A retired Melbourne Catholic bishop says he never contemplated telling police about child sex abuse complaints.
Bishop Hilton Deakin, a former Melbourne archdiocese vicar-general and auxiliary bishop, has told the child abuse royal commission he was to verbally report any sexual misconduct complaints to then archbishop Frank Little and there was to be no further discussion.
He says while an auxiliary bishop in 1994, he also told the Apostolic Nuncio, the Pope's representative in Australia, Doveton parish priest Fr Peter Searson was a "most evil person doing evil things to little children".
"I was hoping and praying that something would be done," he told the commission.
A barrister for three abuse victims, Cassie Serpell, suggested there was a range of other actions he could have taken.
Bishop Deakin said going to the police was not one of them.
"I could have done lots of, thousands of things, but I wouldn't have gone to the police," he said. It would be a different matter today, he added.
He did not believe that as vicar-general he could challenge Archbishop Little, who held the position from 1974 to 1996.
"When he says to me `I don't want you to talk to me about this', there's no opportunity left," he said.
"I was a junior official carrying out orders from the boss," he later added.
Bishop Deakin said he came across a case of pedophilia in his first year as a priest in 1959, when a victim spoke to him.
"I didn't know what it was. We didn't call it pedophilia in those days."
He said the case did not go to the police because he did not know what to do.
"I was brand new ... and I went and saw the head of the religious order to which this person belonged and he was moved.
"I didn't think of the police, it just wasn't in my head to think about it."
The man was taken out of the school and died six months later, he said.
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