Royal commission hears there are potentially hundreds of clergy not yet identified as paedophiles

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Ashleigh Raper

The Royal Commission into child sexual abuse has heard there are potentially hundreds of clergy within the Anglican Church who have not been formally identified as paedophiles.

Protocols for dealing with sex offenders within the Anglican Church are being scrutinised by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The commission is looking into the response from the Anglican Diocese of Grafton to allegations of historic abuse at the North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore.

The Anglican Church set up a national register in 2004 designed to provide a database for information if a member of clergy had a complaint or finding of abuse established against them.

The General Secretary of the Anglican Church, Martin Drevikovsky, told the Commission that “in the case of Sydney it was 600 [complaints]. In the case of Melbourne I know it was hundreds”.

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