Victorian commission investigating Anglican diocese’s handling of child safety complaints

Victoria's child safety commission has quietly launched an investigation into the Anglican Melbourne diocese's handling of child safety complaints in the wake of criticism over the Peter Hollingworth case, documents show.

The Anglican church has faced renewed criticism in recent months over the protracted, secretive process to potentially defrock Hollingworth, a former Brisbane archbishop and Australia's 23rd governor general, for failing to act on child abuse allegations.

The Anglican church's complaints body, Kooyoora, began considering the matter in 2018 and has now taken longer to investigate a single case than the entire duration of the child abuse royal commission, which held 8,013 private sessions and made 2,575 referrals to authorities in the same time.

The Guardian can now reveal that the Victorian commission for children and young people has begun investigating the diocese's processes for managing child safety complaints about clerical leadership.

The investigation is not specifically examining Hollingworth, the handling of the Hollingworth case, or any other individual matter.

Documents show it is conducting a much broader examination of the diocese's management of complaints to test whether they meet "the minimum requirements" of the state's child safety standards.

The commission said it was legally restricted from commenting on its investigation publicly. But it told survivors and survivors' groups on 3 March that the investigation had just commenced and would take some time to complete.

"The commission has now commenced an investigation into whether processes for the management of child safety complaints raised about clerical leadership in the Diocese meet the minimum requirements of the standards," the principal commissioner for children and young people, Liana Buchanan, wrote.

"I want to stress that this investigation is not in relation to the conduct of any particular member of the clerical leadership within the diocese. The commission's investigation is looking into the implementation of the standards in the diocese' policies and practices as they relate to child safety complaints raised about clerical leadership generally."

It estimated a thorough investigation could take more than six months. More time may be needed if the organisation is required to take action to address any deficiencies.

"I share this information because I know that the issue of delays in the diocese' process has been distressing for victim survivors and I want to be as transparent as I can about what our process will involve," the commissioner wrote.

Beyond Abuse, a survivor advocacy group, wrote a detailed letter to the commissioner on Wednesday outlining a series of concerns about the current Kooyoora process, including the vast delays in the Hollingworth case.

Its chief executive, Steve Fisher, described a broken complaints process which was failing survivors, ignoring serious complaints, failing to properly gather evidence and failing to communicate properly with victims.

"Beyond Abuse has not heard from a single complainant/victim/survivor/witness who reported professional and competent communication from Kooyoora or the diocese," he wrote. "They have all reported being shut out and kept in the dark. Only those who have persisted by contacting Kooyoora receive anything approximating intermittent updates and even then it is ad hoc and sometimes confused and unreliable."

Fisher also questioned the repeated claims that Kooyoora was independent from the church given its funding structure, the fact that it was established by the church and the presence of church officials on its board and professional standards panels.

The Anglican archbishop of Melbourne, Dr Philip Freier, said the diocese would cooperate with the commission's investigation and was happy to do so.

"We do have confidence in our child safety protocols, but are always open to improvements when these are identified," Freier said. "We cannot comment on individual cases."

The hearing of the Hollingworth case concluded last month, when a professional standards tribunal considered allegations that he mishandled child abuse allegations. The tribunal was conducted behind closed doors and was largely cloaked in secrecy.

The Kooyoora process began following complaints from survivors in 2018 in the wake of the child abuse royal commission. 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, the royal commission found, spoke to one survivor who told him that he had been abused by Elliot and that "Elliot was a paedophile".

A psychiatrist, John Slaughter, subsequently told Hollingworth that Elliot was a paedophile and was untreatable.

Hollingworth allowed Elliot to continue in his role until he retired five years later.

"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.

The royal commission described it as a "serious error of judgment" and Hollingworth has apologised for his handling of the matter.

Kooyoora engaged its own investigator and has spent the past five years engaged in a complicated, multi-step process to consider the complaints against Hollingworth.

In 2018, Vincent Lucas, Kooyoora's then director of professional standards, reportedly told a survivor that in his opinion there was "more than enough justification to prove [Hollingworth's] unfitness to hold holy orders".

The Guardian approached Hollingworth, through his lawyers, for comment.