AUSTRALIA
Guardian
Australian Associated Press
Sunday 7 August 2016
A solicitor has denied he advised a former bishop of a New South Wales Anglican diocese to say he could not recall any knowledge of paedophile priests when giving evidence to the child sex abuse royal commission.
Keith Allen, who had been a member of several boards in the Anglican diocese of Newcastle for 40 years, returned to the witness stand for a second day at a commission hearing into how the diocese handled abuse allegations over 30 years.
Allen answered “no” five times when asked if a file note by John Cleary, the business manager of the diocese, was an accurate record of him saying he would advise bishop Alfred Holland to say he could not recall any knowledge of paedophile priests when he appeared before the commission.
In another extraordinary day at the commission sitting in Newcastle, Allen was questioned about acting for the church while also advising a victim’s solicitor.
He was also asked about arranging a fraudulent record for a sexual predator so he could get work elsewhere.
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.