{"id":950,"date":"2016-07-21T22:20:33","date_gmt":"2016-07-21T22:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianity666.com\/?p=950"},"modified":"2026-04-30T02:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T02:28:10","slug":"australian-archbishop-failed-to-report-paedophile-rings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianity666.com\/?p=950","title":{"rendered":"Australian Archbishop failed to report paedophile rings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian Archbishop failed to report paedophile rings<\/a><\/p>\n

Warning: This story contains graphic details of sexual abuse.<\/b><\/p>\n

One of the Australia’s most senior Anglicans, the Archbishop of Perth, Roger Herft, received complaints about a priest involved in a paedophile ring but allegedly failed to formally report him to police, according to an Anglican Church insider.
\n\"eight_col_rogerherft\"<\/p>\n

Perth Archbishop Roger Herft<\/span><\/em><\/h6>\n

A confidential note showed Archbishop Herft had received a complaint about Father Peter Rushton’s abuse when they both worked in the Hunter region of New South Wales in 2002, Australia’s public broadcaster ABC, which had a copy of the note, reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Archbishop Herft wrote that the complaint “left me in an unenviable position” because “Father Peter had my licence [to be a priest] and if he reoffended I would be held liable as I now had prior knowledge of his alleged behaviour”.<\/p>\n

Newcastle diocese director of professional standards Michael Elliott said there was no record of Archbishop Herft contacting police about allegations regarding Rushton.<\/p>\n

Archbishop Herft said it was inappropriate for him to respond to media because of the Royal Commission hearings in Newcastle into church child sexual abuse.<\/p>\n

In 2010 the Anglican Church revealed Rushton was a notorious paedophile.<\/p>\n

Victims have come forward to say they were raped and sexually assaulted by him and other abusers.<\/p>\n

\"Paul<\/p>\n

Paul Gray speaks to ABC’s 7.30 programme. <\/span> Photo: Screenshot \/ ABC<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

One victim, Paul Gray, said his godfather Rushton was the “kingpin” in two paedophile rings.<\/p>\n

Mr Gray, now in his 60s, was taken to St Albans Boys Home in the Hunter Valley.<\/p>\n

“The worst part with all the abuse that Father Peter did with me, he took me to the boys home in Aberdare away from where I lived and he left me with three men,” Mr Gray said.<\/p>\n

“And I remember calling out to him to not leave me there and he did, and I was taken there many times.<\/p>\n

“The man who ran it I used to call the gatekeeper.<\/p>\n

“He used to lock you in the room and other people would come in and out of that room but sometimes he would come in that room as well.”<\/p>\n

Rushton and his lover Brother Jim Brown infiltrated St Albans Boys Home in the Hunter Valley, becoming board members and taking boys home for weekends.<\/p>\n

They also fostered orphans, including Phil D’Ammond, who saw many other boys at Jim Brown’s home.<\/p>\n

“There was never someone not there and they were always young guys. Like, between 12 and 14, 15,” Mr D’Ammond said.<\/p>\n

“We were all drunk and we were all smoking hash and dropping acid and yeah, it was sick.”<\/p>\n

\"Phil<\/p>\n

Phil D’Ammond speaks to 7.30. <\/span> Photo: Screenshot \/ ABC<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Another survivor, Mick Brown, was part of the Church of England Boys Society camps in the 1970s.<\/p>\n

He said he was brutally raped by numerous youth workers there who took them “spotlighting” at night, looking for animals.<\/p>\n

“Instead of looking at the trees we were more or less made to do sexual acts,” Mr Brown said.<\/p>\n

“One of the worst things that happened at Yondaiya, I had my backside split open.<\/p>\n

“It was one of those youth workers – my clothes were taken from me, they were burnt.”<\/p>\n

At the heart of the camps were Anglican priest Rushton and Brother Jim Brown.<\/p>\n

Paul Gray was also a member of the Church of England Boys Society and was taken camping by Rushton, where he was stalked by other paedophiles through the bush in a terrifying game of hide and seek.<\/p>\n

“[Rushton] took me to Yondaiyo. There was another boy there, I could hear the other boy and they just let you go and run to try to get away,” Mr Gray said.<\/p>\n

“When you’re a little kid and you’ve got a choice of either jumping over a cliff or people abusing you – that haunts your mind for the rest of your life because you feel you should have jumped.”<\/p>\n

Rushton trained at Morpeth College along with other paedophiles.<\/p>\n

“When abusers are identified and criminally convicted they can be tracked back to having trained at Morpeth at Saint John’s Theological College,” Michael Elliott said.<\/p>\n

“So there was obviously some failing there and around recruitment and screening.”<\/p>\n

In 2009 the church’s own research revealed the college could be the origin of “some kind of network” for paedophiles.<\/p>\n

The figures showed one quarter of convicted paedophile priests graduated from Morpeth, ABC reported.<\/p>\n

The research was for a national report on sex abuse in the church but the “Morpeth issue” never made it into the final document.<\/p>\n

Alfred Holland was the Bishop of Newcastle during most of Rushton’s time.<\/p>\n

In the 1980s, five people told the bishop that Rushton had abused the five-year-old son of another priest.<\/p>\n

ABC said he has been told that Bishop Holland refused to believe them without photographic evidence.<\/p>\n

“People who complained were dismissed and sent away and not believed,” Mr Elliott said.<\/p>\n

Church volunteer Susan Aslin was another who complained to Bishop Holland about Rushton and Brother Brown and their involvement in St Albans Boys Home.<\/p>\n

“I found that there was a young boy of 16 [who] was about to leave St Albans Boys Home. He was going to move in with Jim Brown,” she said.<\/p>\n

Ms Aslin got a message to Bishop Holland who rang her at home.<\/p>\n

“He appeared to be appalled that this was happening and he also said he would look into it and take steps,” Ms Aslin said.<\/p>\n

It was three decades before Jim Brown was brought to justice – he was jailed in 2012 for abuse against 20 boys, including Mr D’Ammond.<\/p>\n

Ms Aslin said police told her that when they interviewed Bishop Holland about Brother Brown, he denied ever speaking to Ms Aslin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australian Archbishop failed to report paedophile rings Warning: This story contains graphic details of sexual abuse. 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