Anglican Church investigation closer to ruling on former archbishop Peter Hollingworth

Child sex abuse survivors have been told the Anglican Church’s internal body charged with investigating Peter Hollingworth’s behaviour will meet before Christmas.

Former governor-general Peter Hollingworth. Picture: Jay Town

A formal hearing or other secretive deliberations into whether to defrock former governor-general Peter Hollingworth are expected within weeks.

Child sex abuse survivors have been told the Anglican Church’s internal body charged with investigating Dr Hollingworth’s behaviour will meet before Christmas. Five years after complaints were made to the church, through its complex and secretive investigative process, it appears investigators are finally close to resolving what, if any, action should be taken.

Dr Hollingworth, 87, was never an abuser but was exposed falling short of basic community standards in his handling of the crisis when Archbishop of Brisbane and through his commentary when governor-general.

Dr Hollingworth’s critics argue there is enough evidence that suggests he should be banished from his church, including that he allowed a pedophile priest in 1993 to continue to preach against a specialist’s advice, giving incorrect evidence to a 2002 abuse inquiry and blaming a victim of child sex abuse for encouraging the offending.

Multiple victims of church abuse have made complaints to Kooyoora, the church investigative body in Melbourne, but are extremely frustrated with the slow response. The church says the process is fully independent, a claim rejected by its critics.

Professor Chris Goddard, a global expert on abuse, said the process was the subject of a series of inappropriate delays that had added to the victims’ trauma and there was a strong case for reviewing all of Dr Hollingworth’s community awards.

Beth Heinrich. Picture: Aaron Francis/The Australian

Beth Heinrich, abused at a hostel as a teenager in the 1950s by an Anglican minister and later publicly vilified by Dr Hollingworth, said the long wait for action had been agonising. “It’s been five years. They are running down the clock,” she said.

The Weekend Australian understands the complaints have passed through Kooyoora to the Professional Standards Committee and that, under the Anglican Archdiocese of Melbourne’s abuse response system, can go to the Professional Standards Board, which can hold a formal hearing or make a determination. The secrecy makes it difficult for even those who make complaints to know exactly what is happening.

A PSC spokesman did not respond, nor did Dr Hollingworth.