BishopAccountability.org

Sex abuse survivors push for ex-GG to lose pension

By Hedley Thomas
Australian
August 02, 2017

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/sex-abuse-survivors-push-for-exgg-to-lose-pension/news-story/fc9dee13a045829e5368fbc4e55b8cd8

Former governor-general Peter Hollingworth.
Photo by Nikki Davis-Jones

Peter Hollingworth’s “misleading” evidence to a child sexual abuse inquiry when he was governor-general should cost him his vice-regal pension and other ­public benefits totalling $500,000 a year, according to survivors of abuse in the Diocese of Brisbane.

They say fresh adverse findings in February against Dr Hollingworth, the Anglican Church’s former archbishop of Brisbane, by the current Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse have not been well understood or scrutinised at a time of high interest in the Catholic Church and Cardinal George Pell.

The findings include that he misled a formal child sexual abuse investigation, called the Brisbane Inquiry, in December 2002 when he was governor-­general and under pressure to explain his handling of serious cases of pedophilia in the diocese during his 12 years as archbishop.

He misled the Brisbane inquiry in 2002 about his contact with people, including victims who had brought the molestation to his personal attention early in the piece in the 1990s.

He had knowledge of expert advice about the likelihood of further abuse, but he permitted the serial-offending priest, John ­Elliot, to continue in his parish and retire with financial benefits. The priest subsequently pleaded guilty to multiple counts of sexual assault and sodomy of boys, and was imprisoned.

A furore over Dr Hollingworth’s handling of and public comments about child sex abuse led him to resign in May 2003, just 23 months into his term as ­governor-general. He has repeatedly apologised and expressed ­regret, including at the royal commission, for not putting victims’ interests above their abusers.

A survivor of the abuse examined by the royal commission has asked Malcolm Turnbull’s office in a detailed dossier of evidence to review whether Dr Hollingworth should stop receiving public funds in light of the 2017 findings.

He is urging the royal commission and prosecutorial authorities to look at other cases in which Dr Hollingworth was directly involved.

He said it was untenable that more than $6 million in public funds had been paid for Dr Hollingworth’s pension and expenses since 2003.

The survivor has written to Dr Hollingworth to tell him his “false statements (in 2002) had the significant effects of misleading the Brisbane Inquiry, protecting you from appropriate criticism and consequence for your actual involvement and negligence and ­delaying justice for survivors”.

“During that 14 years (since his May 2003 resignation), your false statements have prevented you from properly being held to ­account and therefore have contributed to your continuing to receive substantial financial gain under the guise of former governor-general entitlements.”

Dr Hollingworth’s view of his performance as an archbishop with overarching control of child sexual abuse cases has changed significantly from his 2003 ­description of the allegations against him as “misplaced and unwarranted” to his acceptance that he made many serious mistakes, was insensitive, misled the inquiry, and did not understand the damage caused by sexual assault.

Dr Hollingworth told The Australian in a statement: “It is utterly untrue that I deliberately misled the Brisbane Inquiry or the royal commission. I have acknowledged errors of judgment in my handling of cases of sexual abuse and acknowledged struggling with my memory of discussions and documents from many years past, particularly when I had no access to documents to refresh my memory. I have also expressed my regret and made apologies with respect to these matters. But I have never deliberately misled, nor have I sought to cover up or protect pedophiles.”

Dr Hollingworth’s insistence that he had not “deliberately” misled the Brisbane Inquiry was not accepted by the royal commission. His lawyers had urged it to qualify its proposed findings by inserting the word “unintentionally”, but the commission refused.

In another part of its multiple findings that were adverse to Dr Hollingworth, the commission found it “must have been apparent” to him at the time that he was providing wrong information to the Anglican Church-sponsored Brisbane Inquiry in 2002.

His solicitor Bill Doogue described him as “an exceptionally decent man who has given service to the community for almost the whole of his adult life”.

A senior official in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, responding to the calls for a review of Dr Hollingworth’s public entitlements, did not address the point in his written reply.




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