Two women who complained about the former governor general Peter Hollingworth’s handling of child abuse complaints have requested the Anglican church review its decision not to defrock him, saying they were “sickened” by the outcome.
The Anglican church’s complaints body has spent more than five years considering complaints about Hollingworth’s inaction on child abuse as Brisbane archbishop in the 1990s.
On Monday, the process culminated with the church’s professional standards board making multiple findings of misconduct against Hollingworth, including that he allowed two church members, Donald Shearman and John Elliot, to remain in their positions despite knowing they sexually assaulted children.
Despite the misconduct findings, Hollingworth was deemed not to be an unacceptable risk of harm and found fit to continue as a priest, a role he resumed after his brief stint as governor general ended in 2003.
Survivor Beth Heinrich and former Anglican school psychologist Joy Conolly, who both complained about Hollingworth’s handling of child abuse, have now urged the church’s complaints handling organisation, Kooyoora, to request the decision be appealed.
Guardian Australia understands decisions made by the board are open to appeal through a separate body in the convoluted Anglican complaints mechanism, known as the professional standards committee.
Conolly has written to Kooyoora and called on the committee to “immediately lodge an appeal and ask for the sentence of Hollingworth be overturned and be replaced by a new sentence of immediate defrocking”.
“I think the church threw away a golden opportunity to do something about ameliorating the dreadful pain in their history,” she said on Thursday.
“I just can’t believe it. I certainly don’t consider myself an Anglican any more.”
Conolly was a psychologist who worked with teenage girls abused at the Toowoomba preparatory school in the 1990s. She alleged Hollingworth mishandled complaints about the girls’ abuser, paedophile housemaster Kevin Guy who is now dead, an episode retold in the 2017 film Don’t Tell.
The professional standards board’s decision on Monday cleared Hollingworth of any wrongdoing in relation to Guy, mirroring a similar finding by an inquiry in Brisbane in 2003.
Heinrich, a survivor of abuse by Shearman, has also told Kooyoora she wants the board’s decision appealed.
She asked Kooyoora’s chief executive to “make sure the professional standards committee appeal the decision”, describing the outcome as a “disgusting state of affairs”.
The board’s decision on Monday, which is yet to be made publicly available, found that Hollingworth should apologise to Heinrich and another survivor, and receive a reprimand from the Melbourne archbishop, Philip Freier.
But it found that Hollingworth remained fit for the ministry because “there will be no unacceptable risk of harm to any person if the respondent continues to hold the role office or position he currently holds”, a test contained in the Professional Standards Uniform Act 2016.
Hollingworth declined to comment on the calls for an appeal.
In a statement on Monday, Hollingworth acknowledged he had made mistakes and described the complaints process as “long and painful for everyone involved”.
“I made mistakes and I cannot undo them,” Hollingworth said. “But I committed no crimes. There is no evidence that there was any abuse because of any decisions I made, or did not make.”
He said that “hardly a day passed” when he did not reflect on his failings.
“I had devoted my life to social justice, pastoral care and healing but I had little experience in dealing with the child abuse issues,” he said. “Like other church leaders, I was unduly influenced by the advice of lawyers and insurance companies.”
Hollingworth is not accused of abuse himself.
In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault, family or domestic violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit www.1800RESPECT.org.au. In an emergency, call 000. International helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org
