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Child sex offenders to give evidence

Herald Sun
January 27, 2016

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/child-sex-offenders-to-give-evidence/news-story/0f4d8d4bf69c6784a1fb78e1cfc16754

A child sex offender has described an Anglican boys' society as a "sitting duck" for predators.

A convicted child sex offender and former priest who changed his name while in prison has failed in a bid to be preserve his "blameless" new identity.

Garth Hawkins, now 70, spent almost six years in jail for offences against seven boys while he worked as an Anglican priest at different townships across Tasmania in the 1970s and 1980s.

A royal commission hearing in Hobart on Thursday was told that during his time in prison - in 2009 - Hawkins changed his name by deed poll to Robin Goodfellow.

In English folklore, Robin Goodfellow is a character known for his pranks and mischievousness.

"He has managed to make a fresh and blameless start in life," lawyer Roger Baker told the hearing as he asked for a non-publication order on Goodfellow's name.

"He lives in a small community where he is likely to be victimised if his identity is disclosed."

Justice Jennifer Coate refused the application, adding that it was not in the interests of justice.

Goodfellow's subsequent evidence included allegations involving Brisbane's incumbent Anglican Archbishop.

He said Phillip Aspinall was among a group of young men who in 1981 urged a teenager into his bed where the youth was raped.

"(The victim) was cajoled and teased by Phillip Aspinall and the other boys into joining me in my bed," Goodfellow said.

The commission is investigating the Church of England Boys' Society across the island state and also in Brisbane, Sydney and Adelaide.

Goodfellow is one of five lay and clergy men linked to the society who have each faced abuse allegations.

He has been jailed for his crimes along with Louis Daniels, Simon Jacobs and John Elliot, while Robert Brandenburg died before facing court.

Also giving evidence on Thursday, Daniels, 68, said the society gave predators an opportunity to abuse young boys.

"A boys' society, unless it is very closely managed, is a sitting duck," he said.

Amid allegations of a paedophile ring in Tasmania in the 1970s and 1980s, both Daniels and Goodfellow denied they ever swapped boys between them or with other men.

Daniels suspected such a ring existed but said he had no proof.

The former archdeacon, who was one of Tasmania's top-four Anglican leaders in the early 1990s, said there was an understanding between clergy of each other's attraction to boys.

"We would sort of reach the point of acknowledging a mutual gayness but there was a point which you didn't go past," Daniels said, adding that it was all shrouded in secrecy.

But Goodfellow admitted that he and Daniels exchanged comments about the sexual attractiveness of particular boys.

A 54-year-old victim of Daniels who gave evidence on Thursday, is certain that a ring of offenders existed.

"I'm convinced that the (society) and priestly fraternity of paedophiles saw links, connections and trafficking of boys across diocesan and state boundaries, and I do not believe the protestations of ignorance by bishops," said the victim, who can't be named for legal reasons.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse continues on Friday.




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