| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
  Can Anything Save the Governor-General? TRANSCRIPT QUESTION TO HOLLINGWORTH: "Any comment on the Sunday program allegations this morning, Sir?" HOLLINGWORTH: "The only Sunday I'm aware of is divine worship, thank you." REPORTER: And so began a week of evasion and denials by Dr Hollingworth, a week in which the Governor General cast himself as the victim and defiantly refused to step down. HOLLINGWORTH: Why am I being punished? Why have people turned into my enemies? What have I done to deserve this. The cry on the Cross - my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? REPORTER: It was to be the beginning of a disastrous attempt by Peter Hollingworth to explain away his treatment of sexual abuse within the Anglican Church, to justify his decade of inaction as Archbishop of Brisbane. HOLLINGWORTH: I think I'd say that I wasn't up to it... ah for several reasons. One reason was that this was... I was a new Archbishop and this kind of thing was quite new to me. REPORTER: Dr Hollingworth had refused to be interviewed by Sunday about our serious allegations. But after our story went to air, Dr Hollingworth told the Australian Story program that he was innocent of all allegations. HOLLINGWORTH: I watched this program initially with a sense of horror that they could be saying these things about me until I started to analyse the way the whole thing had been pieced together. I would suggest that anybody should do a content analysis of how that whole program was put together. It was, to me, a disgrace. REPORTER: But, as you'll see this morning, many of Dr Hollingworth's answers were simply untrue. Time and again, the Governor General sought to evade and mislead. HOLLINGWORTH: I would object to anybody who tries to draw a connection between homosexuality and paedophilia. I believe that's what some people are trying to do. REPORTER: Can you explain to us why you've decided now to show us this letter. DAVID AXTEN: We felt compelled to in fact explain with accuracy, with the only evidence that's available that the evidence was given to the Archbishop, it was given clearly and professionally and had nothing to do with the issues he alluded to on Australian Story. REPORTER: More of that new evidence later. Our program last week began at the Toowoomba Prep School, where a schoolmaster named Kevin Guy methodically raped and sexually abused girls as young as 10 for years. That story has taken more than a decade to emerge, and only now because one 11-year-old victim who was sexually abused 20 times sued the Anglican Church. Now 24, the woman was forced to relive those terrible events during a four-week trial because Peter Hollingworth and the Anglican Church refused to accept her story. But she won her case and was awarded a record Australian damages of $800,000. This morning, for the first time, that young woman has asked Sunday for the opportunity to directly address the Governor General. She does so through two poems she wrote to him late this week after seeing Dr Hollingworth's comments on sexual abuse. VICTIM'S POEM: "I am the ghost that you have never known, I have an army behind me that will not fail, We are the ghosts of your past, We will haunt in this life and the next, We are the ones who have to bear this burden, We are strong, as those who are strong will behold, You are the one who is weak, not us". REPORTER: It's not hard to understand this young woman's sense of betrayal as she watched the week's events unfold. On Australian Story, Dr. Hollingworth had this to say about a priest who had a sexual liaison with a 14 year old girl: HOLLINGWORTHON AUSTRALIAN STORY: My belief is that this was not sex abuse, there was no suggestion of rape or anything like that, quite the contrary. My information is that it was rather the other way around. And I don't want to say any more than that. REPORTER: It was this comment, more than any other, that unleashed the nation's fury: RADIO - JOHN LAWS: "For a man of Peter Hollingworth's alleged standing in the community to try and place the blame on a girl of fourteen years is just.. well it's hardly the act of a gentleman let me tell you." CALLER: The Governor General scandal is so despicable because our young people are so precious to us. CALLER: Hollingworth.. he should be accountable for what he didn't do.. They were only little children. REPORTER: Prime Minister Howard waited for Dr Hollingworth to respond to the allegations made against him: JOHN HOWARD: As of now of course he enjoys my confidence. REPORTER: But he didn't enjoy the confidence of Queensland Premier Peter Beattie: BEATTIE: I find it impossible to accept, absolutely impossible to accept that a fourteen year old girl could in any way be predatory in a sexual relationship. REPORTER: The Prime Minister himself came very close to entering the same dangerous waters that Peter Hollingworth had entered: LAURIE OAKES: Is it an excuse that on the part of the adult male because the child led him on? JOHN HOWARD: Laurie I haven't checked the state of the criminal law now, but I do remember when I was at law school that it was a defense to a carnal knowledge charge that if the person in question, although being under the age of 16, was between the ages of 14 and 16 and there was a reasonable belief on the part of the accused that the person was in fact above the age of consent. Now beyond that I'm not going to, I can't offer an opinion on that because I don't know all the facts and the circumstances, but what I will offer an opinion on, I find anything to do with the interference with children abominable. REPORTER: Last week the newly appointed Archbishop of Brisbane, Phillip Aspinall, promised Sunday he would be willing to investigate any claim - even one involving his predecessor. REPORTER: So are you saying that Archbishop Hollingworth is not off limits in terms of your investigation? ARCHBISHOP ASPINALL: Archbishop Hollingworth is no longer a priest resident in the diocese of Brisbane, but in so far as he was Archbishop here, if people have concerns about that, then yes, I would look into them. REPORTER: By mid-week, however, Archbishop Aspinall had been forced into announcing a full, independent inquiry ARCHBISHOP ASPINALL: I expect the allegations made in relation to the Governor General would certainly be subject matter for the inquiry to consider. REPORTER: On Wednesday night the Governor-General finally released a ten page written response to the litany of allegations against him. The next morning, the Prime Minister visited him at Yarralumla, prompting speculation he was about to sack the Governor General. But Howard was standing by his man. JOHN HOWARD: We had a pretty candid discussion. REPORTER: When Hollingworth emerged it was to apologise - and claim he hadn't really meant to say what he did: HOLLINGWORTH: On the Australian Story on Monday night I answered a question, I think I didn't hear the question properly or something like that.. It gave the impression that I was, A. condoning child abuse, sex child abuse and secondly that I was really talking about a girl.. I thought I was talking about an adult relationship and I want to make an unreserved apology to the woman concerned and to the whole Australian public. That was not what I meant and I realise that that particular little segment has been picked up and used on the media yesterday. REPORTER: But when the ABC released the unedited tape of the interview it contradicted Dr Hollingworth's claim he was referring to an adult relationship. HOLLINGWORTH: This is something that happened over 40 years ago. A young priest and a young woman in a church run hostel in the country. My belief is that this was not sex abuse. There was no suggestion of rape or anything like that, quite the contrary. REPORTER: No confusion there. The woman in the hostel was clearly still at school and under age. Small wonder that the Toowoomba Prep school victim of Kevin Guy was driven to write this response to Dr Hollingworth: VICTIM'S POEM: I lay here this early morn It's the memories that keep me this late as I have not slept While you sleep silently in ignorance Thinking (hoping) that we will go away We are the army of unknown ghosts REPORTER: But it was not only the victims of sexual abuse who were shaken by Dr Hollingworth's explanation. SIMON CREAN: I believe that the continuing controversy will diminish the office of the Governor-General. REPORTER: Simon Crean announced the Governor-General had lost the support of the Opposition. CREAN: I now believe it is in the best interests of the nation and the office of the GG that the PM advise the Queen to terminate Dr Hollingworth's appointment. REPORTER: It was an unprecedented step ... the abandonment of a 100-year tradition under which both sides of politics back the vice-regal office holder. Simon Crean's call was backed by almost every State and Territory leader. BEATTIE: Australia is currently facing a constitutional crisis. REPORTER: The Prime Minister remained unmoved. JOHN HOWARD: It is, in the Australian experience, a constitutional earthquake for the Prime Minister to effectively sack the Governor General of this country without any evidence of that man having failed in his duty as Governor General, committed any crime, been guilty of any moral turpitude, or been guilty of any proven misbehavior or impropriety. And I think I would be failing in my duty, I would be succumbing to the clamour of the mob. But I don't find in the material any evidence that Dr Hollingworth has been soft on child abuse. REPORTER: In the midst of this gathering constitutional storm, the Governor-General flew out for a tour of New Zealand. NZ NEWS: We begin with the sex abuse cover-up scandal that's come across the Tasman. REPORTER: Such a visit would normally be about inspecting honour guards and visiting wineries: BARRY SOPER: The prospect of Australia not having a GG when the Queen arrived was interesting to say the least. REPORTER: By week's end, as more victims of the Anglican church came forward, a pattern was emerging in Dr. Hollingworth's responses to sexual abuse allegations - claims that he is as likely to sympathise with those accused as to believe victims. SYLVIA: I was 17 years old, I was a virgin, I was sexually assaulted by someone who was 22 years older than I was, who was in a position of power. REPORTER: Sylvia Blayse claims the older man, who held a prominent position in Brisbane's St. John's Cathedral forced her repeatedly into sex: SYLVIA: I had no choice in the matter. It led me to suffer a great many years of illness, and it wasn't until the middle of the 1990's that through counselling that I was able to come to terms with what had happened. REPORTER: When Sylvia then went to Archbishop Hollingworth in search of support and mediation, she was shocked at his reaction: SYLVIA: Well, at one stage I said that I had a lot of trouble with the attitude that I'd heard expressed, that men could not help themselves sexually in certain situations, particularly when a young woman was very attractive. But he said, well, don't you think there's something in that? We're only human after all. A bit later on he said, were you blonde? And I said, I beg your pardon? And he said, were you blonde at the time? REPORTER: And one more question mark over Hollingworth's commitment to prevent child sexual abuse has been brought to Sunday's attention by veteran investigator, Bob Bottom, who was hired by the then Queensland Children's Commission as a special adviser to their inquiry into paedophilia: BOB BOTTOM: We sought consultation at every level of the community, and especially people in the teaching profession, people running child welfare agencies, departments, and that. But more particularly, of the churches of Qld. And indeed approaches were made to all churches, and as I recall very vividly, every church leader that came forward, had meetings with the commission. We used to have priests and nuns and clergy of all descriptions come into the office and have a chat, and helped in many ways. The only person on recall, who did not respond, never met with the commission, was one person, Peter Hollingworth. REPORTER: Dr. Hollingworth has again rejected a request for an interview with the Sunday program. That's a pity because his answers so far have only served to raise even more questions. REPORTER: Last week Sunday revealed that, while Archbishop of Brisbane, Peter Hollingworth kept the secret from his own sexual abuse committee. The priest he handpicked to represent him on his sexual abuse committee had only six months earlier been accused of gross and on-going sex abuse of Stephen Lacon, then a teenage boy: STEPHEN LACON: I'd like to ask Arch... Doctor Hollingworth one question, what if it was one of your children, or one of your grandchildren? That's what I'd like to ask him. What would he say to that? REPORTER: The priest, Canon Ross McAuley, was forced to stand down from the committee while a second series of allegations of sexual abuse against him were investigated. Even though McAuley admitted to the allegations, and even though the committee advised Archbishop Hollingworth to remove McAuley from any contact with the young and the vulnerable in the church, Dr Hollingworth ignored that advice. The priest stayed on in his role at St. Johns' Cathedral overseeing the choir for a further 18 months. Today, Sunday can reveal that Archbishop Hollingworth's active protection of this priest went even further. Sunday has been given a copy of the church's confidential into McAuley. It warned Archbishop Hollingworth that the priest's predatory sexual behaviour could be "more widespread and more compulsive" than previously thought. It went on to say that members of the cathedrals own congregation could be "substantially at risk" unless action was taken. Archbishop Hollingworth left McAuley in his position. The document also shows Archbishop Hollingworth grossly misrepresented the work of the committee that he established. Members of that committee decided this week to take the unprecedented step of revealing the contents of the letter after watching Dr Hollingworth defend his handling of the McAuley case: PETER HOLLINGWORTH: I received what I found was a very difficult and a pretty uncompromising letter, virtually saying that he was guilty and, well, if he wasn't guilty, he needed a great deal of help. REPORTER: In fact, there was no doubt about McAuley's guilt at all: AXTEN: I'd like to think it was a clear professional letter. But yes, it did say he was guilty because he'd admitted the guilt. PETER HOLLINGWORTH: I think there are priests, and he would be one of them, whose choice is to be single and to live a single lifestyle and not to marry, and whose orientation is probably more homosexual than heterosexual. And provided a person's behaviour and conduct is exemplary, their sexual orientation is absolutely irrelevant. And I would object to anybody who tries to draw a connection between homosexuality and paedophilia. And I believe that's what some people are trying to do. REPORTER: David, why have you decided now to show us this letter? AXTEN: We've decided to show it to you and it will be given to the Church's inquiry to almost be a testimony to the fact that it was a professional document that a committee did respond and give advice that certainly wasn't based on any notion of homophobia but was a clear set of advice um that was offered. We felt compelled to in fact, explain with accuracy ah with the only evidence that's available, that the evidence was given to the Archbishop, it was given clearly and professionally and had nothing to do with the issues he alluded to on Australian Story. HOLLINGWORTH: We don't cover things up. There are some things that are profoundly confidential that are part of the secret of the confessional. There are other things which you would never divulge that another human being told you as a priest in confidence. Now, I'm sorry. If that's a cover-up, so be it. REPORTER: But, as Dr. Hollingworth well knows, these allegations of abuse were not made in the confessional, but under the church's own guidelines for investigating sexual abuse: DAVID AXTEN: I find that really alarming ah I'm a great believer in the secrecy of the confessional in the confidentiality of counselling. Um, and to mix that up with a formal complaint investigated and denied and in some way making that link with confession seems to me to be running the risk of this whole notion of silence which underpins abuse. And, we're here today talking because the country's finally learning to break that silence. REPORTER: On October the 1st, 1997, Hollingworth received this letter: it was a blunt warning. It said McAuley had "no understanding of the special boundaries that need to apply in a pastoral role." It went on: "Indicators are that his inappropriate behaviour is more widespread and more compulsive than this single complaint indicates." The letter to Hollingworth goes on to say: "We believe that good intentions will in no way guarantee safety and that at present he (McAuley) and others are substantially at risk. "That during a prescribed period (initially 12 months) he (McAuley) shall not engage in one-to-one ministry or socialisation with male congregants." Even after all of this, Peter Hollingworth still looked after Ross McAuley. The general manager of the Diocese, Bernard Yorke, confirmed to us that Hollingworth even offered McAuley the position of a parish priest. And finally, there is the terrible tragedy of the Toowoomba Prep School, where the paedophile schoolmaster Kevin Guy committed suicide after abusing dozens of girls. Last week Sunday revealed that the local child abuse unit advised soon after Guy's death that all parents at the school be informed that their children may have been victims. For 11 years, Archbishop Hollingworth resisted that advice. HOLLINGWORTH: I've had a letter that came to me before Christmas, in 2001, by Dr Prebble, who's a highly respected consultant paediatrician in Toowoomba. He said to me there was nothing to investigate because no cases of abuse came forward. We now know that there were, but at the time none came forward and there was nothing we could investigate. REPORTER: Peter Hollingworth says no-one came forward, hardly surprising given that most parents were kept deliberately in the dark. We now have a record of a school council meeting which shows that a child abuse unit urged that all parents be notified that a paedophile had been in action. Even Dr Hollingworth's own legal adviser, Max Lockhart agreed with that course of action. Peter Hollingworth failed to act. HOLLINGWORTH: I would simply ask for the one thing that Australians believe in, and that's a fair go. Now does the, is the governor-general of Australia the only person who doesn't get a fair go? REPORTER: We leave the final word in this tragic story to the woman who first exposed the horrors of Toowoomba Prep school. She now wants Dr. Hollingworth to hear the victims' voices: VICTIM'S POEM: We are God's children, You are God's servant, You turned us away, So we have lost God's way, Why did you not help us, Why did God's servant not help us, Has God turned us away? ENDS. Click here for a printer-friendly version. |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
