AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald
By JOANNE McCARTHY
Nov. 17, 2012
IT’S the investigation that has everything – a defrocked priest, a former Newcastle lord mayor, spying allegations, and questions about the professional standards of a professional standards director.
Newcastle Anglican Diocese is keeping tight-lipped about a complaint involving its professional standards director Michael Elliott and his alleged attempts to view a service organised by a defrocked priest.
The diocese has confirmed it received a complaint after Mr Elliott was asked to leave the enclosed backyard of a unit for vulnerable people, including domestic violence victims, on October 26.
The unit complex overlooks a former church building in the Newcastle area.
Mr Elliott is alleged to have identified himself when challenged, and to have told a complex employee he was looking for a vantage point to observe a service organised by defrocked Newcastle priest John Gumbley.
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