Letter to sex victim 'a mistake'

2008-07-08 11:37

Sydney - Australia's top Catholic cleric on Tuesday denied trying to cover up allegations of sex abuse against a priest, but admitted a letter he wrote to a victim was "badly worded and a mistake".

Sydney Archbishop Cardinal George Pell acknowledged the latest scandal was an embarrassment ahead of Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Sydney next week, during which the pontiff may apologise to the church's sex abuse victims.

Pell defended his actions over sex abuse allegations against Father Terence Goodall, which he said had been investigated by the church and police and had resulted in the priest being stood down.

"There was no attempt at a cover-up," he said. "Both sets of allegations against Father Goodall were carried to their conclusions."

But the cardinal admitted that a letter he wrote to Anthony Jones, who had accused Goodall of sex abuse after a swimming session some 20 years earlier when Jones was 29, was a mistake.

In the 2003 letter, obtained by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Pell told Jones the author of an internal report could not substantiate his accusation of attempted aggravated sexual assault and that it was the only complaint against Goodall.

But the internal report, compiled by layman Howard Murray, had accepted all Jones's allegations.

And in another letter obtained by the ABC and dated the same day as the one to Jones, Pell had told another man he accepted his claim that he had been indecently assaulted by Goodall as an altar boy when he was 10 or 11.

"My letter to Mr Jones was badly worded and a mistake," Pell said.

"I was attempting to inform him that there was no other allegation of rape and I overstated my agreement with Murray, who found all allegations sustained."

Pell said he would not step aside, adding that he hoped it would not be an issue by the time the Pope arrives in Sydney on Sunday ahead of a global celebration of Catholic youth.

Pell, who pioneered protocols to deal with sexual abuse by the clergy in Australia, agreed that the case was embarrassing.

"Yes, it is of course," he said.

- AFP