Is the Anglican Church going to change tack and not report all allegations of sexual abuse to the police?

It has been reported in The Australian that Anglican Primate Phillip Aspinall has given personal support to the two Catholic Church leaders in the eye of the Hepworth sexual abuse affair, urging people not to rush to judgment over what happened to the future archbishop or the handling of the case

The Australian reports that Dr Aspinall praised the Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, as “one of the church leaders in the country most educated” in dealing with sex abuse complaints, while archdiocese vicar-general David Cappo was “deeply understanding” of victims’ needs.

The report goes on to say that it has been revealed that Dr Aspinall had commissioned a review into the policy he had developed in Brisbane to report all sexual abuse complaints against Anglican clergy and church staff to police, regardless of the complainant’s wishes or any time lapse.

Dr Aspinall emphasised that he could not comment on the Catholic hierarchy’s management of the complaint by Archbishop John Hepworth of the breakaway Traditional Anglican Communion that he suffered systematic sexual abuse for more than a decade at the hands of Catholic clergy in Adelaide and Melbourne, forcing him to flee the priesthood.

The Anglican Primate told The Australian he knew Archbishop Wilson and Monsignor Cappo and had great respect for both.

“You know, I think there are two sides to the story,” he said.

“And I recognise the restrictions on some of the people in authority in churches about being able to tell what they know.”

The unresolved response of the Catholic archdiocese in Adelaide has been contrasted unfavourably with that of Melbourne’s, which handles sex abuse claims differently to the rest of the church in Australia.

It dealt with Archbishop Hepworth’s complaint within a year, apologised, offered a financial settlement and acknowledged he had been sexually abused by late Catholic priest Ronald Pickering and in “many other instances” by clergy in South Australia.

Archbishop Hepworth according to The Australian says he told Monsignor Cappo of his ordeal four years ago, but the archdiocese disputes that he requested a church probe in 2008. This began in February this year, as the Melbourne archdiocese was approaching its settlement with Archbishop Hepworth, reached in August.

I mentioned last week in my blog that independent South Australian senator Nick Xenophon subsequently used parliamentary privilege to name serving Adelaide priest Monsignor Ian Dempsey as the only survivor of the trio alleged to have raped and sexually abused Archbishop Hepworth between 1960 and 1972 in Adelaide and Melbourne. Monsignor Dempsey has rejected the claim he was involved in any abuse.

The Australian further reports that Dr Aspinall said he was “very slow to judge other churches”, having had extensive experience in dealing with sex abuse complaints against clergy and church workers, including the claimed cover-ups in Queensland in the 1990s that caught up with his predecessor as archbishop of Brisbane, Peter Hollingworth, and forced him to quit his post as governor-general in 2003.

“I know when you are dealing with any abused person how much pain and trauma this causes to people,” Dr Aspinall said.

“And I know I have done my utmost . . . to make sure that we do the right thing by people.

“And I know how often we still disappoint people, and seem unintentionally to exacerbate their hurt.

“Sometimes what we try to do is misunderstood and misinterpreted because there is a lack of trust there, which I understand.

“Sometimes what is recorded is to my mind not accurate it doesn’t fully reflect what I know we have bent over backwards to try to do, and I am restricted in what I can say about the particular circumstances because of the need to protect the privacy of the person.

“So it just makes me pause when I hear stories of other churches, and particularly about people whom I know personally and have great respect.”

The Catholic archdiocese in Adelaide has said Archbishop Hepworth was encouraged over a “significant period of time” to take his complaint to the police.

Archbishop Hepworth says he has spoken to the police three times since this newspaper broke the story of his ordeal, but the South Australia police would not say last week if this meant a criminal probe.

Surely all allegations of sexual abuse should be reported to the police? If the complainant subsequently prefers for charges not be brought then so be it. That is a matter for them and the police. Experience has shown me that victims are to put it mildly are very nervous of reporting the abuse in the first place and should be shown and given support to follow through. It is not in my opinion for the church or any other organisation to decide what should and should not be reported to the police. That is a recipe for brushing serious criminal offences under the carpet. I hope that the Anglican church does not recoil from its policy of reporting all crime to the police.

If you have been abused and would like to me Alan Collins or my colleague Charles Derham please contact us in confidence.

Alan Collins

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Charles Derham

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