AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald
JOANNE MCCARTHY
2 Sep 2016
NEWCASTLE Anglican Bishop Greg Thompson is “the bishop not welcome in his own cathedral” after the royal commission heard extraordinary evidence this week of a complaint against him by a group of senior Anglicans after he revealed he was sexually abused by a bishop.
The Dean of Newcastle Stephen Williams is expected to make a public statement on Sunday after royal commission chair Justice Peter McClellan accused solicitor Robert Caddies of leading “coordinated opposition” to Bishop Thompson.
This followed a complaint about the bishop to the royal commission from a group that included Mr Caddies, former Newcastle Lord Mayor John McNaughton, solicitor and synod member Greg Hansen, synod member Laurie Tabart and church wardens Simon Adam and Andrew Traill.
The complaint included that the bishop potentially exposed “younger members of the diocese” to “danger” because he had not previously disclosed the abuse. But the group was accused of trying to undermine the bishop, with Justice McClellan asking Mr Caddies if he was suggesting the bishop’s credibility needed to be looked at because of the time he had taken to speak in public about it. The commission has heard expert evidence that abuse survivors can take decades to disclose abuse.
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