AUSTRALIA
9 News
AAP
A retired Melbourne Catholic bishop says he never contemplated telling police about child sex abuse complaints.
Bishop Hilton Deakin, a former Melbourne archdiocese vicar-general and auxiliary bishop, has told the child abuse royal commission he was to verbally report any sexual misconduct complaints to then archbishop Frank Little and there was to be no further discussion.
He says while an auxiliary bishop in 1994, he also told the Apostolic Nuncio, the Pope’s representative in Australia, Doveton parish priest Fr Peter Searson was a “most evil person doing evil things to little children”.
“I was hoping and praying that something would be done,” he told the commission.
A barrister for three abuse victims, Cassie Serpell, suggested there was a range of other actions he could have taken.
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