Inquiry Hears Harrowing Accounts of Abuse in Newcastle
By Eoin Blackwell
Decades of child sexual abuse aided by an alleged network of supporters inside the NSW Newcastle Anglican Diocese has been wrenched into the public spotlight by the Sex Abuse Royal Commission. For the past two weeks the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has been examining abuse within the diocese dating back to the 1970s, and heard testimony of the harrowing experiences of survivors amid allegations of a pedophile network in the southern NSW city. The Royal Commission is looking at the diocesan response to abuse over the years, and has heard survivor testimony of rape, torture and mental abuse. Michael Elliott, a former police officer who has been the diocese professional standards director since 2009, told the commission there had been a high level of interference in his work by the diocesan hierarchy. "It was apparent that there were a number of clergy and laypeople associated with the church who had criminal convictions, in many respects for child sex abuse offences, where there had been no internal or additional outcomes with regard to risk management or discipline," he said. He told the commission he believed there was a "core group of persons associated with the Anglican diocese... who seemed to be working in a coordinated way. I also formed the view that many within this group of persons were linked to, and supporters of, a number of abusers within the church".
Elliott had earlier told the ABC's 7.30 report in his experience in the diocese the abusers were worse than other denominations because "the abusers tended to be better organised, more cooperative." During the week Elliott also outlined several incidents of vandalism and harassment he experience since taking the role, including having his car vandalised, discovering the fly screens were removed from his children's bedroom windows and having his dog go missing. The commission also heard the details of confidential phone calls to an Anglican Church abuse helpline were handed over to the legal team defending the priest accused by the caller. A Newcastle lawyer also told the commission he knew of abuse allegations against priests but did not tell police because he wanted to protect the church. SURVIVORS TELL OF HARROWING ABUSE The Royal Commission has heard testimony of extreme abuse suffered by children. Father Peter Rushton first raped Paul Gray when he was ten years old -- the start of weekly or fortnightly abuse that lasted until he was 14. "On many of these occasions Father Peter would cut my back with a small knife and smear my blood on my back and I would like to add there that was (intended to be) symbolic of the blood of Christ," he told the commission last week. Afterwards, Rushton would clean his back with a white towel. Rushton has since died.
Gray also told the commission he attended a church camp, where he saw another boy before Gray was chased and raped by two men. "While I was being raped I could hear another boy screaming," he said. He was later taken to St Albans boys home by Rushton, where he was repeatedly raped by men over an 18 month period. The Anglican Church admitted Rushton was a pedophile in 2010, three years after his death. Another victim, Phil D'Ammond, was first abused by church youth worker James Brown in 1975, when D'Ammond was 13. Brown, who is now serving 20 years' jail for abusing boys, was eventually made his guardian and would supply the teen with drugs and alcohol before abusing him. Mr D'Ammond said it was normal for Mr Brown to abuse him at night. "After I left the house, I started using heroin. Drug and alcohol abuse continued to be a way for me to avoid facing reality and the memories of Jimmy's abuse," he told the commission in a statement. "I experienced a huge emotional conflict because I desperately wanted to be out of St Alban's, however the only way I seemed to be able to do that was to be in the company of a paedophile." FORMER BISHOPS IN THE STAND
On Friday Anglican Archbishop of Perth Roger Herft, who was Bishop of Newcastle from 1993 to 2005, took the stand. He told the commission that prior to a Tasmanian report on sexual abuse in the clergy, he thought he did not have an obligation to report allegations of abuse to police if he did not know the name of the complainant. He acknowledged if he put an allegation to a priest, it was possible the priest might not tell him the truth. "I had this deep belief that when one engaged with the clergy at whatever level, that there was this sense that there was a sacred bond in terms of their word," he said. The commission earlier heard youth leaders went to Herft in 1994 and raised the allegations of two young boys who had come to them and told them they had been sexually interfered with by former Dean of Newcastle Graeme Lawrence. The youth workers said Herft seemed disinterested hearing their allegations and was more interested in standing up for the accused priest. "They told you the boys did not want to be named and you said if they didn't come forward with names then this is defamation," counsel assisting Naomi Sharp said. Herft accepted he had the meeting, but told the commission he could not recall all of it. Sharp: "Are you saying you have absolutely no recollection of meeting with two youth group leaders who made allegations to you that one of the most senior priests in your diocese had sexually abused two separate boys." Herft: "I can't recall that, I'm sorry." Sharp: "No recollection, whatsoever?" Herft: "No ma'am." Sharp: "That's just extraordinary, isn't it Archbishop Herft?" Lawrence, a former Dean of Newcastle, was defrocked in 2012 along with two others. There are 27 witnesses during the case study into how the diocese responded to allegations of abuse, including former bishops Brian Farran, Alfred Holland and Richard Appleby. Newcastle Bishop Greg Thompson formally apologised to survivors in 2015. The commission will return to the Anglican diocese on August 29.
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