Hollingworth denies rape charge in TV address

The Queen’s embattled representative in Australia denied on Thursday he had raped a woman when he was a clergyman in the 1960s, fuelling the biggest controversy to hit the vice-regal office in decades.

Governor-General Peter Hollingworth — who is facing calls to resign for mishandling child sex abuse complaints when he was an Anglican archbishop in the 1990s — said a woman had made the rape claims in a civil case before a Victoria state court. ‘‘I did not know this woman. I did not rape her. I did not sexually assault her. I deny absolutely that I have ever raped or in any way sexually assaulted any person,’’ Hollingworth said in a statement and a televised address.

Hollingworth, 68, made no comment on his future as Governor-General despite growing calls for him to step down from those who feel he has brought the office into disrepute.

The woman, who was seeking financial compensation but has died, alleged that Hollingworth became acquainted with her when she was aged 19 or 20 at a Friday night youth group in a church hall of the Anglican Diocese of Bendigo in Victoria.