Former Sydney Archbishop Did Not Understand Effects of Sexual Abuse on Children, Royal Commission Hears
By Emilie Gramenz
A former Sydney Anglican archbishop has told a royal commission he did not understand the long-term effects of sexual abuse on children. Former Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen, who retired in 2013, has told the Hobart hearing that even in the 1990s many in the clergy did not understand the real nature of perpetrators, or the long-term impacts of child sexual abuse. "Even though I occupied a senior position in the church, I still wasn't fully aware of the impact that such abuse has on survivors and their families," he said. "I wasn't aware of the way in which abuse continues and continues. I wasn't aware of such things as grooming." He said some clergy had been dismissive of complaints in previous decades because of that ignorance. "There was a belief that sexual abuse did not have the impact on a person that we now know it did. It was wrong," he said. "It was believed not to have that great impact, and it wasn't just the clergy that believed that, it was also, in some quarters, medical advice." Bishop Jensen's lawyer asked what he hoped the royal commission would achieve. "Institutions like mine, which are relatively rich in resource ... we need the help of the commission to work out what we should do, how we should respond to survivors," he replied. "We need the help of the community to hold us to account, to tell us what to do, and to resource us in the doing of it. "My hope is this royal commission is going to make a huge difference to survivors and it's going to mean the protection of the children of our nation, and that's what I'm hoping for." Abuse survivor told to forgive perpetrator A survivor of abuse at the hands of a former CEBS leader in Sydney said he was told to forgive his abuser when he reported it to an Anglican minister. Former leader of CEBS branches in the Sydney suburbs of Pymble and St Ives, Simon Jacobs, was sentenced in 2010 for abusing multiple boys. A survivor known as BYC, who met Jacobs through the Pymble branch in the late 1970s, has given evidence to a public hearing in Hobart. BYC told the royal commission Jacobs bonded with his parents and became a close family friend - even attending family holidays. He went on to abuse BYC at least twice a month, often in his car while driving him home from CEBS meetings. BYC did not disclose his abuse for many years. In 1987, after telling his parents, BYC informed the Minister of Pymble Reverend Boak Jobbins he was going to press charges against Jacobs. "Reverend Jobbins told me to let sleeping dogs lie and not to proceed," BYC told the royal commission. "He also told me that, as a Christian, I had to forgive him. "I was fairly certain Reverand Jobbins knew about Jacobs abusing children, as he had dismissed Jacobs quite suddenly from CEBS Pymble two or three years earlier." Jacobs faced court on multiple offences including buggery and indecent assault relating to his abuse of BYC in 1989, but was ultimately not convicted in that trial. BYC's mother, known to the royal commission as BYD, also gave evidence. "BYC has told me that at first he thought I did not believe him. I did believe him, I was just shattered," BYD said. She told the hearing she felt the abuse had totally ruined her son's life. He has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety and had attempted suicide several times. "I still have my faith, but I feel very disappointed with the church," she said. Jacobs was eventually sentenced to eight years in prison in 2010 after another trial. Only one of his charges related to his abuse of BYC.
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