AUSTRALIA
inDaily
Nick Xenophon is standing firm in his refusal to apologise to the priest he named in parliament as an alleged rapist, saying “it’s not a question of regret” but that the situation “was what it was”.
Catholic priest Ian Dempsey broke years of silence on InDaily last week, when he said he “forgives” but “prays for truth and justice”, after Xenophon in 2011 used parliamentary privilege to air an accusation that he raped fellow student John Hepworth at the St Francis Xavier seminary in Adelaide in the late 1960s and early ’70s. The accusation was never substantiated.
Dempsey said Xenophon’s enduring popularity – which has hit fever pitch ahead of tomorrow’s election, and could see his fledgling party snare a handful of Lower House seats – continued to rankle with him, given the Senator’s refusal to apologise or acknowledge that he had been cleared by subsequent church, police and DPP investigations.
Xenophon yesterday told InDaily he was aware of Dempsey’s remarks but would “rather not comment on it”.
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