By Emily Crane For Daily Mail Australia A secret Catholic Church report found an Australian parish priest had been internally investigated and found guilty of child sex abuse, despite no criminal charges ever being laid against him. A report into a confidential investigation into Father Peter Searson of the Doveton parish, south east of Melbourne, in 1997 found he was guilty of the offences, ABC's Four Corners reports. While Cardinal George Pell rejected a church cover-up of Father Searson's crimes when he gave evidence at last year's Victorian inquiry into child sex abuse, he did not make reference to the internal 1997 investigation or the finding that he had sexually abused children in his parish.
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A confidential church investigation in 1997 found a Victorian Catholic priest had sexually abused young children
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Revelations the church knew about Father Peter Searson's abuse were found in a report by an Independent Commissioner Peter O'Callaghan
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But the Melbourne Archdiocese never released the findings, despite Father Searson being found guilty
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He was the parish priest at Doveton, south east of Melbourne, from 1984
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Father Searson was eventually placed on administrative leave but he wasn't sacked by the church when the assault charges were laid
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