AUSTRALIA
The Australian
JUNE 28, 2016
Michael Owen
SA Bureau Chief
Adelaide
Nick Xenophon says he is more concerned about the welfare of former priest John Hepworth than the innocent senior cleric the senator named in parliament as an alleged rapist.
The independent South Australian senator has never apologised to Monsignor Ian Dempsey for using parliamentary privilege in September 2011 to name him as one of three priests who allegedly abused retired Archbishop Hepworth, the former head of the Traditional Anglican Communion, in a Catholic seminary in the 1960s.
This is despite Monsignor Dempsey, who was suspended from his southern Adelaide parish of Brighton and Hallett Cove for 12 months, being cleared in three separate investigations by the church, police and the Director of Public Prosecutions.
An independent report by Adelaide silk Michael Abbott also cleared Monsignor Dempsey.
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