FORMER Adamstown Anglican priest Chris Bird has been permanently removed from office and stripped of his Holy Orders after he was found to have committed acts of assault, intimidation and bullying over a number of decades.
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The Newcastle Herald reported last year that Mr Bird had been suspended and given six months to rehabilitate himself after the Professional Standards Board found a number of complaints proven, including that he failed to report an allegation of sexual assault against defrocked and disgraced former Newcastle Anglican Dean Graeme Lawrence.
Lawrence was jailed in 2019 for a maximum of eight years for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy at the Christ Church Cathedral deanery in 1991.
The Professional Standards Board determination accepted evidence that in 2018, months after the Royal Commission finished and with charges against him pending, Lawrence allegedly sexually forced himself on a then-23-year-old male parishioner after making him watch graphic child pornography on Lawrence's mobile phone.
They were parked in the car near the Adamstown church, St Stephen's.
The PSB determination found Mr Bird was aware of what had happened and had "failed to report the disclosure of sexual abuse of Witness A to the NSW Police Force or to any other authority", including the church's director of professional standards, and failed to provide pastoral support (or any "other form of support") to the parishioner.
The determination said Witness A initially joined the diocese at Christ Church before moving to St Stephen's, where he regarded Mr Bird as "a role model".
Having met Lawrence, Witness A said he became aware of "the criminal charges pending against" him and alleged Mr Bird "took every opportunity to minimise or negate" Lawrence's part in the crimes with which he was charged.
The determination, written by board president and retired NSW District Court judge Margaret Sidis found the sexual assault allegation "proved to the required level of satisfaction".
Another complaint involved Mr Bird's divinity class at Newcastle Grammar School in the 1980s, and his flicking of a girl's bra strap.
Ms Sidis accepted that one girl's mother reported this to the headmistress at the time, and found Mr Bird's conduct toward this girl was assault.
The determination also found Mr Bird tried to "bully, harass and intimidate" another priest after Mr Bird was named in the Royal Commission in 2016 and his position as honorary police chaplain put on hold.
It found he "harassed" outspoken abuse survivor and church critic Steve Smith at a synod meeting in 2016 and assaulted him with an elbow to the stomach. It found he threatened and intimidated a church office worker that same year.
Lawrence was defrocked in 2012 and the determination canvassed his subsequent presence at St Stephen's. It found Mr Bird disparaged the Professional Standards Office and its work.
In a statement on Sunday, Anglican Bishop of Newcastle Dr Peter Stuart said Mr Bird had appealed the decision to the Diocese's Professional Standards Review Board, but that appeal had recently been dismissed on all counts.
Bishop Stuart said after the appeal was dismissed, he invited Mr Bird to write to him, but said the correspondence showed no contrition.
"Father Bird rails against the professional standards process and further diminishes the people he has hurt," Bishop Stuart said. "He shows no insight into the adverse impact his conduct has had. "He chose to ignore the opportunity to make amends and demonstrate behaviour consistent with the heart of his vocation. "Sadly, I anticipate that those who supported Graeme Lawrence and Father Bird will not recognise that, despite their positive experience of them, both were prepared to set up a church in which people could be harmed and the harm go unchallenged. "As the Bishop, I am absolutely confounded that a priest could possibly behave in conduct themselves in the manner determined by the Professional Standards Board. "After careful consideration, I have resolved to bring this matter to a conclusion, and I have exercised the authority bestowed on me to remove Father Bird from his office and depose him from holy orders."
Bishop Stuart ended by apologising to those "who have been wronged by Father Bird".
"Thank you for your courage in bringing your concerns to us, he said. "You should never have experienced such harm and distress."
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