Senior Churchman in Box at Second Inquiry

Sky News
June 16, 2014

http://www.skynews.com.au/news/national/2014/06/17/senior-churchman-in-box-at-second-inquiry.html


One of the Catholic Church's most senior officials will give evidence on Tuesday at a national inquiry into child sex abuse in Canberra.

Father Brian Lucas, the general secretary of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference who also testified at a NSW commission into child abuse by Catholic clergy, will be in the witness box at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The Canberra hearing is in its second week and is examining how the Marist Brothers Order handled allegations against two members subsequently jailed for multiple offences against children.

The commission has already heard that former brothers Gregory Sutton and John Chute were moved around multiple schools in NSW, Queensland and the ACT during their careers which spanned a period from 1950s to the 1990s.

Last week and on Monday it was revealed that suspicions about both men were raised with provincials of the order by people who worked with them in various schools.

Brother Alexis Turton former provincial of the Marist Brothers Order in Australia and the current Provincial of the order Brother Jeffrey Crowe will also give evidence on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Fr Lucas is appearing at the Canberra inquiry because he was consulted by the Marist Order about John Chute, a church spokesman told AAP.

At the time Fr Lucas was on the Bishops Conference special issues committee which was set up to deal with what has been described as a tsunami of child sex abuse allegations.

Fr Lucas, a qualified barrister, told the NSW inquiry into abuse in the Catholic diocese of Maitland- Newcastle he had not taken notes during interviews with pedophile priests because he did not want to leave a paper trail in case of legal action.

He also advised other clergy it was a good idea not to take notes.