AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
Friday 27 November 2015

The Melbourne archdiocese’s amateurish handling of complaints about a dangerous pedophile priest hurt a lot of people, a bishop says.

Former Melbourne archbishop Frank Little had a blind spot when it came to complaints about priests, his long-time second-in-command Bishop Peter Connors says.

The church failed to remove the gun-toting Doveton parish priest Peter Searson – described by a Catholic education staffer as “an extremely devious and dangerous man” – despite years of complaints.

“I would accept that certainly we responded in a very amateurish way and probably left a lot of people hurt,” Bishop Connors told the child abuse royal commission on Friday.