AUSTRALIA
9 News
AAP
The former leader of Brisbane’s Anglican church, Peter Hollingworth, admits he poorly handled a complaint of sexual abuse by a priest and has apologised to the victim.
Giving evidence to a royal commission hearing in Hobart on Wednesday, Dr Hollingworth said his failure to take action against then-priest John Elliot heightened the distress for a victim, a man who cannot be named for legal reasons.
“I want to make an apology to (the victim) and to all the members of his family for the way which his complaint of abuse against John Elliot was handled when it was first referred to me as archbishop of Brisbane in 1993,” Dr Hollingworth said.
Dr Hollingworth was head of the Brisbane diocese from 1990 to 2001 and went on to become governor-general until 2003 when he stepped down over the church’s handling of the abuse allegations.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Wednesday was told that Dr Hollingworth was visited by the victim in August 1993.
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