AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
February 3, 2016
Adam Morton
Senior Writer
Former governor-general Peter Hollingworth has apologised to a sex abuse survivor and conceded he manifestly failed in his response to an abuse claim while he was Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane in the 1990s.
Giving evidence to the royal commission into institutional sex abuse, Dr Hollingworth said his failures included giving incorrect evidence to a 2002 inquiry into abuse in the Brisbane diocese, while he was governor-general.
In 1993, Dr Hollingworth allowed paedophile priest John Elliot to continue to work as rector of Dalby, on Queensland’s Darling Downs, after hearing allegations the priest abused at least one boy between 1975 and 1981.
The commission heard Elliot had admitted to the abuse and that psychiatrist John Slaughter, who assessed Elliot, had advised Dr Hollingworth that paedophilia was not treatable.
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