12-09-2025, 11:40 AM
A searing expose of institutional child abuse, and the remarkable story of the survivors who would not be silenced.
'A unique story of pain and triumph told superbly by Anne Manne, who follows victims of abuse as they shatter an old alliance between leading citizens of Newcastle and its Anglican cathedral on the hill which for decades protected brazen paedophile priests. In all the writing of the last few years about clerical child abuse, there's nothing like Crimes of the Cross. ' – David Marr
For many years, Newcastle was the centre of a sinister paedophile network run by members of the Anglican Church – and protected by parishioners and community members who looked the other way.
In this gripping book, Anne Manne reveals how this network avoided detection for so long, and how its ringleaders were finally exposed and brought to justice. At the heart of the story is a survivor, Steve Smith, who endured years of childhood abuse but refused to be silenced.
Drawing on extensive research and interviews with survivors, clergy, lay people, police and others, Manne explores how the network operated and how it became entrenched in the upper echelons of Newcastle society. She offers deep insights into the minds and strategies of abusers and pays tribute to the victims and their tireless struggle for justice. Child sexual abuse has previously been thought of as an individual crime; Manne pioneers an examination of it as part of a network.
This is an unforgettable story of courage in the face of unthinkable evil.
Quote: In 2017, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found that within the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle, priests had perpetuated crimes of abuse for at least 30 years. Serious allegations were mismanaged, misplaced or ignored. Crimes were minimised. “Abusive and predatory” behaviour was wrongly portrayed as “consensual”.
In her new book, Crimes of the Cross, journalist Anne Manne provides an intricate and compelling account of how multiple diocesan clergy and leaders covered up allegations, protected priests who were known perpetrators and failed to care for survivors.
Manne builds on the groundbreaking work of Newcastle Herald journalist Joanne McCarthy, whose investigations, starting in 2006, led to the establishment of the 2012 royal commission. Manne’s writing is informed by a variety of source materials, including interviews with McCarthy and various survivors, and evidence from the royal commission.
On the first page, Manne warns us this story is about a “sinister paedophile ring of priests demonic in their cruelty”, supported by “a ‘grey network’ of protectors”. These protectors – clergy and lay people – staffed helplines, were on professional standards committees, mismanaged or ignored complaints, and never reported criminal activity to police.
At least six priests associated with the diocese and one lay reader have been convicted of child sex offending. Other priests were identified as “prolific” abusers, but not convicted in their lifetime.
Crimes of the Cross centres the stories of survivors. Their testimonies are retold with sensitivity, although explicit and distressing detail is provided at times (including in the opening pages).
Manne’s work concentrates primarily on one survivor – Steven Smith – who, from the age of ten, was repeatedly abused by a priest, Father George Parker. This happened over five years, from 1971 to 1975 – the year Parker was transferred to nearby Gateshead, where the abuse (initially) continued.
The 1971 arrival of Parker, then aged 30, is presented as a disruption to Smith’s happy and carefree childhood. Smith told Manne his childhood summers were spent in Bush Creek, “fishing and swimming”.
Despite this, Smith told Manne his parents’ marital problems made his family vulnerable. Their life revolved around the church community. At first, Smith felt proud of Parker’s attention to him.
However, when he became an altar boy, “everything changed” and the abuse started. Assaults happened at church, in the car with Parker, driving between churches, when his mother sent him to visit the rectory, and when Parker would pull him out of school, no questions asked. Smith said he was abused “fortnightly”; he was raped “hundreds of times”. His abuse, he said, was a “kind of kidnapping”.