AUSTRALIA
Daily Examiner
Tim Howard | 26th Jul 2017
A FORMER defrocked Deacon of Grafton says the Anglican Church appears to have learned little from the traumas of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
Former Queensland Education Minister and Grafton City Councillor Pat Comben has been returned to Holy Orders, despite an admission of guilt to the offences that saw him defrocked as the Deacon of Grafton in July 2015.
The Royal Commission found the Diocese of Grafton had denied responsibility for sexual abuse, denied compensation to victims of abuse at its North Coast Children’s Home, failed to comply with its own policies and dealt with victims insensitively.
Mr Comben admitted that he as deacon had taken a legalistic approach to victims which is now seen to be in error. But Mr Comben, 67, said the church was now dealing with him in the same legalistic fashion.
He said when he learned former Bishop of Grafton, Keith Slater, had appealed against his defrocking and been successful because due process had not been followed, he realised the same rules could apply to him.
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