Legal sources believe
prosecutors may have enough evidence to charge an Adelaide Catholic
priest accused of raping Archbishop John Hepworth in the early 1960s.
Senator Nick Xenophon caused a scandal last September when he told Parliament that Ian Dempsey was accused of raping Archbishop John Hepworth, after the Catholic Church refused to suspend him.
Now legal sources have said they believe there is enough evidence to charge Father Dempsey with multiple counts of rape and indecent assault occurring in the 1960s, the Adelaide Advertiser reports.
Police are seeking the legal opinion of Director of Public Prosecutions Adam Kimber QC, after a 10-month investigation into the allegations.
Mr Kimber is understood to have asked police to undertake follow up investigations into several areas.
Police launched an investigation last November after Archbishop Hepworth lodged a formal complaint.
Father Dempsey was then suspended from his parish in Brighton, a seaside suburb in Adelaide, and later denied the allegations when he was named in Parliament.
At the time, Senator Xenophon said he had to act given the church's refusal to put the priest on administrative leave pending an investigation.
Archbishop Hepworth, 67, claims he was the victim of violent rapes at the hands of two priests and a trainee priest beginning in 1960, when he was 15.
At the time Archbishop Hepworth, who is now the primate of the splinter group Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) in Adelaide, was studying to be a priest at a seminary.
Archbishop Hepworth has said he broke away from the Catholic Church because of the 12 years of alleged abuse.