AUSTRALIA
Sky News
There is no formal check on a priest’s reputation when he is transferred from one diocese to another, an inquiry into child sex abuse has been told.
The Catholic Bishop of Lismore, Dr Geoffrey Jarrett, said normal legal checks were carried out, such as the working with children check, and professional standards protocols were applied.
But there were no specific reputation checks comparable to reference checks for other jobs, he said.
He was responding to questioning from Justice Peter McClellan, chair of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which is examining the church’s Towards Healing process for dealing with abuse claims.
Dr Jarrett is the bishop in the diocese where Jennifer Ingham, now 51, was abused by Father Paul Brown between 1978 and 1982 when she was a teenager.
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