Church Sex Abuse Hotline Needed, Royal Commission Told

By Rachel Browne
Sydney Morning Herald
October 16, 2014

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/church-sex-abuse-hotline-needed-royal-commission-told-20141016-1173aj.html

The Pentecostal movement needs a child sexual abuse telephone hotline because it's too hard for church leaders to report crimes to the state executive body, a royal commission has heard.

Retired senior pastor Chris Peterson told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse that reporting abuse to the movement's umbrella body, Australian Christian Churches, was "too difficult a course".

He said the senior pastors of the 1000 Australian churches affiliated with the movement needed an easier way to report abuse.

"We [should] create some sort of hotline or facility where a senior pastor has an immediate connection on matters of such importance," he said.

Mr Peterson was the senior pastor at a Queensland church where a teenage boy had been sexually molested by a youth pastor.

The church had a child abuse policy, written by two volunteers with no child protection background, that implied abusers should try to avoid detection and said Satan was to blame for accusations, the commission heard.

Mr Peterson, the senior pastor at the church between 2006 and 2012, told the royal commission the policy was drawn up by a trainee teacher and a mother of four or five children.

"[They] had the competencies but perhaps not the professional background," he said.

The document made references to the Bible that suggested abusers should avoid being caught, and compared those who make allegations with the devil.

Counsel assisting the commission, Simeon Beckett, read extracts from the policy, which stated: "The Bible says to avoid the appearance of evil ... It shuts down opportunity for anybody to accuse you ... Satan is the accuser of the brethren."

Mr Peterson agreed that the reference to the "appearance of evil" suggested perpetrators to try to avoid detection.

"In other words, don't get caught," he said.

He said the intent of the policy document was genuine, but added: "It could have been written much better."

The commission heard the policy made no reference to reporting child abuse to police or child protection authorities, as is legally required.

Mr Peterson joined the church after a youth pastor, Jonathan Baldwin, had repeatedly molested a teenage boy between 2004 and 2006. Baldwin was convicted over the offences in 2009 and sentenced to eight years of jail but has since been released. The senior pastor at the time of the offences was Ian Lehmann, Baldwin's father-in-law.

The Australian Christian Churches state ministries director for Queensland and the Northern Territory, Gary Swenson told the commission that Lehmann should have been suspicious of Baldwin's involvement with the boy and had a conflict of interest because of his family connection.

"I formed the opinion … that pastor Lehmann had been negligent," he said.

The public hearing is examining the response of Australian Christian Churches and affiliated Pentecostal churches to allegations of child sexual abuse.

The hearing before Justice Jennifer Coate continues.