I Was Fooled by Priest on Sex Abuse: Herft

By Phoebe Wearne
West Australian
August 30, 2016

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/wa/a/32476877/i-was-fooled-by-priest-on-sex-abuse-herft/#page1

Archbishop Roger Herft says he failed to follow up claims against priests in the Hunter region.

The Anglican Church has revealed “continuing distress and sadness” in its Perth diocese as Archbishop Roger Herft yesterday admitted to being told on three occasions that a senior priest had abused children but had raised the allegations only with the clergyman involved.

Appearing before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Archbishop Herft faced a second day of questioning in Newcastle about his knowledge of child sex offences in the NSW Hunter region in the 1990s and early 2000s.

He accepted evidence that during his time as Bishop of Newcastle he received three serious complaints about former Dean of Newcastle Graeme Lawrence in 1995, 1997 and 1999.

He told the commission he had “no reason to doubt” Lawrence’s denials at the time and therefore accepted his “say so” that the offences did not take place.

“There was a sense in which I trusted him,” Archbishop Herft said.

Asked repeatedly by counsel assisting the commission Naomi Sharp if he could recall speaking to Lawrence about the allegations, Archbishop Herft insisted he had no recollection of the conversations and denied being intimidated by the defrocked dean.

He said he was concerned by the absence of file notes on the meetings, as it had been his practice to make them.

The commission also heard evidence that Archbishop Herft failed to follow up child sex allegations against paedophile priest Peter Rushton, despite having earlier formed the view that Rushton, who died in 2007, was addicted to pornography.

“I was deeply fooled, I think,” Archbishop Herft said.

“His health had suffered and there was an element of compassion in that.

“I really believed that something had changed in his life.”

In 1998, furniture removalists found pornography, including child pornography, while moving material from Rushton’s house.

Archbishop Herft said he was concerned about the material at the time, but others had assured him Rushton had not committed a criminal offence.

In a statement released before the hearing began yesterday, Perth diocesan administrator Braden Short said the Church office had received a number of phone calls, emails and letters that reflected the distress being experienced by members of the Anglican community.

He encouraged those wanting to disclose abuse to contact the police or the professional standards unit.

“Many of us feel betrayed, angry and helpless,” the statement said. “Our corporate shame is a genuine response to confronting the truth, but the truth will set us free.”

Archbishop Herft is on long service leave and is expected to return to the Perth diocese in mid-October.

He will resume giving evidence to the commission today.