Abuse Victims at Anglican Home Told Church Had No Liability

The Guardian
November 22, 2013

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/22/abuse-victims-at-anglican-home-told-church-had-no-liability

Justice Peter McClellan heard from Roland that the diocese had decided 'not to accept legal liability but would accept moral liability'. Photograph: Jeremy Piper pool/AAPImage

If the dozens of people who were abused at a Church of England (Anglican) home had sued successfully it would have been financial ruin for the New South Wales diocese of Grafton, a lawyer has told a national inquiry into child abuse.

Peter Roland, former lawyer for the diocese, is being grilled at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on why, in 2006 and 2007, traumatised survivors of the North Coast Children's Home (NCCH) in Lismore were told the church had no liability.

The commission has heard at one stage a letter to 41 victims mentioned a modest ex-gratia payment for "their inconvenience in these matters".

At the request of the commission chair, justice Peter McClellan, documents showing how much money was spent by the diocese on lawyers were produced, showing bills of $27,000 and $11,000. One bill gave an estimated figure of $62,000 if the case went to court.

The commission heard Roland's firm had received a dossier of 450 documents detailing emotional, sexual and physical abuse of former residents at the home, but was instructed by the diocese that the church had never been vested with care, control and management of the home.

Roland maintained that, to this day, he still thought this was the position. He said the diocese had decided "not to accept legal liability but would accept moral liability".

At the behest of McClellan, the 1951 constitution of the NCCH was produced. It showed that trustees were charged with providing a home in connection with the Church of England.

The rector of St Andrew's church, which adjoined the home, was president and chair of the executive committee, two-thirds of the members were Church of England and the Grafton bishop could appoint four people.

Roland said: "My interpretation was that management and control was by an independent group."

McClellan responded: "It is hard to sustain that now?"

He questioned whether it would have been better to be more frank about legal responsibility and moral obligation. Roland said with hindsight, some of the correspondence to victims was not sensitively worded, but the "non-liability" position was their approach.

He said he had senior counsel advice at the time that legal liability would be hard to prove, so he wrote to the claimants saying "our client remains of the opinion your clients face insurmountable obstacles in the prosecution of these matters".

In an exchange with McClellan, Roland said the mention of a modest ex-gratia payment referred to costs around negotiation, not the eventual settlement. Victims who ended up accepting the "without prejudice" offer from the diocese got about $10,000 each.

The hearing continues.