The Independent Commissioner for the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese has upheld a complaint by a Melbourne woman about sexually abusive behaviour by Fr Anthony (Tony) Hicks in the 1970s when she was 15 years old. The Archbishop of Melbourne, Peter Comensoli, has issued a written formal apology to her in 2019 in relation to this matter.
Fr Tony Hicks (born in 1939) was ordained in Melbourne in 1970. He served as an Assistant Priest at in the Melbourne parishes of Manifold Heights, Essendon, Kilmore, Fawkner, St Kilda East and St Patrick’s Cathedral. He was the Administrator at Caulfield Parish and later the Parish Priest in charge at Heidelberg West, Surrey Hills and Wattle Park Parishes until his death in 2010.
In addition to parish duties, Fr Hicks served at Centacare (the church's Melbourne welfare agency) and the Melbourne archdiocese's Marriage Tribunal, and also served as chaplain at Melbourne's Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital.