Here the long-time dean of Newcastle, Graeme Lawrence, was the key figure. Lawrence, finally jailed in 2019 for sexually assaulting a boy (he was paroled on April 10), was the fox in charge of the henhouse, the man responsible for overseeing the response to allegations.

According to Manne, Lawrence was a formidable networker, far and away the most influential cleric in the diocese, who cultivated civic, political, legal and social relationships. In so doing, she writes, “he effectively groomed a whole city”. He established a “halo effect”, “a reservoir of admiration and goodwill, whereby people see the abuser as beyond reproach, enabling them to hide in plain sight”.

Bishop Roger Herft was willing putty in the hands of people such as Lawrence. Herft was savaged by the royal commission, which simply did not believe much of what he said, and was deposed from Anglican holy orders in December 2021. Yet at the end of the hearing this most culpable of prelates finally seemed to grasp the seriousness of his failures. Manne records a touching scene after his evidence when he tremulously apologised to Steve Smith, who said he forgave him.

There were heroes too, church and police who believed and championed the victims, particularly business manager John Cleary, diocesan investigator Michael Elliott, who both received death threats among other unpleasantness, the Reverend Roger Dyer and Detective Jeff Lantle.

But things really improved when change came at the top in the form of Bishop Greg Thompson, himself an abuse victim who brought the experience, determination and authority to reform the diocesan responses to abuse complaints.

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Manne relies heavily on the royal commission, surely one of the most important and effective investigations in Australian history, and its case study 42 on the Newcastle Anglicans, itself 400 pages long. But she has immersed herself in the diocese and in the victims’ stories.

Her narrative is all the more powerful for being mostly matter of fact and unemotional. She is too wise to gild the lily when it comes to the suffering of the victims and their supporters, a temptation to which some journalists succumb. The bald narrative contains all the power she needs, and I confess it brought me to tears several times.
The paedophiles and their protectors have done incalculable damage, first to victims then to the institution. The light Manne casts is therefore all the more valuable.

Barney Zwartz, a senior fellow of the Centre for Public Christianity, was religion editor of The Age from 2002 to 2013.