Royal Commission Hears ‘no Structure to Deal With’ Priest Misconduct Complaints

By Neil Keene
Daily Telegraph
August 2, 2016

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/royal-commission-hears-no-structure-to-deal-with-priest-misconduct-complaints/news-story/fd8f7488bd6b69b0c3aae278acd37cb1

A PRIEST who tried to expose paedophilia within the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle was ostracised by colleagues and undermined by senior members of the church.

Reverend Roger Dyer, former Rector at Wallsend Parish, told the Royal Commission today that he raised concerns about the sexual history of paedophile priest Peter Rushton to no avail.

At a church Synod in 2010, he attempted to raise a motion “for the Newcastle Diocese acknowledge the effect of allegations of child sexual abuse and the effect of this on the work of the ministry of the church”.

But a group of influential church leaders at the Synod tried to thwart his motion and accompanying speech, to the point where one of them attempted to physically stop him taking the stage.

Rev Dyer ignored their remonstrations and had the motion successfully passed.

However, he said he was advised after the Synod by former Bishop of Newcastle Graeme Rutherford that he should “leave the country”.

Protesters gathered in numbers out the front of the Newcastle Court House.

And when he later went to the Diocese of Bathurst, he discovered that false rumours about him committing criminal acts followed him there.

“I was undermined by senior members of the Anglican Church there because of their connections and relationships with those that had tried to cover this up in Newcastle,” Rev Dyer said.

He was eventually asked to resign and was later ostracised from the church and had his reputation and credibility brought into question.

“My intention at St Luke’s was to expose and acknowledge the pain caused by the paedophilia and to enable the parish to heal from the abuse it had experienced and to move forward,” he said.

Emotions were high among protesters outside the court. Picture by Peter Lorimer

The Royal Commission earlier heard that the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle had no formal structure to deal with complaints about Bishops during some of the worst years of paedophilia within the church.

Bishop Alfred Holland, Bishop of Newcastle from 1978 to 1992, told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse this morning that complaints were dealt with only on an “ad hoc” basis.

“Does that mean there was no framework within the diocese for reporting allegations of misconduct against priests at that time,” counsel assisting the commission Naomi Sharp asked.

“No, there was no structure to deal with that,” Bishop Holland replied.

But Bishop Holland denied having any knowledge during his tenure of the rampant paedophilia within the diocese carried out by now-deceased Fr Peter Rushton.

Protesters hold signs outside Newcastle Court House. Picture: Peter Lorimer

That was in direct contrast to earlier evidence from former scripture teacher and Sunday school teacher Pam Wilson, who said she had been told by a family in 1980 that they had been in touch with Bishop Holland alleging Rushton had interfered with their child.

“Bishop Holland said it was lies and Rushton would never do anything like that,” Ms Wilson said.

However, Bishop Holland said he had no recollection of any such incident.

“I couldn’t possibly have let something like that go by — it (his discovery of the allegations) just didn’t happen.”

“Do you agree that something was seriously wrong in your management of the diocese, given that you say you had no inkling that Peter Rushton was sexually abusing children?” Ms Sharp asked.

“No I don’t think that follows,” Bishop Holland replied.

Bishop Holland was later responsible for promoting Rushton to the position of Archdeacon.

“Do you accept the checks that you conducted before making that appointment may not have been sufficiently thorough?” Ms Sharp asked.

“If I had known there were allegations against Rushton, he would never have been appointed as anything.” Bishop Holland said.

Bishop Holland later added that he had “not an inkling” of knowledge of the systemic sexual abuse of children at the St Alban’s Boys School in the Hunter Valley, where children were routinely locked in rooms and raped.

The hearing continues.