A day after an investigation by prominent Adelaide QC, Michael Abbott, found there was no substance to an allegation of rape against one of its senior clerics, the complainant, Traditional Anglican Bishop John Hepworth has filed a complaint with the South Australian police. Bitterly disappointed with the Church investigation, Hepworth said he had no choice but Read more
The Catholic Church in Adelaide has found there is no substance to an allegation of rape against one of its senior clerics. The allegation was brought by Traditional Anglican Archbishop, John Hepworth and dates back 40 years to when he was a Catholic seminarian. The investigation, conducted by Michael Abbott, a prominent Adelaide QC, found Read more
Reinstated Ireland parish priest, Fr Kevin Reynolds says the RTE media apology has freed him from false allegations, baseless accusations and lies. Reynolds was accused of raping a minor, named Veneranda while he was a missionary in Kenya and as a result of the rape, fathering a child named Sheila. In an apology, dated Thursday 6 Read more
Though Archbishop Hepworth complained to the Adelaide archdiocese of sexual abuse, the diocesan authorities claim that he did not authorise an official investigation until early this year. The Adelaide Archdiocese has provided a letter to The Advertiser that shows Archbishop Hepworth only signed a request for the investigation in February this year despite receiving a request from Read more
Two letters have been sent to Senate president John Hogg about Senator Xenophon’s naming of Msgr Ian Dempsey under Parliamentary privilege. A Senate committee will consider the complaints. One of the letters was from Msgr Dempsey and the other from civil libertarian Terry O’Gorman who is urging an investigation into the naming of the priest, Read more
South Australian senator Nick Xenophon, on Tuesday evening, used parliamentary privilege to name and shame an Adelaide priest, Monsignor Ian Dempsey, accusing him of raping and sexually abusing Traditional Anglican Communion Archbishop, John Hepworth. Xenophon dismissed the presumption of innocence in Parliament, saying in his opinion the Adelaide Archdiocese had taken too long to resolve the Read more
The Catholic Church in Adelaide denies it delayed investigating allegations of rape and sex abuse by a Traditional Anglican Communion Archbishop, John Hepworth. Over the weekend, the Australian revealed that Fr John Hepworth fled the Catholic priesthood in 1972 after enduring sexual abuse from two priests and a fellow seminarian for twelve years. After leaving, Read more
Melbourne was recently ranked the world’s most liveable city, yet according to Victorian police crime statistics, those who live in Victoria, Australia are more likely to be sexually assaulted, and physically assaulted at home. The annual Victorian police crime statistics report 83% of sexual assault victims were women 36% of rape victims were raped by someone they Read more
More than 400,000 Congo women and girls between the ages of 15 to 49 were raped during the 12-month period of war in 2006 and 2007. This new figure is 26 times more than the 15,000 women that the United Nations has reported were raped there during the same 12 months. The figures were published Read more