The Anglican Church set
up a national register in 2004 designed to provide a database for information
if a member of clergy had a complaint or finding of abuse established against
them.
The General Secretary of
the Anglican Church Martin Drevikovsky told the Commission that right now there
are hundreds of abuse investigations taking place nationwide.
"In the case of
Sydney it was 600. In the case of Melbourne I know it was hundreds," he said.
He said the number of
clergy to make it onto the register is expected to be far fewer when the review
is completed in the coming months.
What ABC News is not
saying is that in relation to abuse allegations the Anglican Church is understood to have a record of 122 clergy who are persons of concern and up to 209 more clergy who are under investigation in relation to emotional/physical/sexual abuse.
It would
appear that some of these alleged offenders/members of the Anglican clergy were
not reported to police until earlier this year – presumably only after the church
realised that it could not avoid giving an accounting of it actions to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
UPDATE
UPDATE
The
Daily Examiner
27 November 2013:
Martin Drevikovsky,
General Secretary, General Synod of the Anglican Church of Australia told the
commission this morning that the register was incomplete.
He said that when the
royal commission was announced, every diocese was given directions to
"search for (complaint) files and review them to ensure all necessary
steps had been taken and if not, to take immediate action".
As a result, Mr
Drevikovksy said, "a large number of files have come to light".
He said an estimated 209
files were listed for review and expected that between 40 and 45 and
"possibly more" names would be added to the persons of concern
register.
Earlier,
Grafton/Newcastle Diocese Professional Standards Director Michael Elliott said
at least four names of concern from northern NSW region had not been added to
the register including that of Allan Kitchingman, a former Lismore priest who
was jailed in 2003 over the sexual assault of a teenage boy.
Mr Elliott also
confirmed that along with the North Coast Children's Home files, there were
between 10 and 15 files involving allegations against members of the Grafton
Diocese which had yet to be reviewed.
The hearing continues
The hearing continues
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