AUSTRALIA
ABC – 7.30
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 12/08/2016
Reporter: Anne Connolly
One of Australia’s most senior Anglican’s has admitted he didn’t act on complaint of a paedophile ring operating in the Newcastle diocese, which he led for more than a decade. Roger Herft said he regretted he had not been more alert to what was going on.
Transcript
MATT WORDSWORTH, PRESENTER: One of Australia’s most senior Anglicans today admitted he didn’t act on complaints about sex abuses within the diocese he led for more than a decade.
It comes after 7:30 revealed last month that a senior priest, Father Peter Rushton, led a paedophile network in the Hunter region for years. The focus of today’s Royal Commission hearings was Roger Herft, now the Archbishop of Perth.
Anne Connolly has been following the stories of the victims whose lives have been destroyed by the dark deeds within the church.
And a warning: this story contains material that may distress some viewers.
(Footage of Paul Grey giving evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse)
PAUL GREY (sobbing): I was chased by two men… to the edge of the cliff and I hid in the bushes. After a while, I was dragged from the bushes. I was raped by the two men. And while I was being raped, I could hear another boy screaming.
(Footage ends)
ANNE CONNOLLY, REPORTER: Paul Grey is describing the horror he experienced as a victim of an Anglican paedophile network. The ringleader was his godfather, Father Peter Rushton, one of Newcastle’s most powerful Anglican priests.
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