Mission & Justice

Tony Koch; 26/2/08;

The Anglican Church in Brisbane will decide this week whether convicted child-sex offender Robert Sharwood remains a priest, despite his not having completed a “pedophile reintegration” program generally required by the church.Saturday’s hearing of the church’s professional standards association comes as the parish where Sharwood is now involved, Fortitude Valley in Brisbane, criticised the process the pedophile should undertake if he is to be rehabilitated in the eyes of the church.The Anglican Church Professional Standards director Rod McLary wrote on January 18 to the Reverend Trevor Bulled at the Holy Trinity Parish, Fortitude Valley, expressing concern at the parish’s refusal to oversee Sharwood’s completion of the program.

See: The Australian; NoInternet Text
The letter followed one from Mr Bulled to Mr McLary on January 7, which said the 30-page paper that outlined the rehabilitation program was taken to the parish council and the “unanimous view was that the document was unworkable and oppressive”.
“There was a fairly common mind that (Sharwood) … had been punished and released after corrective imprisonment,” the letter said. “There was some question of how the diocese was able to set itself up to create a virtual probation that it has no legal authority to impose.”
Sharwood sings in the all-age choir at Holy Trinity Anglican church. He was released from prison in November after serving one year of a 33-month sentence for sexually assaulting and sodomising a boy of 13 in Brisbane 30 years ago.
Anglican church officials knew of Sharwood’s pedophilia, but despite that knowledge appointed him chaplain at the Brisbane Anglican private boys’ school Churchie from 1985 to 2002. Mr Bulled was not one of those officials.
Saturday’s hearing will decide whether he is defrocked. The victim, now an adult, has been invited to present again the evidence he gave at the trial in November 2006, but he was warned that if he chose to give evidence, he could be cross-examined by his abuser. It is understood that the victim will not be attending.
Mr McLary’s letter to Mr Bulled warned that “the parish and its office holders are risking adverse media publicity by not putting into place the approved diocesan arrangements”. “The provision for such arrangements and indeed the expectation that they are put into place is policy in many of the dioceses in Australia,” he wrote.
The Anglican Dean of Brisbane, the Very Reverend John Parkes, yesterday said the church was “not satisfied” with the parish decision not to require Sharwood to undergo the re-habilitation program. “We found it unacceptable that the parish council thought the requirements were oppressive and unworkable,” he said.

Anglican Church considers future of paedophile priest
Michael Edwards 21/1/0/07
Tony Eastley: The Anglican Church is considering whether to allow a convicted paedophile to remain a priest. Advocates for the victims of sexual abuse say the credibility of the Anglican Church is at stake over the case of Robert Sharwood. The Anglican priest will soon be released from jail after serving a year for sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy, 30 years ago. The Brisbane diocese is holding an investigation into Sharwood’s status as a member of the clergy. The investigation has invited the victim to re-present his evidence and also warned him he could be cross-examined by his abuser.
See: http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2007/s2076670.htm

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