By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Catholic authorities should have removed Holy Family parish priest Peter Searson more than a decade earlier, counsel assisting a Royal Commission has submitted.
The late Father Searson had been accused of a litany of child sexual abuses, assaults and other disturbing behaviour as the Doveton parish priest from 1984.
It was not until 13 years later that he was forced into administrative leave by the then-Melbourne Archbishop George Pell.
In its written submission released on 31 October, counsel assisting the Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse stated there was evidence to oust Searson at least as early as 1986.
“Instead, Archbishop (Frank) Little chose to do nothing and in doing so he failed to protect the children of the parish,” counsel Gail Furness SC and Stephen Free wrote.
The multiple allegations of Searson’s sexual misconduct were not adequately investigated by the Catholic Archdiocese until 1996, they stated.
“There was compelling evidence that Searson had engaged in serious sexual misconduct and was a risk to children, and that the Archbishop must suspend him from parish duties and initiate canonical action to remove him permanently from the priesthood.”
The submission lays blame at now-Cardinal Pell and three bishops who personally received complaints but failed to act with “sufficient firmness and frankness” to persuade Archbishop Little to act against Searson.
“When asked whether there was any inadequacy in the manner he handled Searson as Auxiliary Bishop, Cardinal Pell said ‘very little – precisely because of my limited knowledge’.
“‘In retrospect, I might have been a bit more pushy with all the parties involved’,” he is quoted to have said.
In his evidence, Cardinal Pell stated the Catholic Education Office had inadequately briefed him on the list of issues ahead of the meeting with teachers.
He said the education office at the time deceived him partly to protect Archbishop Little, who had been inactive on the Searson matter.
The Archdiocese had known of an alleged rape of a woman while Searson was chaplain to the Villa Maria Blind Society in 1974, according to the counsel assisting.
At Holy Family, complaints were made of Searson brandishing a gun, killing a bird with a screwdriver, holding a knife to a young girl, frequenting boys’ toilets as well as several acts of child sexual abuse.
“There was gross and repeated inaction by a number of senior Archdiocesan officials in the face of serious and credible allegations,” the counsel assisting wrote.
“It involved conscious inaction by senior Archdiocesan officials over more than a decade.”
The inaction had caused “catastrophic human consequences” to an altar boy, identified as BVC, who gave evidence of Searson’s raping him for four years from 1992.
“The fact that Searson remained in a position of authority as a parish priest, which he exploited to abuse BVC, is directly attributable to the ongoing failure of the Archdiocese to take available action against Searson.”
The Journal reported in late 1986 that Holy Family parishioners and parents had called a public meeting to demand Searson’s axing.
Royal Commission evidence revealed that a week after the Journal’s report, Father Searson had requested a transfer from the Doveton parish.
Archbishop Little declined the transfer because he deemed there was no suitable parish for Father Searson to go to.
Cardinal Pell, as then Archbishop of Melbourne, dismissed Father Searson in 1997 after police laid a charge of assaulting a boy.
