Former DPP Slams Priests for Failing to Report Abuse

By Michael Vincent
ABC - AM
July 7, 2012

http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2012/s3540947.htm

[with audio]

The former director of public prosecutions in New South Wales says it's not good enough for a Catholic priest to say he didn't have the names of sexual abuse victims and therefore didn't make a report to the police.

Nicholas Cowdery QC says there's no legal protection for priests who become aware of a crime and fail to report it.

He says the priests involved in the case aired on Four Corners this week, and their superiors may be in breach of the law.

Michael Vincent reports.

MICHAEL VINCENT: Back in 1992, senior Church officials, Fathers John Usher, Wayne Peters and Brian Lucas held a meeting with another priest, Father F.

A Church document written within days by Father Peters reveals Father F told them that over a period of 12 months he touched several boys' genitals and performed oral sex on them.

Father Lucas told AM yesterday he doesn't recall that level of detail and he didn't go to police.

BRIAN LUCAS: Because the victims are the ones who have to go the police and report. It's very difficult for the police to prosecute anybody without a statement from a victim; we had no name of a victim.

NICHOLAS COWDERY: I don't think that's a satisfactory answer at all.

MICHAEL VINCENT: Nicholas Cowdery QC was the director of public prosecutions in New South Wales for 16 years.

NICHOLAS COWDERY: Anybody who has knowledge of the commission of an offence, particularly a serious offence like this, has an obligation in my view to report it to the appropriate authorities.

MICHAEL VINCENT: He says he didn't have names; he didn't have victim's names.

NICHOLAS COWDERY: That's not good enough; if he had an admission of the commission of an offence, then that's enough to start the process of investigation.

MICHAEL VINCENT: And because it was an internal Church investigation of Father F rather than a confessional, Nicholas Cowdery QC says there's no protection under Section 316 of the Crimes Act for concealing an offence.

And he says any superior who was made aware of those allegations could also now face charges.

NICHOLAS COWDERY: So there might well be an argument that the bishop or whoever's above him or wherever the report ultimately ended up, that that official or officials are liable to prosecution under this section.

MICHAEL VINCENT: Do you have concerns about a pattern of behaviour within the Catholic Church in Australia?

NICHOLAS COWDERY: Well I can go only from media reports of those matters, both in Australia and in other countries around the world, and I must say just as a member of the public I have very grave concerns about a pattern of cover up in the Church.

MICHAEL VINCENT: There have been calls by victim's rights groups for a royal commission; do you support those calls?

NICHOLAS COWDERY: I think some sort of commission of inquiry would be appropriate, whether it be a royal commission or some other form of inquiry with powers approaching the powers of a royal commission.

MICHAEL VINCENT: The report about the 1992 meeting was written for the then Bishop of Armidale Kevin Manning, who was Father F's superior. AM was told Bishop Manning was unavailable for interview.

Father Peters is also not speaking and neither is Father Usher. A statement from the Church says if there had been admissions of actual criminal conduct, Monsignor Usher has confirmed he would have reported this to police.

MARK BOUGHTON: Oh, it's disgusting.

MICHAEL VINCENT: Mark Boughton is a victim of Father F, who's disappointed how the Church have handled this week's revelations.

MARK BOUGHTON: We all know it goes on, they just fob it off. They've got plenty of money and they think they can just quieten everyone. But it's - no they can't anymore.

MICHAEL VINCENT: Do you wish you had gone to the police sooner?

MARK BOUGHTON: I do yeah. There's not a day, not a week goes by really that you don't sort of think about it and thinking I wish it had have been different. But back then too it was a little bit less - it was more confronting for the victim then it was for anyone else. I'm hoping the day comes. I think a lot of my family do too and a lot of other families as well.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Sex abuse victim Mark Boughton speaking there to our reporter Michael Vincent.