BishopAccountability.org

Royal Commission hears former Archbishop Ian George slow to act on abuse complaints

By Samantha Donovan
ABC - PM
February 2, 2016

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2015/s4398775.htm?site=hobart

[with audio]

MARK COLVIN: The child sexual abuse Royal Commission has been told that the former Anglican Archbishop of Adelaide, Ian George, disregarded reports of abuse for several years in the late ‘90s and early 2000s.

Anglican priest Don Owers gave evidence that he lobbied the Archbishop to make a public statement on the abuse but was ignored.

The royal commission is examining how the Anglican Diocese of Adelaide and the Church of England Boys' Society handled abuse allegations over several decades.

Samantha Donovan reports.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: The royal commission has been examining how the Church of England Boys Society, known as ‘CEBS’, and the Anglican Church have handled child sexual abuse in Tasmania.

It's now turning its attention to what those organisations have done in the diocese of Adelaide.

Survivor witness BYA told the commission today he was sexually abused by five CEBS leaders in the 1960s. The abuse started when he was 15.

BYA's lawyer Michael Fitzgerald read from his statement.

BYA: I now believe that the five of them, Brandenburg, BYV, BYU, Simons and BYQ, were operating as some sort of group, and perhaps exchanged information on which boys were vulnerable or approachable for sexual contact.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Survivor witnesses who were abused in Tasmania have given evidence they believed a paedophile ring operated among men connected with CEBS.

Counsel assisting Naomi Sharp asked BYA why he thought his five abusers were operating as a group.

BYA: There was a closeness in the group, those group of people. Bob and Simons would run leadership courses for people my age up at Mylor, and the other branch governors would come along, we were under them.

And I just believe there was a cross-pollination of ideas and information between those people because it seemed to flow from one to another.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Bob Brandenburg committed suicide in 1999, the day before he was to face court charged with the sexual abuse of one victim.

A subsequent church inquiry estimated he may have had as many as 80 victims.

Mark King gave evidence he was one of them.

MARK KING: Between ages of 10 and 14 I was groomed and abused while attending CEBS activities and camps.

Initially my abuse occurred at the Parish Of The Good Shepherd, Plympton, in South Australia.

This abuse involved encouragement by CEBS leaders of sexual activity between boys under the stage in the church hall and on camps.

I was also sexually abused in one-on-one contexts by at least one CEBS leader of the parish, and by Robert Brandenburg, the state CEBS commissioner.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: In 1999 Don Owers was the rector of the Magill Parish in Adelaide, where Brandenburg lived.

That year, he notified the then Archbishop of Adelaide, Ian George, that a young man had reported being sexually abused by Brandenburg.

Dr Owers told the commission the Archbishop remarked "his name again" and said he'd heard of a similar report being made in Tasmania.

Dr Owers gave evidence that after Brandenburg's suicide, he lobbied Archbishop George to speak out about the offending, so victims could be helped and the public made aware.

But it wasn't until he went public with the allegations in 2003 with the Reverend Andrew King that the Archbishop made a public statement.

In it, he rejected the claim the Adelaide archdiocese had failed to disclose the full extent of the abuse of boys by Brandenburg.

Counsel assisting Naomi Sharp put this to Don Owers.

DON OWERS: I was very angry when I saw that. I felt that it was just false.

NAOMI SHARP: The Anglican Archbishop of Adelaide, the Most Reverend Ian George, said he had no inkling of how serious the abuse might be until recently, and when this was suspected, the diocese has moved swiftly.

What do you say to the accuracy of that statement as at the time it was made based upon your personal dealings with Archbishop George?

DON OWERS: Well I had been alerting the Archbishop to the seriousness of the abuse since September 1999, that there were multiple victims, that it was almost certain that numbers of other parishes and CEBS branches were involved and that at least one other interstate diocese was involved.

NAOMI SHARP: So what do you say to the accuracy of the statement that he had no inkling of how serious the abuse might be?

DON OWERS: There's no way I could say that that was at all accurate.

NAOMI SHARP: And then the second part of that statement, that when this was suspected, the diocese had moved swiftly.

What do you say to that statement based on your own personal dealings with Archbishop George?

DON OWERS: You would have to redefine swiftly for that to be true.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: The royal commission hearings continue in Hobart tomorrow.

MARK COLVIN: Samantha Donovan.




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