Alfred Holland (bishop)

Alfred Holland
Anglican Bishop of Newcastle
Church Anglican Church of Australia
Diocese Anglican Diocese of Newcastle
In office 1978–1992
Predecessor Ian Wotton Allnutt Shevill
Successor Roger Adrian Herft
Orders
Ordination 1952[1]
Personal details
Born 1927 (age 90–91)[1]

Alfred Charles Holland is a retired Anglican Bishop of Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia. He served from 1978 to 1992.

Career

Holland was educated at St Chad's College, Durham and ordained in 1953. After a curacy in Hackney he was the incumbent at Scarborough from 1954.[2] He was later Archdeacon of Stirling, Western Australia before elevation to the Episcopate.

Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

Holland gave evidence by video link to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse while it was sitting in Newcastle in August 2016.

His evidence was that, as Bishop of Newcastle, he received no allegations that priests in the Diocese committed child sexual abuse, and stated that there had not been any formal framework to deal with such accusations, so any case would have been handled in an ad hoc manner.

He denied receiving any complaint about sexual abuse by Father Peter Rushton of a 5 year old son of a Newcastle Diocese clergyman and the Royal Commission's finding on this allegation was that:[3]

"We are satisfied that in the early 1980s Bishop Holland was informed of an allegation that Father Rushton had sexually abused COE, the young son of an assistant priest in the Wallsend parish, COA. In 1980, Father Rushton was the local parish priest at Wallsend.
We are satisfied that soon after the incident COE’s parents, COA and COC, together with their friends Mr Christopher Hall and Mrs Valerie Hall, met with Bishop Holland and reported the alleged abuse to him. Bishop Holland was dismissive of them and said that without further evidence he could take no action.
We are further satisfied that, when Father Rushton learned that Ms Pamela Wilson, a parishioner and friend of COE’s parents, intended to complain to Bishop Holland about the alleged abuse, he telephoned her and threatened her with legal action if she pursued the complaint.
We accept the evidence of parishioner Ms Lesley Danger that she too raised the allegation with Bishop Holland. Bishop Holland told her that there was nothing he could do and that Father Rushton had threatened legal action.
It is not plausible that so many witnesses would give the same false account of disclosing the alleged abuse of COE to Bishop Holland. We do not accept Bishop Holland’s evidence that he has no recollection of this matter.
We are satisfied that Bishop Holland failed to take any action to report or risk manage Father Rushton once he was made aware of the allegations. Also, Bishop Holland did not provide appropriate support to COE and his family after the allegations were made." [4]

He denied any recollection of a report being made to him at the time about a priest and a lay reader in the church.[5]

A lawyer who had advised the Diocese for many years told the commission that "the then Bishop Alfred Holland had a "do-nothing approach" to matters of sexual impropriety."[6]

In evidence before the Royal Commission, it was revealed that under Holland's watch the Diocesan Solicitor, Keith Allen, also defended a priest charged with child sexual assault. As part of that defence, Holland gave a reference for the defendant. Holland’s evidence about this was that he didn’t know there was a criminal proceeding. On this point, Counsel Assisting the Royal Commission, Naomi Sharp asked Holland:

Sharp: Bishop Holland, are you suggesting that, as the leader of your diocese, you would write a letter for one of your priests without having any understanding of what that letter was to be used for and what it was the priest was alleged to have done? Isn’t that seriously remiss of a person in the position of bishop of a diocese?
Holland: It could be said so, yes.
Sharp: Well, it is seriously remiss, isn’t it?
Holland: Yes, I think probably I should have taken more care.[7]

The Findings of the Royal Commission were that, by 1979, Holland had received child sexual abuse allegations from Ms Aslin and Professor Frost against Brown but that Holland did nothing, and that it took until 2012 for Brown to be convicted of sexually abusing 20 children, 13 of whom were abused after 1979. By 1980, Holland had received child sexual abuse allegations from COA, COC, Mr Hall, Mrs Hall and Lesley Danger against Rushton but again did not act, rather Holland promoted Rushton to the position of Archdeacon of Maitland in 1983. The Royal Commission found that Holland’s failure to act in the face of the allegations was a lost opportunity to prevent future child sexual abuse.[8]

Family

Holland is married with a son, Jonathan Holland, who was suggested as a candidate for Bishop of Newcastle in 2012.[9]

References

  1. 1 2 "Statement of Alfred Holland, Anglican Bishop of Newcastle (1978-1992)" (PDF). 15 July 2016. Retrieved 15 January 2017 – via Fairfax Regional.
  2. ↑ Crockford's Clerical Directory 1967/8 p583:London, OUP, 1967
  3. ↑ "Report of Case Study No. 42: The responses of the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle to instances and allegations of child sexual abuse. Nov 2017" (PDF).
  4. ↑ "Report of Case Study No. 42: The responses of the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle to instances and allegations of child sexual abuse. Nov 2017" (PDF).
  5. ↑ Kirkwood, Ian (3 August 2016). "More evidence of Anglican child sex abuse". Newcastle Herald. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
  6. ↑ Cox, Dan (8 August 2016). "Newcastle lawyer did not tell police about abuse allegations against priests, royal commission hears". 1233 ABC Newcastle. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
  7. ↑ McCarthy, Joanne (3 August 2016). "Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in the Newcastle Anglican diocese day two - live blog".
  8. ↑ "Report of Case Study No. 42: The responses of the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle to instances and allegations of child sexual abuse. Nov 2017" (PDF).
  9. ↑ McCarthy, Joanne (9 April 2012). "Woman in running for diocese bishop role". Newcastle Herald.
  • A Brief History of Christ Church Cathedral. Christ Church Cathedral, Newcastle
  • "Case Study 42, Child Abuse Royal Commission". www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au. Retrieved 2016-08-20.
  • "Report of Case Study No. 42: The responses of the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle to instances and allegations of child sexual abuse. Nov 2017" (PDF).



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