AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
November 26, 2015
Beau Donelly
Reporter
A former Melbourne archbishop failed to act on complaints about a predator priest who carried a gun to school and made students kneel between his legs during confession, the child sex abuse inquiry has heard.
Monsignor Thomas Doyle, former head of the Catholic Education Office, testified on Thursday that Archbishop Frank Little did nothing about complaints concerning Doveton Parish priest Peter Searson, despite receiving written warnings about his increasingly erratic behaviour.
“It was difficult, required I think, action by the archbishop, and the archbishop didn’t act,” Monsignor Doyle said. “In my opinion he [Searson] should have been removed from the parish.”
Monsignor Doyle said the issues at Doveton were “one of the worst of its kind” dealt with by his office, but, despite concerns being raised about the risk Searson posed to children, the archbishop and vicar-general chose to leave him at Doveton.
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