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ABC News
ABC News
National
state political reporter Richard Willingham and Ben Knight

Push to have disgraced former governor-general Peter Hollingworth defrocked to be heard by Anglican Church panel

Beth Heinrich has been waiting for justice for decades. Justice for the sexual abuse that began at the hands of an Anglican priest in the 1950s, when she was just 14.

And justice for the trauma and humiliation inflicted on her by former governor-general Peter Hollingworth, who blamed her, on national television, for the abuse she suffered.

As a teen, Ms Heinrich was abused by priest Donald Shearman, who later became a bishop.

He groomed her over years, and Ms Heinrich says the trauma of her abuse was compounded by Dr Hollingworth telling Australian Story in 2002 that it was "not sex abuse" by Shearman, but "rather the other way round".

"He's not a fit person, he is not a fit character to have Holy Orders,'' Ms Heinrich says of Dr Hollingworth.

Five years ago, an Anglican church investigator said there was enough evidence on the public record to defrock the disgraced former Archbishop for his failure to act on evidence of sexual abuse in the church.

Yet, Dr Hollingworth remains a bishop and the 87-year-old draws a vice-regal pension worth hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

Victim-survivors of Anglican abuse hope that will change after this week — when the church's special independent investigator, Kooyoora, finally hears the case against Dr Hollingworth.

In 2018, the ABC revealed that Dr Hollingworth was the subject of multiple complaints from survivors of abuse at the hands of Anglican clergy and teaching staff in the Brisbane diocese, where Dr Hollingworth served as archbishop in the 1990s.

Those complaints were investigated by Kooyoora but are still yet to be finalised, with the long-overdue hearing slated to begin on Monday.

But survivors are sceptical after other scheduled hearings were cancelled at the last minute.

"I'm not joking, this is probably the longest-running case of child abuse in the world,'' says Chris Goddard, an abuse expert and veteran advocate for survivors.

Victim blaming, the obfuscation of the church and constant delays reinforce the trauma for survivors, experts say.

"As far as I'm concerned, she's still being abused,'' Dr Goddard says about Ms Heinrich.

The ABC contacted Dr Hollingworth's office and legal counsel with detailed questions, but did not receive a response. 

Royal commission found Dr Hollingworth made 'serious error of judgement'

Dr Hollingworth was forced to resign as governor-general in 2003 after a series of revelations over his handling of sexual abuse allegations against priests and teaching staff while he was the archbishop of Brisbane. 

A 2002 inquiry by the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane found Dr Hollingworth allowed paedophile priest John Elliot to continue working until retirement, despite Elliot admitting to Dr Hollingworth he had sexually abused two boys.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found Dr Hollingworth made a "serious error of judgement", and failed to take into account a psychiatrist's advice that Elliot was an "untreatable" paedophile who posed a risk of reoffending.

In the months following the report, Melbourne Archbishop Philip Freier renewed Dr Hollingworth's permission to officiate — a decision which infuriated survivors.

Five years ago, the ABC revealed that a former Kooyoora director of professional standards told a sexual abuse survivor there was "…more than enough justification to prove [Dr Hollingworth's] unfitness to hold Holy Orders".

This fuelled the anger of survivors who have been waiting years for justice.

Despite survivors and their legal teams preparing for the upcoming hearings, the executive director of Kooyoora, Fiona Boyle, would not confirm if any hearing was taking place this week, nor if it involved Dr Hollingworth.

She says it is "terrible" if any matter takes five years to be dealt with, but has declined to comment on why this case has been delayed for so long.

Archbishop Philip Freier is on leave, but an Anglican spokesman says: "Dr Hollingworth has a limited permission to officiate in the diocese. If a finding is made against him, that will be revisited accordingly."

"The complaint process regarding Bishop Hollingworth is, properly, entirely independent of the Diocese of Melbourne. The diocese has had no influence on the investigation, and the Archbishop cannot comment on the process."

Survivor says she was 're-traumatised' by response

Ms Heinrich believes the delays to the Kooyoora investigation have been deliberate.

"[They're] hoping that myself and anyone else who has complained will lose interest. Or get so distressed and worn out that they're not willing to do anything anymore," she says.

She also wonders whether the investigation has been delayed due to Dr Hollingworth's advancing age. He will turn 88 this year.

Ms Heinrich detailed her experiences to the royal commission into institutional abuse in 2014 and made a complaint to the Melbourne Archdiocese that Dr Hollingworth was not fit to have Holy Orders.

"He has re-traumatised every person who went to him in Brisbane, everyone who had a problem who went to him for help and support was really traumatised by his attitude,'' she says.

"Because he not only didn't believe it, he rewarded the people who had been abusing, he rewarded the perpetrators."

She says the prospect that the case will finally be heard is a "big sigh of relief" after years of repeated delays.

Other victims, who have to remain anonymous for legal reasons, are furious that the process has taken this long.

"There's been an extraordinary level of secrecy from Kooyoora,'' one says.

Psychologist Joy Conolly is another complainant.

She worked with teenage girls who were abused by paedophile housemaster Kevin Guy at Toowoomba Preparatory School in the 1990s – a story told in the film Don't Tell.

Ms Conolly says Dr Hollingworth dismissed all approaches to take action about the abuse at the school.

"He could have just easily said, 'I'm really sorry this has happened'," Ms Conolly says.

"That would have made such a difference, but not the absolute denial that there was nothing he could do."

She says she was aghast at the response from the then-archbishop of Brisbane when she approached him in in the 1990s to discuss the abuse.

"[He said] he was stressed, he needed a holiday," she says.

"Well, so did those kids, they needed a break, they needed to be allowed to grow up normal, adolescent children and not have that trauma."

Ms Conolly says action such as justice within the church would be "an amazing sense of relief" for survivors.

"Because I feel as though he's gone on with his life. And while they've been left struggling with this,'' she says.

On Monday, Dr Goddard will accompany Ms Heinrich to the hearings, hoping it might provide some closure.

"She will have some belief that she's done everything she can, and that she is believed. That's really important,'' Dr Goddard says.

"So many victims of child sexual abuse spiral downward, and she has somehow managed to keep going and keep fighting."

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