Transcript
CHRIS UHLMANN, PRESENTER: Here is a story about an Attorney-General and a priest. One of the most senior lawmakers in the country is tonight make accused of making derogatory comments about a woman who alleges that she was abused as a child by a priest. Until last year NSW Attorney-General Greg Smith had a long association with his one-time Catholic priest Finian Egan, even praising him in Parliament. That appears to have ended some time after police began investigating allegations from five people that Finian Egan had abused them as children. Now 7.30 has been shown evidence suggesting the Attorney-General made insulting comments about one of Finian Egan's accusers, allegedly branding the child sex victim just after money from the church. Tim Palmer reports.
???: There was nowhere that was safe for me. I wasn't safe anywhere. The abuse started when I was in the later years of primary school.

TIM PALMER, REPORTER: Father Finian Egan's more than 50 years as a priest took him to at least half a dozen churches in and around Sydney. But the priest's service in the Catholic Church came to an end when a number of women came forward to accuse him of abusing them when they were children.

KELLIE-ANNE ROCHE (2010): I just tried to stop him from touching my breasts to show him that's not where I want his hands ... without saying anything, because he was - priests are one step down from God.

TIM PALMER: Within weeks of 7.30 airing a series of stories in 2010 on Finian Egan, at least five people had gone to police and a widespread investigation was underway.

But nearly two years later, the priest hasn't been arrested or charged.

NIKKI WELLS: The wait's been absolutely horrendous. It's been really traumatic. The statements with the police were finalised in 2010. We've been told that the case is currently on the DPP's desk, but it's been on the DPP's desk for about seven months now. They keep telling us they're just waiting for a signature. So, to me, it's beyond me how it could be so long. You know, the case has been investigated. It's very clear the evidence is there from all of the witnesses. I don't understand why he hasn't been charged.

TIM PALMER: Finian Egan has always maintained his innocence.

As the case dragged on, questions were raised about the alleged sex offender's long-time association with the man who's now Attorney-General, Greg Smith. Mr Smith and Finian Egan go back some years, and when Greg Smith was elected to Parliament five years ago, he cited Finian Egan's influence in his maiden speech to Parliament.

GREG SMITH, NSW LIBERAL MP (2007): ... Father Finian Egan charmed us with his Irish wit and his pastorally devotion to his flock.

TIM PALMER: There are other connections to Greg Smith's office. Damien Tudehope is now the Attorney-General's chief of staff. He too knows Finian Egan well. He attended the priest's church and as a solicitor defended him against sexual abuse allegations. The ABC does not suggest that either Greg Smith or Damien Tudehope have interfered with the potential prosecution of Finian Egan. But 7.30 can reveal documents that describe discussions the Attorney-General had about the Egan matter.

Last year, one of the alleged victims, Nikki Wells, spoke to another Catholic priest about her frustration at the delay. That priest, who the ABC has agreed not to name, says he then met Attorney-General Greg Smith last July. After that meeting the priest detailed his version of what was said in an email back to Nikki Wells, an email the ABC has obtained. The priest wrote, "I was with Greg Smith the other day and I raised your case with him. He commented that, '... you were just trying to get $1 million from the church.'"

NIKKI WELLS: I was horrified. I was completely horrified that the chief lawmaker in the state could make a comment on an open criminal matter for a start, but secondly that he could pass judgment on someone he doesn't even know, and, you know, just disbelief about the whole matter that our Attorney-General could speak so publicly about me and my case and a criminal matter. Horrified.

DAVID SHOEBRIDGE, GREENS MP: There is, for me, no political excuse for the Attorney-General of the day making derogatory comments about a victim when that matter is before the DPP for potential sexual abuse charges.

TIM PALMER: The ABC asked the Attorney-General if the priest's email description of the meeting and what was said was correct. In response Greg Smith issued a statement saying, "The Attorney General recalls no such conversation and notes that 7.30 has failed to provide any details which would help his recall. He says he would never suggest any victim of sexual abuse was simply motivated by a desire to claim a financial payout."

Against that the priest said today he did meet Greg Smith, they discussed Nikki Wells and the email remains his account of what was said.

At the time Nikki Wells received the priest's email detailing the alleged comment by Greg Smith, she wrote back angrily.

NIKKI WELLS (female voiceover): "Does he really think we're all lying? What kind of man says things like that about victims of abuse? He really should not be commenting on any case in these circumstances, let alone the character of a witness."

Clearly he thinks I'm a liar and clearly he thinks other witnesses and other victims are lying as well about it, because I'm not the only victim in this matter; there's several of us, and there's probably a lot more that haven't even come forward yet. But a clear lack of empathy and devastating unprofessionalism.

TIM PALMER: Beyond the alleged comment that Nikki Wells was just after money, the email raises other questions. In fact Nikki Wells had discussed a $1 million figure with the Church, not for herself, but as the loan for a charity she was running to care for survivors of childhood abuse. She was shocked that the Attorney-General would know anything about that $1 million figure, something she'd raised only with senior churchmen, and she said so in her email back to the priest.

The priest replied:

PRIEST (male voiceover): "... this is what he had heard and that concerns me where this had come from. He is well-connected within the church - he seems to know all the hierarchy - much more in the know than I am."

DAVID SHOEBRIDGE: Well in my dealings with him on this issue, it's an attorney that's more likely to defend the Church than get out and defend the victims.

TIM PALMER: The email raises several serious questions for the Attorney-General. Why was he discussing an ongoing criminal investigation with an outside party? Why did he choose to discuss it with a priest from the same church as the alleged sex offender? And why did he apparently denigrate the alleged victim of a childhood sexual offence?

David Shoebridge put a series of questions to Greg Smith on notice in Parliament. Among them he asked the attorney whether he'd had any communication with anyone beyond the DPP regarding the Finian Egan case. But in his answers Greg Smith did not address that issue at all, only stating that his office hadn't been in contact with the DPP about it.

DAVID SHOEBRIDGE: It's a remarkable lack of candour. It was a very specific question capable of a very precise answer and we simply didn't get that. ... If the half of the answer you don't give is the core of the information, you've got to ask whether or not that is misleading the person asking the question.

NIKKI WELLS: Pathetic. His response was pathetic. And, you know, the Government shouldn't allow him to be able to respond to those questions. They were specific questions. He hasn't responded. He's answered five questions in one line. He's completely evasive. Why is he being so evasive? Why isn't he answering the questions?

CHRIS UHLMANN: Tim Palmer with that report.

interesting this case 2 years..

THOMO case 3.5 years and counting..

Im not sure what I'm supposed to reply to. An untested and unproven allegation is hardly the same as a conviction. PLus my point is about liberal or labor child sex offenders no any other segment of society.

So while I am sure this was mean to be some kind of attack on the Libs but it came across as an

EPIC FAIL

Johnsmith wrote on Apr 5^th, 2012 at 8:53pm:


the discussion was about liberal versus labor sex offenders. There are dozens on the labor side and zero on the liberal side - and that is just on the basis of convictions. Try and stay on topic, wil you?

Johnsmith wrote on Apr 6^th, 2012 at 8:18am:


sigh... 'context is king' in literary interpretaion and you shoudl try it sometime. the debate at hand was a COMPARATIVE one and I used convictions because the data is freely available and indisputable( except to skippy). An untested and unproven allegation is quite inferior to a conviction, but that does not mean it lacks any merit. There was a SA Labor MP whose child sex allegations remain untested because he offed himself before court but few doubt his guilt - even in the ALP. If the argument were about convicted felons then Thomson would not ne part of the discussion. But if the discussion is about dodgy pollies and those who shoudl be charged then he is very much part of the mix.

It must be embararssing for you to support a party which has such a long and appalling record of pedophilia, embezzlement and corruption.

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Im not sure what I'm supposed to reply to. An untested and unproven allegation is hardly the same as a conviction.