AUSTRALIA/UNITED KINGDOM
The Australian
SARAH ELKS From: The Australian June 03, 2013
NEW and “extremely concerning” allegations of child sexual abuse against serial pedophile priest Robert Waddington, who molested children in Australia for a decade, have been urgently referred to the Church of England’s Archbishop of York.
North Queensland Bishop Bill Ray said he phoned Archbishop John Sentamu at the weekend after the fresh claims — that the now-deceased senior clergyman began abusing children as early as 1953 — were revealed in The Weekend Australian.
“I think he should know that, and that it should be a part of his inquiry,” Bishop Ray said.
Last month, Dr Sentamu launched an independent inquiry into the allegations against Waddington and the church’s response to the abuse complaints.
The probe, which will be led by a retired judge, was sparked by a joint investigation by The Australian and The Times.
It revealed English church officials, including a former archbishop of York, and senior Australian Anglicans failed to report to police allegations of abuse made in Queensland in 1999 and England in 2003 by former students of Waddington.
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