AUSTRALIA
The Daily Telegraph
David Penberthy
The Daily Telegraph
November 13, 2012
THERE is a textbook study in how not to handle allegations of systematic child sexual abuse and it was written by the retired Anglican bishop Peter Hollingworth.
The mistakes made by Hollingworth cost him his job as governor-general. They are now being repeated, arguably to an even graver and more offensive degree, by Catholic Archbishop George Pell.
Hollingworth’s biggest misjudgement in the scandal surrounding his knowledge of and response to child abuse in his church was to go on Australian Story and declare that a young female victim of abuse had actually instigated the sexual contact herself.
George Pell had his own Hollingworth moment on Sunday when he declared that he wants the NSW Police to wade through the total number of child abuse cases on their books so that the public can get a sense of what proportion of such cases involve the Catholic Church. This was his quote in full:
“We’ll try and find out from the police how many cases of child abuse they have on their books – I believe it is thousands – and how many of them relate to Catholic priests and teachers. I suspect it will be very, very small indeed.”
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