AUSTRALIA
9 News
AAP
A Melbourne bishop wrote a character reference for a priest he hardly knew who was facing child sex abuse charges, an inquiry has heard.
Bishop Hilton Deakin said he had no hesitation writing the reference for Fr David Daniel, despite not knowing him very well, and the priest told him he was innocent.
He said it was later that Daniel was found guilty.
“If you ask me now, I know more about Daniel than I did when I wrote it, I must say, and I think it was a bit crazy writing it, knowing what I now know. But at that time that didn’t occur to me,” Bishop Deakin told the child abuse royal commission.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.