Solicitor says he didn't tell bishop to deny knowledge of paedophile priests

Guardian
August 07, 2016

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/aug/08/solicitor-says-he-didnt-tell-bishop-to-deny-knowledge-of-paedophile-priests

A session of the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse. Photo by Jeremy Piper

A solicitor has denied he advised a former bishop of a New South Wales Anglican diocese to say he could not recall any knowledge of paedophile priests when giving evidence to the child sex abuse royal commission.

Keith Allen, who had been a member of several boards in the Anglican diocese of Newcastle for 40 years, returned to the witness stand for a second day at a commission hearing into how the diocese handled abuse allegations over 30 years.

Allen answered “no” five times when asked if a file note by John Cleary, the business manager of the diocese, was an accurate record of him saying he would advise bishop Alfred Holland to say he could not recall any knowledge of paedophile priests when he appeared before the commission.

In another extraordinary day at the commission sitting in Newcastle, Allen was questioned about acting for the church while also advising a victim’s solicitor.

He was also asked about arranging a fraudulent record for a sexual predator so he could get work elsewhere.

Allen said the conversation recorded by Cleary in the file note had been taken out of context and was “wrong”.

He had spoken to Cleary about his concern that Holland was almost 90. The solicitor said he had once been legal adviser to the bishop, who ran the diocese from 1978 to 1992, but he had not advised him about his evidence to the commission.

Last week Holland told the commission he had no recollection of ever being told that clergy and a lay youth worker were abusing children in the diocese.

The bishop said when he wrote a reference for Stephen Gray, a paedophile priest defended by Allen, he did not know the charge was child sexual assault.

On Monday Allen insisted that Cleary “had got it wrong”.

Asked about a letter of resignation dated 11 February 1990, signed by Gray, Allen at first said he had nothing to do with it.

Gray was interviewed by police on 12 February.

Pressed by the commission’s chair, Peter McClellan, Allen admitted tearing up the original resignation and arranging one with the false date.

This was then recorded in a diocesan yearbook to show Gray resigned in good standing, enabling him to get an appointment elsewhere.

Allen was asked about Cleary’s note, which showed he was advising the diocese about a claim by abuse victim CKM through a solicitor, Michael Daly.

The file note showed Allen had advised a diocesan meeting CKM’s claim “would be a small claim”. Cleary also noted that Allen said he was assisting Daly.

The note, first entered in evidence last Friday, showed Cleary raised concerns about the conflict of interest.

On Friday Allen agreed with McClellan’s comment on acting for both parties: “That would be beyond being unprofessional, it would just be dishonest, wouldn’t it?”

On Monday Allen denied having any conversation with CKM’s solicitor about a statement of claim amounting to $500,000.