.

Daniels and Hawkins will give evidence in person. Brandenburg took his life in June 1999 just before he was to face court on 24 counts of unlawful sexual intercourse and 341 charges of indecent assault. He is estimated to have had up to 800 victims.

The Anglican archbishop of Sydney, Glenn Davies, asked on Wednesday that a statement be read to the commission on his behalf. “The archbishop is deeply sorry that this terrible abuse of trust occurred,” it said. “It should never have happened. He apologises to those survivors for this betrayal of trust.”