G-G admits: I may have let sex-abuse victims down
AAP
The Canberra Times
BRISBANE: Governor-General Peter Hollingworth admits he may have let down the victims of child sexual abuse while he was Archbishop of Brisbane.
In a yet-to-be screened television interview on ABC's Australian Story, Dr Hollingworth and his family speak about the emotional toll of the Toowoomba Preparatory School sex abuse scandal.
"If they [the abused girls] feel that I let them down, well then I did," Dr Hollingworth told the program to be aired on February 18.
The program also features interviews with Dr Hollingworth's daughter Deborah and wife, Ann, who said the scandal had harshly affected the family.
"You really feel like you're standing there just being pelted with stones," she said.
Deborah Hollingworth said she had anticipated controversy when her father became governor-general.
"I remember driving to Parliament House on the day he was being sworn in and I had a sick feeling in my stomach," she said.
But the revelations have failed to move People's Alliance Against Child Sexual Abuse executive director Hetty Johnston.
Ms Johnston has repeatedly called on Dr Hollingworth to resign, accusing him of covering up the abuse at the school.
She said Dr Hollingworth appeared to be trying to gain public sympathy by appearing on the program.
"Just imagine how these families have felt over the last 11 years when their daughters turned to drugs and psychiatric wards and all kinds of terrible things as a result of his inaction," Ms Johnston said.
"His pain and his suffering now does not come within a microbe of what they've suffered and endured.
"How dare he put up his own pain instead of considering theirs and if he truly considered theirs he would have resigned by now."
Last year, the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane was ordered to pay $834,800 damages to a 24-year-old girl who was sexually abused over a decade ago by senior boarding master Kevin Guy.
Guy committed suicide the day he was due to appear in court to face sex charges in December, 1990.
In his suicide note, he listed the names of 20 girls he had "loved".
Dr Hollingworth, who was Brisbane archbishop at the time of the abuse, said legal advice and insurance considerations had prevented him from expressing compassion for the victims.