Archbishop “can’t recall” cleric alert

By Nick Butterly
Australian
August 25, 2016

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/wa/a/32434348/archbishop-can-t-recall-cleric-alert/#page1

Former dean Graeme Lawrence

Perth Anglican Archbishop Roger Herft

Perth’s Anglican Archbishop Roger Herft has said he cannot recall being told a senior Church figure in NSW was abusing children, even though documents suggest he raised concerns with the priest at the time.

The royal commission into child sexual abuse has published new statements from Archbishop Herft ahead of hearings next week when he will face more questioning over his response to historic claims of child sexual abuse in Newcastle.

Archbishop Herft was Bishop of Newcastle from 1993 to 2005. In one of the statements, given on July 25, Archbishop Herft claimed he was unaware of serious claims against the former dean of Newcastle Cathedral, Graeme Lawrence.

The inquiry has already heard evidence Mr Lawrence was part of a “gang of three” protecting notorious paedophile priest Peter Rushton.

Mr Lawrence was defrocked in 2010 amid allegations he groomed and had sex with a teenage boy.

“To the best of my knowledge, I cannot recall the dean’s name being connected to child abuse in my time as bishop,” Archbishop Herft said in his statement.

But the inquiry has also released an unsigned letter purportedly written by the then bishop Herft to the leader of an Anglican youth camp, Robert Wall.

Mr Wall told earlier hearings that two boys complained to him in 1994 or 1995 that Mr Lawrence had sexually interfered with them.

In the letter, dated July 13 1995, then bishop Herft told Mr Wall and his wife Bronwyn he had looked into the issue and would not pursue it.