No charges are to be laid against Adelaide Catholic priest Monsignor Ian Dempsey over claims he raped a fellow seminarian in the 1960s.
In 2011, Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) Archbishop John Hepworth said he had been raped by three priests, beginning in 1960 when he was 15.
Senator Nick Xenophon named Dempsey as one of the rapists under federal parliamentary privilege, saying the Catholic church had taken too long to investigate.
Hepworth then filed a police complaint in 2011 after an internal church investigation found there was no substance to the allegations.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in South Australia has now decided no charges will be laid over the allegations against Monsignor Dempsey, parish priest of Brighton and Hallett Cove.
The Vicar General of the Adelaide Archdiocese, Father Philip Marshall, confirmed the decision on Thursday.
“This matter can now be brought to a close,” he said in a statement.
“I thank the parishioners of Brighton and Hallett Cove for their prayers and support during this difficult time and I hope that all parties involved can now move forward with their lives.”
Dempsey told ABC radio it was a relief to have been cleared by another investigation and he was keen to get on with his work.
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“The only trouble of course is once this type of thing is said and the mud is thrown I can never prove that I’m innocent,” he said.
“I know I am innocent, three lots of inquiries have found there’s no charges but I can’t prove that, so that’s one little thing I have to live with.”
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