Transcript

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: The use of the parliamentary privilege is under scrutiny after sensational allegations made by independent Senator Nick Xenophon. In a speech to a near-empty chamber last night, Senator Xenophon named an Adelaide Catholic priest he says is accused of raping a fellow priest in the late 1960s. The Senator says he did it because of frustration at a perceived lack of action by Catholic authorities. Today, the man named, Monsignor Ian Dempsey, strenuously denied all allegations. Mike Sexton reports from Adelaide.

MIKE SEXTON, REPORTER: The Brighton Catholic parish runs along a picturesque and prosperous strip of Adelaide's beachfront. But today this peaceful parish finds its at the centre of a legal and moral storm as the result of their priest being named in Parliament by Senator Nick Xenophon.

NICK XENOPHON, INDEPENDENT: The people of the Brighton parish have a right to know that for four years allegations have been outstanding that priest Ian Dempsey raped John Hepworth, and that Church leadership has failed to make appropriate inquiries into this matter and that Church leadership has failed to stand this priest down.

IAN DEMPSEY, PRIEST: I categorically deny the allegations, which I note are said to relate to events that occurred some 45 years ago and they have nothing at all to do with under-aged people.

PHILIP WILSON, ADELAIDE CATHOLIC DIOCESE: To claim that the Archdiocese of Adelaide has not responded properly to this allegation or has delayed or mishandled this complaint by Archbishop Hepworth is totally wrong.

MIKE SEXTON: Senator Xenophon says his motivation was frustration at the lack of urgency by the Church to deal with allegations by former priest John Hepworth, who says the abuse he suffered has traumatised him.

JOHN HEPWORTH, TRADITIONAL ANGLICAN COMMUNION: Like every victim, you have a seriously disrupted life. The difficulty of dealing with people, especially people close to you, the yearning for intimacy but not knowing how to cope with it.

MIKE SEXTON: Complaints against two Victorian priests, both of whom are dead, were finalised recently, with John Hepworth receiving compensation. But his allegation against the South Australian priest is ongoing. Some have questioned Senator Xenophon's use of Parliament to intervene.

GREG CRAVEN, AUST. CATHOLIC UNI.: It's not a question of being opposed to parliamentary privilege. Parliament must have absolutely free debate and that literally is something we've killed kings for. The question is that you also have to have responsible debate. And parliamentary privilege should not be used as a substitute for trial and conviction.

MIKE SEXTON: Constitutional lawyer and vice-chancellor of the Australian Catholic University Greg Craven believes by trying to force action, the independent Senator may have stalled it.

GREG CRAVEN: The irony is is doesn't make it more likely that a perpetrator will be convicted or inquired into; it's exactly the opposite. Because the reality is that you would have a person who has been named, it becomes difficult to empanel a jury that doesn't have a particular view, it becomes extremely difficult to give a person a trial.

MIKE SEXTON: After his statement to the Senate, Nick Xenophon rejected the idea he's a loose cannon.

NICK XENOPHON: I take my responsibilities very seriously as a member of Parliament, a member of the Senate.

MIKE SEXTON: And received immediate support from one group.

WOMAN: As a victim of crime representative from Victoria ...

NICK XENOPHON: Hello.

WOMAN: ... and who has got members who have been abused from the Catholic Church, congratulations. I think that what you have done is just outstanding and brave.

MIKE SEXTON: The decision by John Hepworth to go public is part of his long journey back to the Catholic Church, an institution he eagerly joined in 1960.

JOHN HEPWORTH: I was 15 when I went to seminary, turned 16 a couple of months later. So, I'd wanted to be a priest since I think I was seven, first told my parents about it.

MIKE SEXTON: But he says he found himself the target of sexual abuse. Seven years ago, he told the ABC of the culture at the seminary.

JOHN HEPWORTH (2004): Mainly priests offending, particularly the joke would be against altar boys. And, I mean, almost a joke. And that they had been moved overseas. If they were Anglicans, they were likely to have been shifted to England and if they were Catholics, they were likely to have been sent to Ireland.

MIKE SEXTON: Eventually John Hepworth left the Church, moving to the UK where he became an Anglican. But he continued wrestling with his fractured relationship with Catholicism.

JOHN HEPWORTH: It's human and divine and you have to keep your eye constantly on the divine as the reason you're doing this rather than focusing on the sinfulness and the horribleness that so many of its members exhibit from time to time.

MIKE SEXTON: In 1992, John Hepworth split from the Anglican Church and became part of what's known as the Continuing Anglican Movement. It claims an international congregation of 400,000 and is seeking unity with the Catholic Church. Those negotiations with the Vatican were led by John Hepworth at the same time he raised his allegations of abuse.

JOHN HEPWORTH: As the leader of that group, I would be meeting in the Vatican and potentially with the Pope and I felt it unfair on me and them not to try and explain why I left the Catholic Church so many years ago. I fled.

MIKE SEXTON: Adelaide's Catholic Archbishop Phillip Wilson says investigations are continuing. Ian Dempsey is going on scheduled leave and John Hepworth continues to advocate for change.

JOHN HEPWORTH: Only the Church can heal what the Church has broken. So I was trying, in a sense, to lead by example and show people that it's possible but terribly difficult to approach the Church.

LEIGH SALES: Mike Sexton with that report.


Editor’s note: (September 29) This report has been edited. Senator Xenophon told the Senate there were allegations of rape; he did not say there had been a rape.