Archbishop denies trying to silence abuse victims

The head of Australia's Roman Catholic Church rejected resignation calls from supporters of child-abuse victims yesterday, denying his compensation offers amounted to efforts to buy the silence of people who said they had been sexually abused by priests.

The Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell, admitted on television that he had offered a family A$50,000 (£19,500) in exchange for a promise not to sue over claims that their two girls had been sexually abused for six years by a priest from 1987, when the younger girl was five.

An interviewer on the 60 Minutes show had confronted him with a 1998 letter from lawyers acting for him when he was Archbishop of Melbourne. Yesterday, Dr Pell released copies of the letter and pointed out there was "no reference to any requirement of secrecy".

He told reporters: "The allegations that I attempted to silence anyone are totally unfounded and untrue. To suggest this is 'hush money' is absurd." He said he had been "ambushed" into confused answers. Ninety priests and Roman Catholic church employees in Australia have been convicted of sex-abuse offences in the past 10 years.