Herft "Broke Promise to Sack Priest"

By Nick Butterly
West Australian
August 5, 2016

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/wa/a/32240782/herft-broke-promise-to-sack-priest/#page1

Perth’s Anglican Archbishop Roger Herft promised to remove a priest at the centre of historic child sex allegations, an abuse victim has claimed, but no action was taken.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was also told how a notorious paedophile priest was found with a hoard of hard-core pornography, but Archbishop Herft recommended the priest be given only spiritual counselling.

The royal commission is examining claims of child sexual abuse in the Hunter region of NSW dating back decades.

Archbishop Herft was Bishop of Newcastle between 1993 and 2005.

Archbishop Roger Herft promised to remove a priest.

An abuse victim given the pseudonym CKA told how he was abused by a priest, dubbed CKC, over a prolonged period when he was a boy, beginning in the early 1970s.

He said a criminal trial against CKC fell over after he mixed up the years when the abuse took place.

CKA claimed he contacted Bishop Herft in 2004 to ask that CKC never be allowed to work as a priest again.

He said Bishop Herft looked him in the eye and promised CKC’s licence to operate as a priest would be revoked.

But CKA said he believed the priest continued to practise.

The royal commission was told a new criminal trial was being considered against the priest.

The royal commission was also told how a furniture removal crew was shocked when they found a big stash of pornography in the home of senior priest Peter Rushton, who died in 2007.