Ex-bishop "Deeply Regrets" Response to Abuse Allegations at Neerkol Orphanage

By Miranda Forster
Brisbane Times
April 17, 2015

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/exbishop-deeply-regrets-response-to-abuse-allegations-at-neerkol-orphanage-20150417-1mnar3.html

A retired Catholic bishop says he deeply regrets dismissing allegations of child sexual abuse against members of his clergy and admits he put the reputation of the church first.

Former head of the central Queensland diocese of Rockhampton Brian Heenan has told a royal commission his response to multiple allegations of child sexual abuse against priests at the Neerkol orphanage was inappropriate and wrong.

Historical allegations of widespread physical and sexual abuse by priests and nuns at the orphanage began emerging in 1993.

Former Rockhampton Bishop Brian Heenan. Photo: Rockhampton Morning Bulletin

Bishop Heenan allowed a priest at the centre of the allegations to continue working with children until 1996 and in a widely distributed letter described the allegations as "scurrilous".

"Can I just say I will regret having written this letter for the rest of my days," Bishop Heenan told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Friday.

"I was reacting wrongly and in a sort of inappropriate way to a lot of very bad publicity about the orphanage which I didn't believe was all true."

Asked by counsel assisting the commission Sophie David, SC, whether he had been more concerned with protecting the reputation of the Catholic Church than the impact on abuse victims, Mr Heenan replied: "Yes, I would have to agree."

Former Neerkol priest Reginald Durham was allowed to continue an administrative position in the church until he was formally charged in 1997.

Now dead, he was convicted in 1999 of indecently dealing with a girl when he was the Neerkol chaplain. Durham was ultimately declared mentally unfit to face multiple further charges.

Bishop Heenan accepted that by allowing Durham to continue working he had placed other children at risk.

"I probably made the very wrong assumption [that] because of his age this wouldn't be happening again but that wasn't appropriate," he conceded.

The hearing into historical allegations of child abuse at the Neerkol St Joseph's Orphanage near Rockhampton, which was operated by the Sisters of Mercy until 1978, is expected to conclude next week.