AUSTRALIA
Guardian News

IAN KIRKWOOD
8 Aug 2016

THE Royal Commission has heard sensational evidence about a secret filing system of “brown envelopes” used in the Newcastle Anglican church under former Bishop Roger Herft.

The commission heard there would have been more than 20 cases detailed in the brown envelopes. Detail of the history of child sexual abuse at the church’s Morpeth seminary were also said to be held in the church archives, stored at the University of Newcastle.

Detail of the brown envelopes emerged when the royal commission showed solicitor and former “ear to three Bishops”, Keith Allen, a file note of a meeting held in early 2015 with the diocesan business manager John Cleary.

The file note also revealed Mr Allen believed the church had influence over the police until quite recently and that the former dean of Newcastle, Graeme Lawrence, would be a focus of…