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Sydney Morning Herald:
*****
Bishop Shearman said he thought the girl was older at the time of the alleged abuse.
"If she was the age she says, she was very advanced for her years; my understanding was that she was 16."
In a statement to the Herald, the woman said she was first interfered with when she was 14. At first, it "seemed like he was making me his favourite", giving her cards and gifts..
He began having intercourse with her when she was 15.
"He told me that God meant it to be that he started having sex with me," the woman said.
Two years after the abuse began, Bishop Shearman expelled her from the boarding house. He had told her earlier that his wife "told him if he didn't stop making a pet of me, she would go to the bishop".
She said she married and was physically abused by her husband.
She had five children, one of whom died of leukaemia.
In deep depression, 20 years after the abuse, she turned to the priest "in desperation" for help.
He had by then been made a bishop, and they began a sexual relationship that continued intermittently for years.
At one point, the bishop resigned his commission, went to live with her and said he would marry her, but church officials persuaded him not to.
Eventually he ended the relationship, telling her he was "too old" for her.
She said it was only in the early 1990s when, after counselling and learning about sex abuse by the clergy, that she accepted her experiences were responsible for many of her problems.
Bishop Shearman said the fact that the woman returned to him indicated she had not been abused.
"Abuse is a term I reject. I think there might be a great deal of revenge in all of this; sometimes I think I have been set up."
*****
Where do they GET these people?
I booked a small room in a cheap motel
Somewhere to hide and a cure to sell
I call it passion; I'll make them bleed
No one to love but a ghost to feed
I was a puppet pulling my own strings
I can't believe that I did such things
I was a shadow, but God forgives
Now I'm a priest and Jesus lives
I cure things
Sweet young things
I'll take their pain away
I cure things
Sweet young things
Like someone walks on their grave
How can I save you if you don't confess?
Kneel down, bitch and be truly blessed
*****
Bishop Shearman said he thought the girl was older at the time of the alleged abuse.
"If she was the age she says, she was very advanced for her years; my understanding was that she was 16."
In a statement to the Herald, the woman said she was first interfered with when she was 14. At first, it "seemed like he was making me his favourite", giving her cards and gifts..
He began having intercourse with her when she was 15.
"He told me that God meant it to be that he started having sex with me," the woman said.
Two years after the abuse began, Bishop Shearman expelled her from the boarding house. He had told her earlier that his wife "told him if he didn't stop making a pet of me, she would go to the bishop".
She said she married and was physically abused by her husband.
She had five children, one of whom died of leukaemia.
In deep depression, 20 years after the abuse, she turned to the priest "in desperation" for help.
He had by then been made a bishop, and they began a sexual relationship that continued intermittently for years.
At one point, the bishop resigned his commission, went to live with her and said he would marry her, but church officials persuaded him not to.
Eventually he ended the relationship, telling her he was "too old" for her.
She said it was only in the early 1990s when, after counselling and learning about sex abuse by the clergy, that she accepted her experiences were responsible for many of her problems.
Bishop Shearman said the fact that the woman returned to him indicated she had not been abused.
"Abuse is a term I reject. I think there might be a great deal of revenge in all of this; sometimes I think I have been set up."
*****
Where do they GET these people?
I booked a small room in a cheap motel
Somewhere to hide and a cure to sell
I call it passion; I'll make them bleed
No one to love but a ghost to feed
I was a puppet pulling my own strings
I can't believe that I did such things
I was a shadow, but God forgives
Now I'm a priest and Jesus lives
I cure things
Sweet young things
I'll take their pain away
I cure things
Sweet young things
Like someone walks on their grave
How can I save you if you don't confess?
Kneel down, bitch and be truly blessed
