Probe into botched pedophile response inches closer

The Anglican Church’s heavily-criticised inquiry into a former governor-general and clergyman is due to start next week after multiple delays

Peter Hollingworth. Picture: David Geraghty

The Anglican Church’s inquiry into whether to defrock former governor-general Peter Hollingworth over his mishandling of the child sex abuse issue is due to meet next week but survivors are questioning whether further delays will be added to the glacial, five-year process.

The tribunal has been earmarked to run behind closed doors in Melbourne early next week but the process remains shrouded in secrecy, with key players being told limited information about how it will work, who has been investigated and who will appear, according to multiple sources.

The diocese of Melbourne, of which Dr Hollingworth is a member, has spent millions on its internal abuse system, Kooyoora, but the Hollingworth matter has become an embarrassment as it has suffered multiple delays and been dragged out over five years.

Dr Hollingworth, 87, was never an abuser but was pilloried over his handling of the crisis when archbishop of Brisbane and through his commentary when governor-general.

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

One survivor said they believed as many as 12 people had complained about Dr Hollingworth’s behaviour while he was archbishop and governor-general but the internal inquiry would not hear evidence from all the critics.

Beth Heinrich, abused 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 traumatising, as had the secrecy that surrounded the inquiry.

“It’s disgusting, it’s disgraceful. It’s long overdue and why it has been allowed to be deferred, I don’t know,” she said.

Chris Goddard said the multi-year Anglican process had failed the abuse survivors. “You could not invent a more disturbing process. It should be dealt with promptly, openly and transparently,” Professor Goddard said.

There have been many delays in scheduled private hearings, with no public explanation on why. And while there has been speculation about Dr Hollingworth’s health, he was seen recently at the funeral of former Howard government minister Peter Reith and elsewhere in the Melbourne community.

The Australian has been told complaints against Dr Hollingworth had progressed through Kooyoora to the Professional Standards Committee and that, under the diocese’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 the survivors to know what is happening.

Dr Hollingworth resigned as governor-general in 2003 after he was criticised at a Brisbane inquiry for his handling of alle­gations of child-sex abuse against pedophile priest John Linton ­Elliot.