Senior Clergy Could Face Charges over Abuse

By Tom Allard and Josephine Tovey
The Age
July 5, 2012

http://www.theage.com.au/national/senior-clergy-could-face-charges-over-abuse-20120704-21hl9.html

THREE senior Catholic clergy who were allegedly told by a priest that he molested young boys, but then failed to tell police, could face criminal charges for failing to report the offences, legal experts say.

As the archdiocese of Armidale, in NSW, launched a "full investigation" into the scandal, NSW police also said they were assessing the claims, which were aired on the ABC's Four Corners program on Monday. The case involves a priest, since defrocked but now living in Armidale, NSW and a prominent member of the community, accused of repeatedly sexual abusing young boys since the early 1980s in parishes stretching from Moree to Tamworth and Parramatta.

Dubbed Father F, the alleged paedophile priest testified under oath in a 2004 court case that he confessed to performing oral sex on young boys, at a meeting in 1992 with Fathers Brian Lucas, John Usher and Wayne Peters.

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All three are senior members of the Catholic hierarchy.

Former NSW director of public prosecutions Nicholas Cowdery said there were grounds to pursue the three men under section 316 of the NSW Crimes Act.

"I can't, frankly, see any reason why it would not proceed," said Mr Cowdery.

Under section 316, those withholding information about an indictable offence can face two years in prison.

However, NSW Attorney-General Greg Smith has to endorse any prosecution because priests are among a cohort of professionals considered special cases. All three men, and the Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell, denied there was any cover-up. Cardinal Pell told Four Corners that a "file note … does not show that he made any admissions".

But that account was undermined, not only by Father F's court admission, but by a letter sent by Father Peters just eight days after that September 3 meeting at St Mary's Cathedral.

The letter to the then Bishop of Armidale outlines what transpired and says Father F was eager to admit he had "sexually interfered" with boys aged between 10 and 11 in the early 1980s. Father F was forced to stop performing priestly duties shortly after but the information of his sexual abuse was never provided to police. Last night the Archdiocese of Sydney dismissed the highly detailed account written immediately after the meeting by Father Peters as a "private report" and "not an official record of the 1992 meeting".