AUSTRALIA
The Guardian
Australian Associated Press
Wednesday 27 January 2016
Senior Anglican clergy shared a secret understanding of each other’s attraction to young boys, a royal commission has been told.
The inquiry into the Church of England Boys’ Society being held in Hobart heard evidence on Thursday from the convicted child sexual offender Louis Daniels, 68, a former archdeacon who was one of Tasmania’s top-four church leaders in the early 1990s.
Daniels has since been jailed for pleading guilty to abusing 12 boys.
He was asked about his interaction with fellow former clergy and lay men Garth Hawkins, Robert Brandenburg, Simon Jacobs and John Elliot, all of whom have each faced abuse allegations.
“We would sort of reach the point of acknowledging a mutual gayness but there was a point which you didn’t go past,” Daniels said. “There is a whole secrecy kind of context that’s built into the whole situation.”
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.