AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM
MARK COLVIN: At the child sexual abuse Royal Commission hearings in Hobart, a former Anglican bishop of Tasmania has denied both joking about little boys with sore bottoms, and covering up complaints against a priest in the 1980s.
But Philip Newell was forced to concede that he had failed to remove the priest from duties involving young boys.
He admitted that that was “a very serious oversight”.
Samantha Donovan reports.
SAMANTHA DONOVAN: The Royal Commission is examining how the Anglican Diocese of Tasmania handled allegations priests were sexually abusing boys in the 1980s.
One priest, Louis Daniels, was eventually convicted and jailed for the sexual abuse of 11 boys. He settled a civil claim brought by a 12th boy.
Witness Sue Clayton, a former lay reader of the Church, has told the Commission that in 1987, she accompanied two boys to a meeting with the then-Bishop of Tasmania, Philip Newell.
The boys reported to him they had been sexually abused by Daniels. Ms Clayton gave evidence that Bishop Newell responded to the boys with sensitivity.
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