Governor general 'took too long to understand child abuse'

Former Governor General Peter Hollingworth, who resigned as the Queen’s representative in Australia a year ago over a paedophilia scandal, said today he took too long to comprehend the damage of child abuse.

Hollingworth, who quit from Australia’s highest public office after an Anglican Church inquiry found he had failed to take strong action against known paedophiles in the church when he was a bishop in the early 1990s, said he had spent the past year coming to terms with the issue of child abuse.