AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald
IAN KIRKWOOD
18 Nov 2016
THE defrocked former dean of Newcastle, Graeme Lawrence, has disputed almost all of the evidence given about him so far in a fortnight of sittings by the Royal Commission.
In a two-hour stint of evidence, he denied knowing anything about most of the child abuse cases in this hearing. He also denied an accusation that he “sexually interfered with” two male youths at a church camp in the mid-1990s. This had been raised with the bishop at the time, Roger Herft, in the closing minutes of the August block of hearings in Newcastle, when Reverend Herft denied “tipping off” Mr Lawrence about the allegation.
Mr Lawrence, who retired from the church with civic honours in 2008, only to be defrocked in disgrace in 2012, is regarded as the central figure in this inquiry and was the first person named in its terms of reference.
He was one of the clergy who allegedly abused a then-youth, code-named CKH, during the early 1980s, although he has not been charged with any criminal offence.
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