Sexual offender and former archdeacon Louis Daniels denies trading boys or discussing which children were most vulnerable with other alleged abusers

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Senior Anglican clergy shared a secret understanding of each other’s attraction to young boys, a royal commission has been told.

The inquiry into the Church of England Boys’ Society being held in Hobart heard evidence on Thursday from the convicted child sexual offender Louis Daniels, 68, a former archdeacon who was one of Tasmania’s top-four church leaders in the early 1990s.

Daniels has since been jailed for pleading guilty to abusing 12 boys.

He was asked about his interaction with fellow former clergy and lay men Garth Hawkins, Robert Brandenburg, Simon Jacobs and John Elliot, all of whom have each faced abuse allegations.

“We would sort of reach the point of acknowledging a mutual gayness but there was a point which you didn’t go past,” Daniels said. “There is a whole secrecy kind of context that’s built into the whole situation.”

In the case of Brandenburg, Daniels said he was always surrounded by boys or young men and, while he never saw any inappropriate behaviour, “It made me wonder.”

Daniels denied trading boys with the other men or discussing which youngsters would be most vulnerable to sexual advances and said if there had been discussions they would have been kept light-hearted.

“You would get away with it by it being sort of a joke; there was never any serious discussions,” he told the commission.

Allegations against Daniels were first raised in 1981 by the mother of a 14-year-old Hobart boy who had been sexually propositioned. Then working as an assistant priest, Daniels had counselling at the instruction of the then bishop, Robert Davies, and was told to amend his behaviour.

He was allowed to keep working and was later promoted to roles including a position as head of the General Synod Youth Commission.

In evidence on Wednesday a victim said that in March 1980 Daniels had grabbed him on the genitals as he left a bathroom.

Daniels said he had no recollection of the event. “It is not the kind of thing I was in the custom of doing,” he said.

In 1994 Daniels settled a $34,000 civil claim with a victim. A short time later he resigned, with the church citing “personal reasons” for his departure.

He went on to work as a teacher in the Australian Capital Territory with the Catholic Education Office and the public education system.

Hawkins is listed to give evidence to the inquiry.