Reports of Abuse Referred to UK

By Sarah Elks
The Australian
June 3, 2013

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/in-depth/reports-of-abuse-referred-to-uk/story-fngburq5-1226655479991

NEW and "extremely concerning" allegations of child sexual abuse against serial pedophile priest Robert Waddington, who molested children in Australia for a decade, have been urgently referred to the Church of England's Archbishop of York.

North Queensland Bishop Bill Ray said he phoned Archbishop John Sentamu at the weekend after the fresh claims -- that the now-deceased senior clergyman began abusing children as early as 1953 -- were revealed in The Weekend Australian.

"I think he should know that, and that it should be a part of his inquiry," Bishop Ray said.

Last month, Dr Sentamu launched an independent inquiry into the allegations against Waddington and the church's response to the abuse complaints.

The probe, which will be led by a retired judge, was sparked by a joint investigation by The Australian and The Times.

It revealed English church officials, including a former archbishop of York, and senior Australian Anglicans failed to report to police allegations of abuse made in Queensland in 1999 and England in 2003 by former students of Waddington.

More complainants have since come forward, alleging Waddington -- who was a school principal, teacher, choirmaster and senior clergyman before his death in 2007 -- abused boys from the 1960s to the 1990s across two continents.

In the latest claims, Adelaide-based Ray Munn said he was abused as an 11-year-old choirboy in England by Waddington as soon as the clergyman joined the church in 1953.

Bishop Ray said he and Dr Sentamu, who is recovering from a prostate cancer operation, spoke regularly about their parallel probes into Waddington's alleged crimes. "They are extremely concerning allegations," Bishop Ray said.

He said he had appointed a Queensland solicitor to head an independent probe into the disappearance of the North Queensland diocese's records about St Barnabas school, west of Cairns. Waddington was the school's headmaster from 1961-71 and is alleged to have abused at least three boys there.

Bishop Ray has previously said he feared the records had been thrown down a disused well or mine shaft. He said he was sure the destruction of the documents relating to St Barnabas was a one-off. "I can pull up the records of every other school quite easily."

Bishop Ray said he would meet with the solicitor, who he declined to name, tomorrow to finalise details of the inquiry.