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Rebekah Ison – AAP on September 15, 2016
A Sydney Catholic bishop destroyed a letter regarding civil action against a pedophile priest years after police raided his office and left him “traumatised”, a royal commission has heard.
Former Parramatta Bishop Bede Heather testified he developed a stress disorder and became very concerned about confidentiality after police investigating child sex allegations left his office in “disarray” in 1994.
On Thursday he admitted to ripping up a 1996 letter to lawyers about civil action taken against a pedophile priest and the diocese and later conceded he must have destroyed 1994 advice to church insurers.
“Shortly afterwards (the raid) I took the precaution of destroying all papers of mine which could have been to the disadvantage of persons with whom I deal,” said Dr Heather’s letter to lawyers, which was read by Chair Peter McClellan at the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse on Thursday.
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