AUSTRALIA
The Guardian
Australian Associated Press
Tuesday 26 January 2016
The former Australian governor general Peter Hollingworth is expected to apologise to a victim of child sexual abuse during a royal commission hearing in Hobart.
Outlining the evidence that will be presented during eight days of evidence, counsel assisting the commission Naomi Sharp said on Wednesday that Hollingworth had been alerted to the alleged abuse of a boy in Brisbane in 1993 when he was head of the Brisbane Anglican diocese.
“Archbishop Hollingworth will also give evidence and it is anticipated he will apologise to [the victim] and his family and say that the approach he took … was a ‘serious error of judgment’,” Sharp said.
Hollingworth is one of 28 witnesses expected to face the hearing, among a list of survivors and perpetrators from allegations dating back to the 1960s across Tasmania and in Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane.
The evidence linked to Hollingworth relates to John Elliot, who was a lay member of the Church of England Boys’ Society from the late 1950s. The first report of his misconduct against a boy was made to the Brisbane diocese in mid-1993 and was immediately escalated to Hollingworth, the commission was told.
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