AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM
MARK COLVIN: This following story from the child abuse royal commission contains details you may find disturbing.
An Anglican priest has issued a scathing criticism of members of the church hierarchy at a public hearing investigating decades of abuse at the hands of the clergy.
The inquiry is focusing on the Diocese of Newcastle in New South Wales, but Reverend Roger Dyer says the church has been affected by the actions of paedophiles Australia-wide.
And he’s spoken openly about how he was ostracised when he attempted to raise the alarm in recent years.
But one former Bishop remains adamant that he never knew that a priest who he promoted was a prolific child sex offender.
Thomas Oriti reports.
THOMAS ORITI: Peter Rushton has been described as a serial paedophile, but the Anglican priest from Newcastle died in 2007 without ever being convicted, and that haunts Reverend Roger Dyer.
ROGER DYER: At no stage has anyone ever apologised to me for the treatment I have received as a consequence of speaking out. My intention at St Luke’s was to expose and acknowledge the pain caused by paedophilia, and to enable the parish to heal from the abuse that it experienced, and to move forward.
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