The Nation

ABC dusts off Adelaide criticisms

The Adelaide archdiocese’s defence against criticisms of its response to a sexaul abuse complaint by Anglican Archbishop John Hepworth has been complicated by the airing of separate allegations regarding a 20-year-old case involving abuse of intellectually disabled children.

 The ABC’s Four Corners program has broadcast criticisms of the Church’s response to parents of students allegedly abused by convicted pedophile Brian Bertram Morris Perkins, who worked as a bus driver at St Ann’s Special School in Adelaide from 1986 to 1991.

Perkins was dismissed after police informed the school naked photos of three students had been found in his home. While the parents of those students were informed, and the police and school authorities had reason to believe up to 30 children had been abused, other parents were left in the dark. It was only in 2001, after a chance meeting, they learned of the possible reason their children had developed behavioural problems.

Four Corners revealed 20-year-old documents indicating lawyers advised Catholic  Education South Australia to avoid mentioning in writing the charges against Perkins. A severance letter to him should be “neutral”, it said. A draft severance letter said his “contribution as a volunteer bus driver for disabled students has been appreciated”.

In an interview with Four Corners, Adelaide’s Archbishop Philip Wilson said: “I don’t think there was any intent to cover it up. I think that people were offering legal advice about these matters in the context in which they did; that is a context that no longer applies now.”

“When I became archbishop and started asking questions about what happened ... the conclusion that I came to was that there wasn’t any evidence of a cover-up, but it seemed to me that people just didn’t act in a proper way, they didn’t seem to respond to this sort of situation in the way they should have.

“Now I know then that the response was complicated in the 1990s by the fact there was a police investigation going on, and of course that means then that you are hampered in what you can do because the police want to have a free hand to do their work.”

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