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	Xenophon Defends Naming SA Priest Sydney Morning Herald September 25, 2011 http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/xenophon-defends-naming-sa-priest-20110925-1krgm.html Senator Nick Xenophon has indicated he might not have used parliamentary privilege to accuse a Catholic priest of rape earlier this month had he known the man was about to take a period of leave. Adelaide Catholic priest Ian Dempsey said it was "totally unfair and unjust" of the independent South Australian senator to use parliamentary privilege to accuse him of raping John Hepworth, now a leading Anglican churchman, more than 40 years ago. Senator Xenophon on Sunday said he had acted in good faith and without malice in naming Monsignor Dempsey under parliamentary privilege, but said: "I regret the course of events went down this path". Advertisement: Story continues below He said the matter might have played out differently had he known Monsignor Dempsey was about to go on one month's annual leave. "It would have given an opportunity for there to be a satisfactory outcome without the need to name the priest in question," he told reporters in Adelaide. "I find it bewildering and extraordinary that no-one in the Catholic Church decided to advise me the priest in question was about to go on leave." Senator Xenophon said he named Monsignor Dempsey because the Church had taken too long to address the rape allegations against him that emerged four years ago. The Adelaide Catholic Church has said it was not being tardy because Archbishop Hepworth had only this year decided to proceed with his claim. Archbishop Hepworth said he was the victim of violent rapes by two priests and a trainee priest, beginning in 1960, when he was 15. At the time Archbishop Hepworth, who is now the primate of the splinter group Traditional Anglican Communion in Adelaide, was studying to be a priest at a seminary. Archbishop Hepworth has said he broke away from the Catholic Church because of the 12 years of abuse.
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