Anglican Diocese of Sydney

The Diocese of Sydney is located within the Province of New South Wales as part of the Anglican Church of Australia. The diocese extends to Lithgow in the west and the Hawkesbury River in the north. It also includes Sydney, Wollongong and much of the New South Wales south coast.

The Diocese of Sydney (among many other Anglican Dioceses in Australia) was scrutinised by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in April 2017 in its report titled Analysis Of Complaints Of Child Sexual Abuse Received By Anglican Church Dioceses In Australia. In short, the Royal Commission found that between 1970 to 1989, the Diocese of Sydney had received 89 complaints of child sexual abuse making it 8 per cent of overall complaints the Anglican Church had received in Australia during that period. Like in many other Anglican Dioceses in Australia, many victims of sexual abuse told the Royal Commission that their complaints were on many occasions either dismissed, disbelieved or minimised. The Church of England Boys Society (CEBS) run within the Diocese of Sydney was one of the main institutions that received many allegations of sexual abuse. One of the main perpetrators was Simon Jacobs. For many years Simon Jacobs was a lay CEBS leader at CEBS branches in the Diocese of Sydney. He was convicted in 2011 of a large number of sexual offences against six boys and was sentenced to an overall term of imprisonment of nine years. Jacobs was released on parole in September 2016. However, it must be noted that before any serious action was taken against Simon Jacobs, there were numerous complaints and warnings about his conduct towards young boys which were ignored or dismissed by authorities in the Anglican Church.

Moody Law has represented and is currently representing victims of child sexual abuse within the Anglican Diocese of Sydney and is also currently representing clients who were victims at other institutions, schools and dioceses run by the Anglican Church of Australia.

We invite former victims, students, ex-teachers and parents to tell us confidentially what information they may have, and we will explain what options are available to help with these cases.

Call us or complete the confidential enquiry form below.