Collection of Child and Gay Porn Videos Discovered in a Home of a Paedophile Priest Destroyed
By Neil Keene
PRIESTS within the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle conspired to burn a collection of child and gay porn videos owned by a paedophile priest. A Royal Commission heard this morning that serial paedophile Father Peter Rushton recruited the help of another priest within the diocese to dispose of “hundreds” of pornographic videos stored in his home. Former Archdeacon Colvin Ford told the commission that he was told the videos were burnt in the backyard of a rectory. “He needed to use a 44-gallon drum in order to get rid of them,” Mr Ford said. “He also told me that the covers of some of the videos depicted men and boys which I took to mean primary school age children.”
Mr Ford described Rushton, who is now deceased, as a “dynamic and powerful teacher” with a domineering personality. He said it was known within the church community that Rushton was known to host regular parties “with many young people”. In later evidence, a victim known to the commission as CKA described how he was subject to years of “at least fortnightly” abuse by an unnamed priest referred to as CKC. The commission has already heard that criminal charges are likely to be laid against CKC following the current hearings.
The victim, now a 55-year-old grandfather, said the priest abused him at church, in his rectory, in his car and at other churches within the parish between the 1971 and 1975. But that same priest still saw it fit to preside over his mother’s funeral when she died suddenly in 1977. “It upset me greatly that the church degraded our family by allowing CKC to officiate at her funeral, knowing what CKC had done to me,” the witness said. Years of turmoil would follow — a failed marriage, diagnoses of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder and repeated refusals by the church to acknowledge his abuse. And it was only when the victim finally gathered the courage to report his abuse to police in 2000 that he discovered his younger brother had been abused by the same priest. The witness was finally provided church compensation in 2008, with further money paid in 2012, but “they could never pay me enough to compensate me for what I could have been, had CKC not abused me”. A Royal Commission heard this afternoon that the Anglican Church of Australia maintained a list as early ass 1983 of clergy known to have been convicted of offences or facing serious charges. The list, known as a “caveat list”, usually had 25-30 names on it. “It was a list of clergy that bishops should be warned about,” former assistant Bishop of Newcastle Richard Appleby told the commission. “Because?” asked counsel assisting, Fiona Sharp. “Because they had been convicted of offences, or there was some serious charge or conviction against them,” he replied. Bishop Appleby recalled the list being raised as an issue at the 1983 annual bishops conference. It was abandoned in 1985 on legal advice to the church. “So from about 1985 until at least 2005 and beyond, the bishops had no such list,” he said. “Now there is a national register and that has been a huge improvement, but we went for over 20 years without any such list and I think that exposed us to significant risks.”
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