AUSTRALIA
Moree Champion
JAMES ROBERTSON, LEESHA MCKENNY
07 Jul, 2012
ARMIDALE’S second-most senior priest is refusing to explain why he has given two conflicting accounts of a meeting he attended in 1992 during which a priest admitted to a series of child sexual offences.
When approached twice by the Herald in Armidale yesterday, Father Wayne Peters, the vicar-general of the diocese, refused to say why he denied to ABC’s Four Corners program in writing that the priest, Father F., had admitted the offences.
After a two-hour meeting with Armidale’s Bishop Michael Kennedy yesterday, Father Peters would only say: ”My bishop has made a statement and no doubt will make further statements shortly.”
Bishop Kennedy, who has said the matter would be investigated, also refused to answer questions from the Herald.
Father Peters told Four Corners he recalled the meeting with Father F., who cannot be named for legal reasons, but denied that Father F. had admitted his sexual offences. He told the program in writing his report at the time to Bishop Kevin Manning contained only ”instances of misconduct”.
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