Roger Herft thanks abuse royal commission for holding him accountable, by Dan Box, Australian (August 30, 2016)

The Anglican Archbishop of Perth has thanked the child abuse royal commission for “holding me personally accountable” after giving evidence that he knew about a number of paedophile priests but did not report this to the police.

Archbishop Roger Herft told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse he had been given a “sacred trust” when appointed bishop of Newcastle in NSW during the 1990s and early 2000s.

“I have let them and down and let them down badly, and let down the (child abuse) survivors in ways that remorse itself is a very poor word to express,” the archbishop said this morning.

Giving evidence yesterday, Archbishop Herft accepted he had been repeatedly warned several Newcastle priests were allegedly abusing children, but had not reported this to police.

His understanding of the issue of child abuse committed by priests had been “naive” and had changed over time, the archbishop told the commission.

“I want to thank the commission for holding me personally accountable, for holding the church personally accountable,” he told the commission.

“I hope that the church in this diocese and the church across the Australian continent will be one that has not only woken up but become more and more transparent and accountable for the … most vulnerable,” he said.

Under questioning, Archbishop Herft said he had wrestled with the “conundrum” of whether to report child abuse allegations against priests to police, or whether this should be left to the alleged victims to do so.

A record of a 1998 meeting between Archbishop Herft and his legal adviser, Paul Rosser QC, said “Mr Rosser advised the Bishop that … he ought to decline to accept information or to read any reports” about sexual misconduct, the commission heard.

Were the bishop to receive such reports “he may have to weigh up the pastoral implications of leaving a priest in a position where he may do further harm as opposed to the pastoral considerations of the person making the allegations,” the record states.

Giving evidence this morning, Mr Rosser said “I don’t believe I said those things in that way.

“If those words came out of my mouth, it was facetiously … that was not serious advice I was giving him,” he said.