AUSTRALIA
The Australian
August 27, 2016
DAN BOX
Crime reporterSydney
@DanBox10
The Anglican Archbishop of Perth has denied telling the bishop of a diocese under investigation over alleged child sexual abuse that “a false statement had been filed by me with the royal commission”.
Archbishop Roger Herft, a former bishop of Newcastle, said the allegation was contained in a 2016 file note written by his successor, Bishop Greg Thompson, and tendered with the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
While the file note has not been publicly released, a recent witness statement from Archbishop Herft said he had seen the document and “I don’t agree with everything that Bishop Greg has written”.
“In particular … I never told Bishop Thompson that a false statement had been filed by me with the royal commission in relation to the Church of England Boys Society,’’ he said.
The society, the subject of a previous royal commission investigation, organised youth camps in the Newcastle area at which at least one witness had described being raped by several men.
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