Survivors and advocates have condemned the “cruel” and “dysfunctional” delays in a case to potentially defrock Peter Hollingworth, the former Australian governor general and former archbishop of Brisbane, for failures to act on child abuse allegations in the Anglican church.
A secretive hearing is due to begin on Monday to decide Hollingworth’s fate in the church, more than five years after complaints were first made through the Melbourne diocese’s complaints system, Kooyoora.
The protracted process, initiated by complaints in 2018, has now taken longer than the entire child abuse royal commission, which held 8,013 private sessions and made 2,575 referrals to authorities in the same time.
The royal commission found that in 1993, when Hollingworth was archbishop of Brisbane, a lay preacher, John Linton Elliot, admitted to him that he had abused two boys. Hollingworth talked to one of the survivors, BYB, who told him that “Elliot was a paedophile and Elliot had abused him over a number of years”, the royal commission found.
Hollingworth then sought the opinion of a psychiatrist, John Slaughter, who “formed an opinion that Elliot was a paedophile and that his personality type was untreatable”, according to the royal commission.
“We are satisfied that the information Dr Slaughter conveyed to Dr Hollingworth in around September 1993 was sufficient to alert him that Elliot posed an ongoing risk to children,” the royal commission found.
Despite this, Hollingworth permitted Elliot to continue in his role as rector of Dalby until he retired five years later.
The royal commission described it as a “serious error of judgment” and Hollingworth has apologised for his handling of the matter.
Hollingworth was the Anglican archbishop of Brisbane for 11 years from 1989 and served as governor general from 2001 to 2003. He resigned from the office after his handling of sexual abuse allegations prompted repeated criticism, including over his comments about a survivor, Beth Heinrich.
A royal commission analysis of abuse complaints in the 23 Anglican dioceses from 1980 to the end of 2015 showed the Brisbane diocese had by far the highest, recording 33% of all complaints, and a total of 371. Adelaide, the diocese with the next highest complaint numbers, received fewer than half that number.
After the end of the royal commission five years ago, complaints were lodged about Hollingworth through the Anglican complaints process, Kooyoora.
The complaints have progressed through a complicated, multi-step process, which included investigation by Vincent Lucas, Kooyoora’s then director of professional standards. The ABC reported that Lucas had told a survivor in 2018 that there was “more than enough justification to prove [Hollingworth’s] unfitness to hold Holy Orders”.
The matter has not finalised in the five years since and is now before a professional standards tribunal, which is conducted behind closed doors and is otherwise cloaked in secrecy.
Guardian Australia understands the tribunal was first meant to hear the matter in December 2021. The repeated delays to the hearing were first reported in the Australian.
The child protection expert and advocate Hetty Johnston said it was “beyond belief that this process has dragged on for this long”.
“It needs to end next week,” she told Guardian Australia.
“The churches need to remember the adage ‘justice delayed is justice denied’. The same applies to the tribunal just as it does to the courts. This tribunal should not operate in a way that demonstrates it believes it is above the law.
“The best interests of justice and that of survivors is being denied by the current tribunal processes. It is cruel, ignorant, unaccountable and pompous.”
One complainant, who requested anonymity, described the disciplinary process as “dysfunctional and not fit-for-purpose”.
“Six years of delays has been torture,” the complainant said. “They tell us absolutely nothing. They didn’t even reply to many complainants. They cancel proceedings at the last minute, leaving everyone in distress.”
“One complainant has missed out on surgery due to the church not communicating what is happening.”
The Melbourne diocese said the complaint process was “entirely independent” and that it had “no influence” on the investigation.
“The complaint process regarding Bishop Hollingworth is, properly, entirely independent of the Diocese of Melbourne,” a spokesperson said. “The diocese has had no influence on the investigation, and the archbishop cannot comment on the process.”
But the complainant rejected the assertion of independence.
“The process is not independent of the Diocese, it is the Diocese,” the complainant said. “The Diocese wrote the dysfunctional procedures, the Diocese funds the process, the Diocese can hire and fire the staff, and many of the people on the decision making board are members of the Diocese, they are clergy and other senior personnel.”
Kooyoora’s chief executive, Fiona Boyle, could not comment on the specific case, but said the organisation’s aim generally was to support a “just, quick and inexpensive resolution of complaints”.
“Complaints we handle are typically resolved in anything from six weeks to 12 months,” Boyle said. “In complex matters, this can take longer. We acknowledge delay can be upsetting and frustrating for those involved in the process.”
Boyle said support was also offered to complainants.
