Hollingworth forced to clarify 'bottom like a peach' claim

Former Governor-General Peter Hollingworth spent much of yesterday defending his comments that a Queensland sexual abuse victim had to accept a share of the blame because he had a "bottom like a peach".
Dr Hollingworth was in damage control mode after the peach comments were made public in a letter the Governor-General wrote to the Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane recently.
In it, Dr Hollingworth made the peach claim while referring to the church's response to the alleged abuse of the four-year-old boy at an Anglican kindergarten in Toowoomba in the 1950s.
Dr Hollingworth told ABC radio that he naturally abhorred reported cases of sexual abuse of very young minors.
It was ridiculous to aportion any blame whatsoever to the boy for any abuse that may or may not have taken place before the boy was finally rushed to Toowoomba General Hospital in the mid 60s for a life-saving blood transfusion and emergency rectal-repair surgery.
He had only alluded to the boy's exceptionally healthy bottom to highlight his very young age and as his way of expressing his disgust that an adult in a position of authority could defile such a beautiful young boy and hope to get away with it.
"I am told it did look very much like a peach, all pink and slightly furry."
But he added that the church's kindergarten teachers were only human and the boy's parents could easily have avoided any alleged sexual abuse that may have taken place if they had made him wear much looser-fitting clothing.
"Perhaps then the alleged perpetrator would not have been seduced into slipping a length into the youngster," Dr Hollingworth told the ABC.
A spokesman for Dr Hollingworth later phoned the ABC back to say that the former Governor-General's use of the word "seduced" earlier in no way implied that the boy had in any way instigated or provoked the alleged sexual abuse.
He said Dr Hollingworth also regretted the use of the expression "slipping a length".
The spokesperson added: "He (Hollingworth and not the Toowoomba boy) is still under an awful amount of pressure at the moment and is very, very sorry for on-going comments that continue to be misconstrued by an overly aggressive, biased and unfair media hellbent on grabbing a misleading headline or two."
Late last night, the spokesperson issued a further statement following Dr Hollingworth's latest appearance on the ABC television program, Australian Story - his first TV appearance since resigning as Governor-General.
The statement said Dr Hollingworth also regretted using a number of expressions to describe the various young women who have claimed to be victims of sexual abuse while in the care of the Anglican Church or its affiliated education institutions.
The expressions he now regretted using included "yo-yo pants", "root rats", and a colloquialism involving references to gusty wind conditions and the movement of a toilet door.