A JAILED Anglican child sex offender priest is one of three men facing church disciplinary proceedings at a Newcastle hearing on Wednesday.
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Newcastle Anglican diocese will hold a professional standards board hearing against two jailed child sex offenders and a third man after church investigations following a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse public hearing in 2016.
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The jailed men are former Anglican priest Lindsay McLoughlin, 67, and former Anglican youth worker James Brown. The diocese will also consider the case of former trainee priest Neil Barrack, who was jailed for two years for sexually abusing a teenager in the 1990s.
McLoughlin, a former boyfriend of notorious Newcastle Anglican child sex offender priest Peter Rushton, was jailed in December, 2016 for sexually abusing two boys in the 1980s.
Brown was sentenced to 20 years’ jail for serious sexual abuse offences against more than 20 boys, some as young as eight, over two decades from the 1970s to the 1990s.
The abuse occurred at the church’s St Albans boys home and on youth trips at Bathurst and Boat Harbour.
Brown was originally sentenced to 10 years’ jail but the sentence was increased to a maximum 20 years, with a 12 year non-parole period.
Professional standards board hearings follow church investigations and can lead to priests being defrocked and non-priests being barred from holding positions in the church.
In a statement on Tuesday the diocese said the significant harm experienced by survivors in the three cases was already in the public domain as a result of criminal proceedings and the royal commission.
“As young people, they and their families looked to the Anglican Church to provide them with positive life experiences but instead they suffered great harm,” the statement said.
“The Anglican Church in this region has been rightly called to account for its past failings. It has actively addressed matters raised by the royal commission.”
The diocese encouraged people with concerns to speak to police or the diocese acting director of professional standards Cathy Rose on 1800 774 945.
“You will be heard and your matters will be taken seriously,” the diocese said.
The hearing will start at 10am at level 4, 134 King Street. Former NSW local court magistrate Colin Elliott will preside at the hearing.