The Archbishop of Perth has conceded he received multiple complaints from members of a religious community over many years and did not do enough to follow them up. The leader of the Leederville based Bethel Covenant Community, Kevin Horgan, was asked to step down this year over allegations of ongoing sexual misconduct.
Issues over his leadership were first brought to the attention of the Archbishop, Barry Hickey, in a report more than 10 years ago.
Archbishop Hickey has apologised for not dealing with the matter sooner and says the matter escaped his attention at the time.
"I have apologised for letting it get off my radar screen for various reasons," he said.
"In a big organisation things just fall through the cracks and I'm very sorry about that, and I've said it.
"It wasn't a cover up, it wasn't anything to do with protecting Horgan at all. It was just the volume of work.
"My act of asking forgiveness from the people that I've let down by not doing enough for them is something that my faith obliges me to do.
"When we don't shape up we apologise and hope the apology will be received and forgiven, so it's in the whole context; none of us is perfect and I've never claimed to be."
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