ADELAIDE, Australia — Police investigating decades-old allegations of child sex abuse in the Anglican Church in South Australia state arrested nine men Sunday, including two former ministers, a former surfing coach and welfare workers.
More arrests were expected, police said.
"There are other people that are the subject of ongoing investigations," Detective Superintendent Grant Stevens said. "There is still quite a long way to go; this is only the first stage in the process."
As news of the arrests developed, an Anglican Church apology was read to congregations across Adelaide.
South Australia's police formed a task force in May 2003 in response to more than 100 claims of child sex abuse within the Anglican Church in Adelaide in past decades. By late last year, the task force uncovered 217 alleged child sex abuse victims and 48 possible offenders.
On June 11, Archbishop Ian George resigned over the scandal — just months before his scheduled retirement.
George initiated an independent investigation into the handling of the sex abuse allegations, which earlier this month found the church protected itself at the expense of victims.
The suspects include a 58-year-old former minister, who allegedly assaulted four teenagers between 1973 and 2000, Stevens said.
Another former Anglican minister, 59, was facing four indecent assault charges and one count of sodomy. All of the offenses allegedly involved a preteen child and occurred between 1970 and 1975.
A former Anglican Church foster-care provider, 54, was charged with indecently assaulting an 11-year-old when the child was a ward of the state between 1980 and 1981.
The other men charged faced counts of indecent assault. One, a former surfing coach, now 78, also was charged with eight counts of rape relating to incidents involving two young boys between 1952 and 1980.
Congregations across Adelaide heard an apology from the church Sunday.
"We apologize for the shameful way we have actively worked against and discouraged those who have come to us and reported abuse. . . . We are ashamed to have to acknowledge we only took notice when the survivors of abuse became a threat to us," the apology said.
The independent investigation said George, whose tenure was supposed to end in August, was not personally accused of abuse but was criticized for not dealing adequately with alleged victims molested by church workers.
More than two years ago, Peter Hollingworth, then governor general, was disgraced in an Anglican Church inquiry that found he failed to take strong action against known pedophiles in the church when he was a bishop in the early 1990s.
He resigned as the British queen's representative in Australia last year.