The primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion in Australia said he left the Catholic priesthood years ago after being sexually abused as a seminarian and young priest in the 1960s and 1970s.

Archbishop John Hepworth, leader of the Traditional Anglican Communion, a breakaway group of Anglicans seeking membership in the Anglican ordinariate set up by Pope Benedict, told The Australian newspaper about his ordeal after he said his complaint against the one surviving alleged abuser was not investigated by the Archdiocese of Adelaide.

Similar complaints filed against two now-deceased priests in the Melbourne Archdiocese led to a compensation payment to Hepworth.

Hepworth said he filed a six-page formal complaint with Church officials in Adelaide in 2008 and followed it up with several other detailed statements.