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	Anglicans to Rule on Pedophile after Easter By Alison Sandy NEWS.com.au March 10, 2008 http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23352710-3102,00.html CONVICTED pedophile Robert Francis Sharwood is expected to be defrocked after Easter following the outcome of an independent hearing. The Brisbane diocese's professional standards board, headed by Supreme Court Justice Debra Mullins, has recommended the Anglican Church strip him of his holy orders, but Sharwood has been given a fortnight to appeal. Bishop John Parkes said he could not comment on the matter until the formal process was completed. "Once any review request is dealt with, or the 14-day period expires, the archbishop will consider the final decision," Bishop Parkes said. Archbishop Phillip Aspinall is expected to decide Sharwood's fate early next month, but the Anglican Church is looking at new provisions which would see pedophile priests instantly defrocked once convicted. Currently, Sharwood remains a priest, but is not allowed to practise. "Effectively, he was fired," Bishop Parkes said. The Courier-Mail recently revealed Sharwood was singing in the choir with children at Fortitude Valley's Holy Trinity Church and Canon Barry Greaves, who will stand trial on child sex charges in August, participated in Bible readings. Sharwood is yet to complete the church's pedophile reintegration program because the Holy Trinity parish considered it "oppressive and unworkable". The parish, headed by Rector Trevor Bulled, who was convicted for indecent behaviour at a public toilet almost 20 years ago, wrote a letter to the church's professional standards director questioning the need for a rehabilitation program. Bishop Parkes said the church would not discourage Sharwood from playing an active role in Sunday services. "We will not deny anyone the right to go to church," he said. "There is strict supervision when he is on church grounds. "He is not allowed to be left alone in the presence of any children and his movements are always monitored." Sharwood was released from prison in November after serving one year of a 33-month sentence for sexually assaulting and sodomising a 13-year-old boy in Brisbane 30 years ago. The Brisbane District Court was told Sharwood, then a 30-year-old priest, seduced the boy, picking him up at the bus stop most school days and having oral and masturbatory sex with him on 300 occasions. Anglican Church officials knew of Sharwood's pedophilia, but still appointed him chaplain at Brisbane's prestigious Anglican Church Grammar School, known as Churchie.
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