Australian health chiefs under fire over abuse case

Archbishop John Hepworth laid complaints of rape and abuse at the hands of three priests. Photo / Thinkstock

The new head of Australia's National Mental Health Commission has been drawn into a parliamentary bid to force the Catholic Church to stand down a priest accused of the repeated boyhood rape of an Archbishop.

Monsignor David Cappo, South Australia's former Social Inclusion Commissioner, was appointed as the commission's "public face" last week by federal Mental Health Minister Mark Butler.

But the appointment has been called into question by independent Senator Nick Xenophon, who attacked Cappo under parliamentary privilege for failing to act adequately on complaints by the Archbishop of the Traditional Anglican Communion, John Hepworth of rape and abuse at the hands of three priests.

Xenophon threatened on Monday night to disclose the name of the priest in the Senate if the church had not acted by midday yesterday. But he held off after an appeal by the Archbishop not to reveal the name at this stage, following similar pleas from the Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide, which said many complex and sensitive issues were involved and offered an urgent briefing by its legal advisers.

Hepworth, 67, told the ABC: "It is being played out now in a crude way, and megaphone diplomacy often doesn't work."

Hepworth was ordained as a Catholic priest but later converted to the Anglican Church and now heads the international traditional movement that split from the authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Two of the priests who abused Hepworth, Ronald Pickering and John Stockdale, are dead. The third alleged abuser is a senior parish priest in Adelaide. The abuse began in 1960 when Hepworth was 15 and studying to become a priest, and continued through his teenage years. Xenophon told the Senate that the allegations had been taken "incredibly seriously" by the Catholic Church in Melbourne, which established an inquiry under independent commissioner Peter O'Callaghan QC into the crimes committed by Pickering.

The 12-month inquiry confirmed Hepworth's allegations and accepted that he had suffered "many other instances of sexual abuse by members of the clergy in South Australia". The church apologised and provided financial compensation.

But Xenophon said the response of the church in South Australia had been inadequate and its "weakness" could in part be traced to Cappo. "For reasons not fully explained, [he] has failed to act in a timely and decisive manner on this important issue."

Hepworth had said he reported 12 years of violent rape to Cappo and Archbishop Philip Wilson in 2007 and had provided a detailed six-page statement in March 2008. But Cappo had told the Archbishop this year that the investigation was still at a preliminary stage because he had not lodged a formal complaint. Hepworth told ABC radio that he had offered a copy of the 60-page Melbourne report to Cappo to read, but that the diocese solicitor also present at their meeting had said "well, we are not going to read it".

"I question whether it is appropriate for a senior religious figure like David Cappo, who has responded this way to allegations of serious sexual and psychological abuse, to be given the important role of chair of the federal government's mental health task force," Xenophon told the Senate.

"I am calling on the Government to make a serious, detailed and formal inquiry into Monsignor Cappo's handling of Archbishop Hepworth's sexual assaults before any decision to appoint Monsignor Cappo to the Mental Health Commission is finalised.

"I am also calling for the Catholic Church in South Australia to immediately stand down this third priest from all his duties until these allegations are fully investigated. Right now there are parents sending their children to church unaware that their priest, in their parish, has been named as an abuser - a rapist."

The Archdiocese of Adelaide said it had retained Michael Abbott QC to examine the evidence and denied it had ignored or delayed an investigation. "There is an obligation on the Archdiocese of Adelaide to accord all parties concerned with natural justice and procedural fairness."