AUSTRALIA
The Australian
DAN BOX
Crime reporterSydney
@DanBox10
Roger Herft, now Anglican Archbishop of Perth, regularly met church officials to discuss “brown envelopes” containing details of priests’ child abuse allegations, yet the group often decided to do nothing, a royal commission has heard.
At the time Archbishop Herft was bishop of Newcastle, in NSW, one of those in the meetings was the dean of the city’s cathedral, Graeme Lawrence — later defrocked for having group sex with a teenage boy — the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard.
A former trustee of the diocese, Keith Allen, told the commission yesterday he also took part in twice-yearly meetings, before Archbishop Herft moved to Perth in 2005.
About 27 “brown envelopes” detailed claims of child abuse, Mr Allen told the commission: “My memory is either (former diocese registrar) Mr Mitchell brought them in or maybe Bishop Herft brought them in.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.