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Litany of failure

By Amanda Gearing - posted Wednesday, 5 November 2014


The first English and Australian victims who exposed Waddington's offending in the media in 2013 have both asked for Archbishop Hope to be deposed from Holy Orders and to be removed from the House of Lords.

But a spokesman for the House of Lords Standards Commissioner, Owen Williams, said primary legislation would be required to remove a peerage.

"Once a peerage has been conferred it cannot be removed except by primary legislation," he said.

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"The only other circumstances where a Peer can lose his right to sit in the House is if he is imprisoned for a period of more than one year or made bankrupt."

An added complication is that Lord Hope has been on leave since November 2012 and is therefore not subject to the Code of Conduct for Members of the House.

Eli Ward has welcomed moves by Archbishop Sentamu and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby who have agreed to consider Mr Ward's suggestion to amend the 1800-year-old seal of the confessional, to better protect children.

"Abuse is heavily documented in the media, more than it ever has been, and none of us seem to be shocked any more by the revelations being unearthed at almost every tier of society," he said.

"What is not clear to the public is how extremely well protected and secret the whole subject is."

"Whether it is a mentality to protect and cover up, lose paper work or have bungled police investigations, there is no denying that it is all extremely odd," Mr Ward said.

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"The reporting to the police by members of society in positions where you would expect them to do the right thing is simply not happening."

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About the Author

Dr Amanda Gearing graduated with a Masters' Degree from QUT in 2012 and a PhD in Global investigative journalism in 2016. Amanda was The Courier-Mail's reporter in Toowoomba for ten years until 2007 and received several awards for her work including Best news Report (All Media) in 2002. She has written in Australia and the UK for national and state newspapers and has produced documentaries for ABC Radio National. In 2012 she won a Walkley Award for Best radio documentary for The day that changed Grantham. She also won a Clarion Award for her radio documentary A living sacrifice in 2013. Her non-fiction book The Torrent was published in 2012 and an updated edition will be published in February 2017.

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