AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald
JOANNE MCCARTHY
27 Apr, 2012
Former Newcastle Anglican Dean Graeme Lawrence and Cardiff priest Graeme Sturt suffered distress after “unseemly” sexual allegations against them at a professional standards hearing, but lost a NSW Supreme Court case to have findings against them quashed.
Justice John Sackar today found a professional standards board, headed by a retired NSW magistrate, had not acted with bias when it stripped the priests of their holy orders in December 2010 after public hearings of lurid sexual allegations against them.
The judge found the public airing of group sex allegations involving priests were, “if true or untrue”, distressing for Fathers Lawrence and Sturt and had “no doubt been distressing and potentially damaging to others”.
“There also is no doubt that these events have arguably impacted upon the reputation of the Anglican Church of Australia.”
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