Bishop "Misled Inquiry"

By Barney Zwartz
The Age
April 26, 2013

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/bishop-misled-inquiry-20130425-2iha7.html

Bishop Jacob Iakovos. Photo: Gary Sissons

A Greek Orthodox bishop misled the Victorian inquiry into how the churches handled child sexual abuse when he denied any cases in his church, another member of the community has said in a letter to the inquiry.

Bishop Iakovos told the inquiry that he was not aware of any case or anecdotal evidence of child sexual abuse ''in living memory'', and that he had consulted much older members of the church.

But the letter writer, who asked not to be named, told the inquiry there was a well-known case in 2002 when the parish priest of the Church of St Catherine in East Malvern, Father Andreas Papadimitropoulos, was found guilty of indecently assaulting a teenage girl.

''This case is well known among the hierarchy of the Greek Orthodox Church in Australia, and information about it is even available online,'' the letter says.

It also cites harassment and abuse in Sydney, but this does not fall under the inquiry's terms of reference.

Bishop Iakovos said on Thursday the Greek Orthodox archdiocese had not deliberately misled any inquiry. It had [since] ''made a submission relevant to the inquiry identifying one case on public record''. Any questions should be directed to the parliamentary committee, he said.

At the inquiry Bishop Iakovos said he was ''officially not aware of any child sexual abuse cases in living memory''.