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Priest accused of abuse of altar boy John Ellis ‘not questioned by church’
By Dan Box
CATHOLIC Church officials decided it was not possible to establish whether an allegation of child abuse by a priest was true or false because they were unable to ask the priest himself if the alleged abuse took place. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard that Cardinal George Pell was repeatedly briefed on the process of dealing with the claim, brought by former altar boy John Ellis. Mr Ellis contacted the church in May 2002 to say he had been sexually abused by a Sydney priest over several years during the 1970s. By the time of the complaint, the priest in question, Aidan Duggan, had dementia and was never questioned over the allegations. In December 2002 the church’s Director of Professional Standards, John Davoren, wrote to the then-Archbishop of Sydney, saying, “It is now clear the facts of this case can never be satisfactorily clarified.” Mr Davoren subsequently drafted a letter for Cardinal Pell to send to Mr Ellis, saying “this is not to say you are disbelieved but that it has become a matter of one person’s word against another. “I very much regret any hurt you have experienced but under these circumstances I do not see that there is anything the Archdiocese can do to help you bring this matter to some resolution,” the letter said. Cardinal Pell subsequently sent this letter to Mr Ellis, without the words expressing his regret at the hurt he had received, and it arrived on Christmas Eve 2002. A subsequent report commissioned by the church found “the allegations of improper sexual conduct ... more likely than not occurred,” the commission heard. Mr Ellis ultimately took legal action against the church and the Archdiocese of Sydney has since paid him hundreds of thousands of dollars towards medical and other costs
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