By DAN MOSS: State parliament editor
A DOVETON school filled with fear and suspicion soon after Father Peter Searson arrived.
He was known for walking the grounds armed with a pistol, the state inquiry into the church’s handling of child abuse heard on Wednesday. The children said he was “creepy” — they didn’t want to go into the church so teachers had to supervise them in the confessional.
Doveton’s Holy Family Primary School had about 300 pupils at the time former principal Graeme Sleeman was employed there by Father Searson, from 1982 to 1987. Mr Sleeman gave a submission to the inquiry, which offered parliamentary privilege as amnesty against defamation threats.
In submissions that went for more than an hour, Mr Sleeman said parents and teachers would regularly tell him the children feared the priest because of his particular attention to children and his desire to engage them in the confessional. “You had to be so, so vigilant because of the priest,” said a former Holy Family teacher Carmel Rafferty, who also gave evidence.
Father Searson was moved from one posting to the next before arriving at Holy Family. When he went to Doveton, Mr Sleeman’s phone “rang hot” with claims about the priest.
The inquiry heard that Father Searson’s alleged activities were not investigated by the church. He was often spoken to or counselled in relation to claims of abuse.
Mr Sleeman said there was a “nudge-nudge wink-wink attitude” from Frank Little, who was the archbishop of Melbourne at the time, but nothing was done to address problems.
The Journal reported late last year how today’s congregation of Holy Family parish continues to come to terms with its past, with revealing statements from Ms Rafferty and the parish priest Father Michael Shadbolt.
