Peter Hollingworth complains a second time to ABC over abuse reporting

Beth Heinrich has stared down the former ­governor-general in a statement read to the tribunal that must ­decide whether to defrock the ­veteran Anglican.

Survivor Beth Heinrich was present at Peter Hollingworth’s hearing at Victorian Bar Mediation Centre. Picture: Valeriu Campan

Child abuse survivor Beth Heinrich has stared down former ­governor-general Peter Hollingworth in an emotional statement read to the tribunal that must ­decide whether to defrock the ­veteran Anglican.

Ms Heinrich said she was vilified by Dr Hollingworth more than 20 years ago when he was widely reported questioning whether she was abused as a ­teenager by a priest who would later become a bishop.

Mr Hollingworth, through his lawyers, complained on Tuesday to the ABC for the second time, arguing the original reporting was wrong and he was not talking about Ms Heinrich as a 14-year-old.

Ms Heinrich was given the opportunity to read her impact statement to the Anglican-inspired tribunal that will decide what, if any, action should be taken over Dr Hollingworth’s handling of the abuse issue while Archbishop of Brisbane in the 1990s and when governor-general between 2001 and 2003.

The tribunal is held in secret, but The Australian has previously reported comments from the statement that Ms Heinrich prepared for the inquiry.

The inquiry is also believed to have heard argument about the role that Dr Hollingworth played in a failed mediation in the 1990s involving Ms Heinrich’s attacker, the late Donald Shearman. Dr Hollingworth was at the failed mediation nearly 30 years ago.

“You are looking at me and perhaps I look OK on the outside, but that’s not how I feel,” Ms Heinrich’s statement prepared for the tribunal read.

“If I allowed myself to be me I would have to start cutting my arms to show people how much I was hurting. I am afraid to be me because it hurts too much. I feel like I am someone else.”

The statement attacked the extraordinary delays in the inquiry, which has run for at least five years.

Ms Heinrich is in her 80s and Dr Hollingworth is 87.

“Of course none of this dragged out drama is necessary,” she wrote to the tribunal last year. “It can easily be solved. He should find the integrity, finally do the right thing and quietly resign.”

The tribunal has received evidence from several complainants and must determine whether Dr Hollingworth should be punished by the Anglican Church.

Ms Heinrich was sexually abused as a teenager by Shearman, who was later deposed from holy orders. She said Shearman had formed a sexual relationship with her when she was sent to a church hostel. Dr Hollingworth created a storm when he was reported saying: “There was no suggestion of rape or anything like that; quite the contrary. My information is it was rather the other way around.”

Lawyers for Dr Hollingworth on Tuesday wrote to ABC managing director David Anderson complaining that the original Australian Story was wrongly edited to create the impression that Dr Hollingworth was accusing a teenage Ms Heinrich of causing her own abuse.

But Dr Hollinworth’s lawyers said he was selectively quoted to create the impression he was referring to a child when he claimed he wasn’t.

“The ABC knows that its journalism has been vigorously contested through an earlier complaint, yet does not even mention Dr Hollingworth’s protests in its reporting,’’ the letter states. “He is damned on national television and print when the ABC know, better than anyone, that the line they are running is not true.

“There was a complaint to the ABC managing director at the time in 2005 and I note that by some strange twist of fate that the ABC were never able to produce the unedited tapes of the interviews to examine its editing.

“This issue of the ABC program and its editing has come up on a number of occasions over the subsequent years.”

The ABC did not comment on the letter.

The tribunal is continuing.