Pedophiles prowled Church of England Boys’ Society ‘for decades’

Royal commission finds some pedophiles ‘shared’ victims, while the church did nothing but revoke some awards.

Anglican Bishop of Tasmania, Richard Condie. Picture: Luke Bowden

Networks of pedophiles operated in the Church of England Boys’ Society for several decades, some “sharing” victims, while the church’s only formal response was to revoke awards given to several perpetrators.

These are among findings of a report by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, released yesterday, relating to abuse of boys in CEBS in Tasmania, Queensland, NSW and South Australia in the 1970s and 80s.

The Anglican Bishop of Tasmania, Richard Condie, res­ponded by apologising to victims and announcing disciplinary proceedings against former bishop Philip Newell, whose handling of abuse in that state in the 80s and 90s was heavily criticised by the commission.

Former governor-general Peter Hollingworth was also criticised for a “serious error of judgment”, when as archbishop of Brisbane he allowed pedophile priest John Elliot to remain in the ministry after his abuse was known.

The report is scathing of the church’s responses to the abuse; identifying systemic shortcomings and a failure to adequately co-ordinate belated investigations across state borders.

“There is no evidence … that any investigation or inquiry has been conducted by any Anglican diocese or CEBS branch, or by the National Council of CEBS or the General Synod … into whether there was an organised network of offenders within CEBS, or a culture that facilitated child sexual abuse within CEBS, that crossed diocesan lines,” the report found. “This is so despite the fact that for some time dioceses and the ­national Anglican Church have known about the relationships between offenders across dioceses and throughout CEBS nationally.”

The report concluded that most CEBS branches could operate in an autonomous and unregulated way and that the abuse often occurred on camps, sailing and fishing trips, as well as overnight stays at rectories and private residences. “As a result a culture developed in which perpetrators had easy access to boys and opportunities to sexually abuse those boys,” the commission said in a statement. “There were networks of sexual perpetrators at CEBS who had knowledge of each other’s sexual offending against boys and in some instances facilitated the sexual abuse of children.”

The report, which followed hearings last year, found evidence of minimisation of the offending, a focus on protecting the reputation of the church, abuse being treated as a one-off or isolated incident, and allegations not being reported to police.

Dr Condie said the church had made many changes over the past 15 years to improve its responses to child sex abuse. However, the ­“serious nature” of the findings against Bishop Newell warranted a disciplinary process. “If the formal investigation recommends that charges be laid, the church’s disciplinary tribunal will be convened to hear the matter,” he said.

The report found Bishop Newell had acted “unreasonably” and “inappropriately” in dealing with child sex abuse by priest Louis Daniels in the 80s and 90s.

Dr Hollingworth and Bishop Newell could not be contacted yesterday.