AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald
IAN KIRKWOOD
12 Aug 2016
TWO weeks of Royal Commission sittings have finished with sensational evidence that former Newcastle bishop Roger Herft tipped off his dean at the time, Graeme Lawrence, about child sexual abuse allegations against him.
Reverend Herft has been Archbishop of Perth since leaving Newcastle in 2005 and he opened his evidence by telling the commission he put in place the first system to investigate sexual abuse by priests when he arrived in 1993.
But by the end of his evidence, the reverend had to admit his handling of the issue had been “totally unacceptable” and he never did “find out what on earth was going on”, despite being repeatedly warned about paedophiles in his diocese.
Just before the commission adjourned until Monday, August 29, Reverend Herft was asked about a husband-and-wife team of youth camp leaders who had told him in 1995 that two “boys” had told them of being sexually abused by Lawrence.
The couple, from Muswellbrook, had made a statement to the commission, saying that Reverend Herft was “more interested in standing up for Lawrence” than anything else, and that “if they continued to complain about Lawrence, they would be facing legal action for defamation of character”.
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