AUSTRALIA
The Australian

SARAH ELKS THE AUSTRALIAN FEBRUARY 19, 2014

THE Catholic Church has accused one of its veteran educators of lying under oath to blame the church for his failure to report to police serious allegations of child sexual abuse.

In a heated exchange before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse yesterday, senior barrister Jane Needham SC_ for the church _ repeatedly accused sacked principal Terence Hayes of lying and “making up stories” to get himself “out of trouble”.

An emotional Mr Hayes “categorically” denied lying, but yesterday made a series of concessions about his failures in handling abuse allegations levelled at serial pedophile Gerard Vincent Byrnes, who molested and raped 13 girls, mostly in his classroom during class time, at Mr Hayes’ Toowoomba school in 2007 and 2008.

In 2009, The Australian revealed Mr Hayes failed to report to police an allegation by a…