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Perth Archbishop Roger Herft ‘failed’ Abuse Victims

By Phoebe Wearne
West Australian
April 6, 2017

https://thewest.com.au/news/australia/perth-archbishop-roger-herft-failed-abuse-victims-ng-b88438220z

Roger Herft.Picture: .

Retiring Perth Anglican Archbishop Roger Herft’s response to child sexual abuse allegations in his former diocese was “weak, ineffectual and showed no regard for the need to protect children from the risk that they would be preyed upon”, a counsel assisting the royal commission into child sexual abuse has said.

In a 276-page submission published yesterday, Naomi Sharp said it was remiss of then-Bishop Herft to not make his successor, Brian Farran, aware of claims of abuse against senior priests in the Diocese of Newcastle in NSW.

“Bishop Herft mishandled the allegations of child sexual abuse made against two of the most senior and domineering priests in the diocese — the Dean of the Cathedral, Mr (Graeme) Lawrence, and the one-time Archdeacon of Maitland, (Peter) Rushton,” Ms Sharp said. “It was a failure of leadership.”

Archbishop Herft, who is on leave until he is due to retire on July 7, stood aside from his duties last year after he admitted to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in August he had let victims down during his time as Bishop of Newcastle between 1993 and 2005.

Ms Sharp submitted 146 observations referred to as “available findings”, which are available to be made by the commission when it issues its report.

She said Archbishop Herft’s continued licensing of Rushton, in spite of his knowledge of the various allegations against him by 2002, “demonstrated poor judgment by Bishop Herft”.

By the end of 2003, he “could have been in no doubt” that paedophile priest Rushton’s history of behaviour required further investigation.

Yet he still did not report the 2002 and 2003 allegations against Rushton to police and “should have done so”.

While Ms Sharp acknowledged Archbishop Herft was behind significant policy developments for handling sexual abuse allegations in the Diocese of Newcastle, she said the policy to report them to police was “fettered” by Archbishop Herft considering it necessary to do so only where “the complaints were identified by name, where there was a complaint in writing and where the complaint had some ‘substance’.”

In a response submission, lawyers for Archbishop Herft denied it was known by him or generally in the diocese that Rushton was a child abuser during Archbishop Herft’s tenure as Bishop of Newcastle.

“Those allegations only became known subsequent to Mr Rushton’s death in 2007,” the submission says.

His lawyers also disputed Ms Sharp’s statement that Bishop Herft’s continued licensing of Rushton alone demonstrated poor judgment.

The proposed finding that Archbishop Herft could have been in no doubt that Rushton’s behaviour needed to be investigated was also disputed because Archbishop Herft “did not at the time consider that further investigation was required”.

“He now accepts that judgment was wrong,” they said.

“Bishop Herft does accept, with the benefit of hindsight, that further steps should have been taken by him to investigate the complaints and minimise any ongoing risk to children within the diocese.”

The lawyers also argued it should be acknowledged that diocesan policy developments that improved the handling of and response to child sex abuse allegations were “in large part the initiative of Bishop Herft”.

They also pointed to Archbishop Herft’s ordination of women within the diocese “to develop a culture where child sexual abuse was disclosed and actively discouraged”.

Archbishop Herft’s understanding at the time was that police required complaints to be in writing and the complainant’s name included, the submission said.

“Bishop Herft accepts with hindsight that his approach in 2002 and 2003 to not refer a matter where the complainant was not identified and to defer to the survivor’s story was inadequate to mitigate the risk to children. The matter should have been reported to the police,” it said.

 

 

 

 

 




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