AUSTRALIA
Mercury
DUNCAN ABEY, Mercury
February 13, 2017
THE Anglican Bishop of Tasmania has launched an investigation into the response of former church leader Bishop Philip Newell to complaints of sexual abuse by clergy.
The inquiry comes in the wake of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse’s report on the Church of England Boys’ Society operations in Tasmania.
The report, released on Monday, detailed systematic issues in the operation of the Church of England Boys’ Society in the 1970s and ’80s in Tasmania — as well as in Adelaide, Brisbane and Sydney — and followed days of public hearings in Hobart early last year.
The report found abuse often occurred on camps and sailing trips and senior Church of England Boys’ Society organisers were left to operate autonomously within the organisation, which was attended by boys aged between six and 16.
The report criticised Bishop Newell for failing to adequately deal with multiple complaints of sexual abuse from young Church of England Boys’ Society members against priest Louis Daniels, who was eventually defrocked and jailed for his crimes.
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