Anglican Church slams move by Rescue Churchie on child abuse
Peter Michael, The Courier-Mail
The Anglican Church has slammed a move by Rescue Churchie to disband the School Council over child sex abuse payouts at one of Queensland’s most prestigious private schools.
Church leaders urged anyone with evidence of bogus child sex abuse claims to make an official report to police.
The Anglican Church Grammar School, known as Churchie, in East Brisbane is facing open revolt by a group of Old Boys over a reported $130,000 compensation payment to a convicted killer and conman.
“If anyone has evidence of fraud it should be reported to police,” an Anglican Church spokesman told The Courier-Mail.
“But it is important for survivors of abuse to continue to be encouraged to come forward to report abuse and that all allegations of abuse are taken with the utmost seriousness and investigated.”
Rescue Churchie yesterday launched a social media campaign to replace the Anglican Diocesan Council, the governing body of Churchie, with an autonomous school council.
The Anglican Church, headed by Archbishop Dr Phillip Aspinall, has hit back angrily at alleged “hush money” payout saying it was unable to disclose apologies and payments for privacy reasons.
Archbishop Aspinall is known to have provided written and face-to-face apologies to survivors of abuse since becoming Archbishop in 2002 and removed the requirement for survivors to sign confidentiality agreements.
The Anglican Church also believes the fact that someone has committed a crime should not exclude them from a fair redress process for child sexual abuse.
A Church spokesman said it would not be unusual for someone’s life to go off the rails as a result of child sexual abuse.
He said, while unable to comment on this specific case, the results of police investigations were important factors in determinations by the Church or insurance companies as to whether child sexual abuse occurred.