AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald
IAN KIRKWOOD
29 Aug 2016
Former Newcastle bishop Roger Herft has told the royal commission he “failed miserably” in his response to priest abuse victim CKA.
Resuming after a morning adjournment, Reverend Herft, now the Archbishop of Perth, was taken through his handling of a number of matters that took place during his watch, including the CKA/CKC matter, disgraced priest Peter Rushton and the seminary student Ian Barrack, who left the Morpeth college before being ordained and was subsequently convicted of child sexual abuse.
Questioned by counsel assisting the commission, Naomi Sharp, Reverend Herft agreed that there had been two allegations raised with him against Rushton, on top of the child pornography matter, but he disagreed with her description of there being “alarm bells ringing”.
He agreed he did not take action against Rushton despite being told he had his “own group of boys”.
He said he had been “deeply fooled” by Rushton into believing that he had changed his ways, when he had not.
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