fbpx
Wikipedia

Catholic Church sexual abuse cases in Australia

March 09, 2023

Catholic sexual abuse cases in Australia, like Catholic Church sexual abuse cases elsewhere, have involved convictions, trials and ongoing investigations into allegations of sex crimes committed by Catholic priests, members of religious orders and other personnel which have come to light in recent decades, along with the growing awareness of sexual abuse within other religious and secular institutions.[1]

Criticisms of the church have centred both on the nature and extent of abuse, and on historical and contemporary management of allegations by church officials. Internally, the church began updating its protocols in the 1990s, and papal apologies for abuse in Australia were made by Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.[2] A number of government enquiries have also examined church practices—most notably the 2015–17 Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The royal commission established that some 4,444 claimants alleged incidents of child sexual abuse in 4,756 reported claims to Catholic Church authorities (some claimants made a claim of child sexual abuse against more than one Catholic Church authority) and at least 1,880 suspected abusers from 1980 to 2015. Most of those suspected of abuse were Catholic priests and religious brothers and 62% of the survivors who told the commission they were abused in religious institutions were abused in a Catholic facility.[3][4]

Australia's Catholic leaders had been among the first in the world to publicly address management of child abuse: In 1996, the church issued a document, Towards Healing, which it described as seeking to "establish a compassionate and just system for dealing with complaints of abuse".[5] Inquiries have since established that historically, church officials had often failed to prevent future abuse by clergy who had come to their attention by transferring clergy and religious to new parishes or dioceses and not stripping them of their religious status.[6] A widely reported 2012 claim in a Victorian police report that 43 suicide deaths were directly related to abuse by clergy spurred the formation of a Victorian state Parliamentary Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and other Organisations.[7][8] In October 2012, the Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police, Ken Lay, in a submission to a parliamentary inquiry on the issue, recommended that some of the church's actions to hinder investigations (including dissuading victims from reporting to police, failing to engage with police and alerting suspects of allegations against them) be criminalised.[9]

The Gillard Government called a wide-ranging royal commission in 2013 to examine religious and non-religious institutions and their responses to child abuse allegations. Archbishop Denis Hart, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, said he welcomed the royal commission, as did the Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, who said that he hoped it would help victims and stop a "smear campaign" against the church.[10][11] Pell was himself later convicted of child sex offences, but was acquitted by the High Court of Australia on 7 April 2020.[12]

The Bishops Conference established a national co-ordinating body, called the Truth, Justice and Healing Council, to oversee the church's engagement with the royal commission and the pastoral and other ramifications that arose from the sexual abuse scandal.[13]

Of the 201 Catholic Church authorities surveyed by the royal commission, 92 (46%) reported having received at least one claim of child sexual abuse. Overall, some 4,444 claimants alleged incidents of abuse in 4,756 reported claims over the period 1950–2015 (86% of claims related to pre-1990 incidents). The 3,057 claims resulting in a payment for redress amounted to $268 million between 1980 and 2015. Alleged perpetrators were overwhelmingly male (90%) and religious brothers were disproportionally highly responsible (having the most claimants and some 37% of all alleged perpetrators, despite being numerically inferior to priests and religious sisters). By means of a weighted index, the commission found that at 75 archdioceses/dioceses and religious institutes with priest members examined, some 7% of priests (who worked in Australia between 1950 and 2009[14]) were alleged perpetrators (this finding did not represent allegations tested in a court of law).[4] Senior Counsel Gail Furness told the commission that "Children were ignored or worse, punished. Allegations were not investigated. Priests and religious leaders were moved. The parishes or communities to which they were moved knew nothing of their past. Documents were not kept or they were destroyed."[15][16] By August 2011, according to Broken Rites, a support and advocacy group for church-related sex abuse victims, there had been over 100 cases in Australia where Catholic priests had been charged for sex offences against minors, as well as others involving non-custodial sentences and inconclusive proceedings.[17]

On 3 June 2019, 18 months after being ordered to do so by the country's Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse, the Australian Catholic Church published its National Catholic Safeguarding Standards.[18] The standards closely parallel the commission's recommendations as well as norms enshrined by the government in the National Principles for Child Safe Organizations, although some provisions were watered down.[18] One notable alteration concerned the number of hours per year that people should be undergoing professional and pastoral supervision, which was reduced from the recommended 12 hours to six hours.[18]

On 7 May 2020, newly released portions of the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse's report stated that Pell knew about sex abuse in the church as early as 1973.[19] On 8 May 2020, the Australian Supreme Court established an Institutional Liability List to administer child sex abuse lawsuits[20] The list includes claims for damages arising from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.[20] The royal commission's allegations against George Pell and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ballarat played a role in the creation of the list.[20]

In September 2020, the Australian state of Queensland passed legislation which makes it so that religious institutions, such as the Catholic Church, and their members are no longer able to use the sanctity of confession as a defence against failing to report material information about the sexual abuse of children.[21][22] Under the new Queensland law, clergy who refuse to report confessions of sex abuse will face a maximum sentence of three years in prison.[21]

Cases

Archdiocese of Adelaide

See also: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide

On 13 September 2011, Senator Nick Xenophon used parliamentary privilege to name an Adelaide priest as the alleged perpetrator of six sexual assaults on John Hepworth about 50 years earlier. Senator Xenophon alleged that the vicar-general of the Adelaide archdiocese, Monsignor David Cappo, had been provided with detailed allegations in 2008 but had failed to act upon them, the investigations still being "at a preliminary stage" and the priest concerned not being stood down during the investigation.[23] Monsignor Cappo subsequently resigned from several governmental positions.[24] The Catholic Church established a formal independent inquiry, conducted by Michael Abbott, QC, found that there was no substance to the allegations.[25]

Father Albert Davis (d. 2007), a member of the Dominican order, was charged in 2006 with 17 incidents of indecent assault involving seven boys at Blackfriars Priory School between 1956 and 1960. Davis was committed to stand trial in the Adelaide District Court, but he died before proceedings were commenced.[26]

Father Charles Barnett pleaded guilty in 2009 (after extradition from Indonesia) to three child sex charges for events between 1977 and 1985 at Crystal Brook and Port Pirie.[27]

Archdiocese of Sydney

See also: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney

In 2007, Ross Murrin, 52, a former Sydney Catholic school teacher and Marist Brother, accused of indecently assaulting eight male Year 5 students at a Daceyville school in south-east Sydney in 1974, pleaded guilty to some of the 21 charges.[28]

In 2016, Fr Roger Flaherty received a sentence of two years and two weeks in prison five months after pleading guilty to molesting three altar boys in the 1970s and 1980s.[29] However, Flaherty's advanced age and poor health allowed him to be eligible for parole six months into his sentence.[29] Former Sydney archbishop Cardinal James Freeman and auxiliary bishop Edward Kelly were accused of shielding Flaherty from prosecution when the acts of sex abuse were committed.[29]

In 2017, Fr Denis Chrysostom Alexander was arrested in Sydney and faces an extradition to Scotland for sexual and physical abuse he reportedly committed at the former Fort Augustus Abbey in the 1970s.[30] The sex abuse investigation against Alexander also resulted in the Archdiocese of Sydney stripping him being of his priestly faculties in Australia by 2013 as well.[31][32]

In 2018, the Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, was convicted of child sex offences, but was acquitted by the High Court of Australia in 2020.

In April 2019, Fr Anthony Caruana was arrested and charged with sexually abusing five minors, including one male minor, between the years 1982 and 1988 when he was a dormitory manager, rugby coach and band teacher at Chevalier College.[33]

In November 2020, Theo Overberg, the secretary for the Jesuit Conference Asia-Pacific at the Jesuit Curia in Rome, and Laurence Leonard, who recently served as spiritual director at the Corpus Christi seminary in Melbourne, have each been charged with indecently assaulting three boys during the 1970s at Sydney's Saint Ignatius' College Riverview.[34]

Marist Brothers

In February 2020, convicted Marist Brother William Wade, who served as principal of five Australian Marist Brother-run high schools, pleaded guilty to also concealing the abuse from authorities.[35]

Diocese of Armidale

See also: Roman Catholic Diocese of Armidale

This diocese incorporates 25 parishes and 24 schools within about 90,000 km2[36] and is one of, if not the highest density locations of Catholic child sexual abuse in Australia on a per capita basis. The extraordinary and shocking story of 'Father F', later to be identified as former Armidale local, and former Catholic Priest John Joseph Farrell, was central to the ABC Television program Four Corners expose "Unholy Silence".[37] This was first broadcast on Monday 2 July 2012[38] and was potentially the final trigger that led to the then prime minister, Julia Gillard, announcing the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The reaction of Armidale locals to the program was strong and one of indignation that something should have been done sooner by the Catholic Church.[39] Case Study 44 of the Royal Commission (Held Monday 19 to Thursday 22 September 2016[40]) focused specifically on this case of a former Catholic priest abusing children over a 20-year period and the alleged cover-up by the church hierarchy including Father Bernard Flood, Father Richard Gleeson, Monsignor Wayne Peters (dec), Father Brian Lucas, Monsignor John Usher, Bishop Gerard Hanna (ret), Bishop Bede Heather (ret), Bishop Luc Matthys (most of whom gave evidence to the Royal Commission[41]) and even Australia's most senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell.[42]

On 1 November 2019, former Diocese of Armidale priest David Perrett pleaded not guilty to 139 charges of child sexual assault at a number of locations, including Armidale, Guyra, Walgett, Moree, Penrith, Bundarra, Lower Creek and Sawtell between the 1960s and 1990s.[43] Perrett, aged 82, had been arrested for these charges and was denied bail in August 2018,[44] but was later granted bail in April 2019 after he was told he had only six months to a year to live.[45] In February 2020, it was ruled that Perrett would stand trial starting 18 January 2021.[46] However, Perrett died while awaiting trial.[47]

Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle

See also: Roman Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle and Philip Wilson

The diocese has been referred to as the "epicentre of Catholic clerical sexual abuse in Australia"[48] due to a number of paedophile priests with extensive abuse records being jailed since 1997, a dedicated clergy abuse police strikeforce (Strike Force Lantle) having laid more than 170 abuse charges.[49] Convicted abusers include Father Vincent Ryan (a $6 million compensation payout to victims, setting a record for the Catholic Church in Australia), Father David O'Hearn (serving a 23-year sentence)[50] and Father James Fletcher (died in jail in 2006).[51]

John Sidney Denham pleaded guilty to 29 child sex charges involving 27 boys under his care while a priest in Newcastle in the 1970s.[52] It was alleged that the Archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, knew about clerical sexual abuse when serving in the New South Wales' diocese of Maitland-Newcastle in the late 1970s and 1980s.[48] On 27 July 2012, John Pirona was found dead in his car five days after leaving a letter ending "too much pain", this referring to his abuse by a paedophile priest in 1979 when Pirona was 12, the event occurring a year after Maitland-Newcastle bishop Leo Clarke was informed that the priest was a sex offender.[53]

On 31 July 2012, NSW Police in Strike Force Lantle announced they would be providing prosecutors with evidence that Father Brian Lucas, general secretary of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Archbishop Wilson of Adelaide and Michael Malone, retired Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle, had committed the offence of concealing a serious crime under s316 of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) in concealing child sexual abuse by the priest Denis McAlinden (now deceased) in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese. The evidence includes an admission by then Maitland-Newcastle bishop, Leo Clarke, to McAlinden that "your good name will be protected by the confidential nature of the process" despite "your admission to Father Brian Lucas and other evidence" and a letter from the late Maitland-Newcastle monsignor Patrick Cotter to Bishop Clarke that McAlinden "feels no such inclination towards mature females but towards the little ones. I have never heard of this condition before and knowing Father McAlinden as we do, we do not think it can be real serious."[54] In November 2012 the Premier of New South Wales, Barry O'Farrell, ordered a special commission of inquiry into allegations of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in this diocese and whether the church had hindered police investigations.[55] Presided over by Margaret Cunneen SC, she reported her findings to the Governor of New South Wales, Marie Bashir, on 30 May 2014.[56] On 22 May 2018, the Newcastle Local Court found Wilson guilty of the charge of failing to report allegations of child sexual abuse by Fletcher in 1976.[57][58] Wilson was given a maximum sentence of 12 months in detention for concealing child sexual abuse in the 1970s.[59] On 6 December 2018, Wilson was acquitted of all the charges of which he had previously been found guilty. The Director of Public Prosecutions had been reported to be considering a challenge in the Supreme Court of New South Wales but on 20 December, announced that there were no reasonable prospects of success of appeal on errors of law.

On 15 February 2017 it was reported that the Catholic Church in Australia had secretly paid the equivalent of $276.1 million in compensation to thousands of people sexually abused as children by priests and religious brothers.[60] Between 1980 and 2015, the Christian Brothers, which operated a number of residential facilities, made the highest number of payments at 763, totaling $48.5 million.[60] Most reported incidents of sex abuse occurred between 1950 and 1989.[60] Some reported incidents occurred as early as the 1920s and the latest after 2010.[60] On March 17, 2020, it was revealed that a 76-year-old priest was charged with three counts of indecent assault which reportedly occurred between 1979 and 1980.[61] On 6 March 2018, it was reported that Lake Macquarie Strike Force Georgiana detectives charged Maitland-Newcastle priest David O'Hearn, who was previously convicted of 44 sex abuse offences against six boys in August 2016, with nine new counts of aggravated indecent assault.[62]

In May 2019, Father Vincent Ryan, who had previously served 14 years in jail for sex abusing for abusing 34 boys from 1973 to 1991, was jailed for at least 14 months for sex abuse he committed against two altar boys during this timeframe which were not prosecuted.[63] In October 2020, it was revealed that while two nuns reported claims of abuse against Ryan while he served at St Josephs Primary School, nobody made an effort to report these claims to the police.[64] In March 2020, the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle responded to the imminent release of the TV series Revelation by issuing an open letter detailing matters such as a timeline of Ryan's offending, Bishop Leo Clarke's failure to respond to Ryan's abuse, the treatment of the abuse victim Andrew Nash's family and Father William Burston.[65] The report concluded that Vincent Ryan was "properly convicted" and that Andrew Nash "tragically committed suicide" after he was "abused by the criminal William Cable 'Br. Romuald.'"[65] The Diocese agreed to remove Leo Clarke's honorary plaque from the Maitland Cathedral and it was also claimed that the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith would recommend to Pope Francis that Ryan be laicised[65]

Marist Brothers

In October 2020, Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse revealed previously undisclosed details regarding reports of sex abuse against the Marist Brothers chapter in Newcastle and Lower Hunter.[64] One notable case involved former Marist Brothers Hamilton student Andrew Nash, who committed suicide at the age of 13 in 1974 in what his mother believed was a result of trauma from sexual abuse.[64] Though William Wade, also known as Brother Wade, pled guilty to concealing the reports of abuse, the accused perpetrator was another Marist Brother teacher at the school named Francis Cable, also known as Brother Cable, Brother Romuald, and Brother Dominic.[64] In September 2020, Wade, now 84 years old, pled guilty to concealing this and received a sentence of four months community service.[66] Wade also was convicted in 2017 for sexually abusing a boy at Hamilton in 1976 as well[67]

In October 2020, it was acknowledged that at least one former teacher at Marist College Ashgrove, located in Queensland's capital of Brisbane, had sexually abused students.[68]

Diocese of Wagga Wagga

See also: Roman Catholic Diocese of Wagga Wagga

In 2002, Vincent Kieran Kiss, 70, pleaded guilty in the Sydney District Court for sex crimes against four teenage boys, aged 13 to 17, between 1966 and 1973 at locations including Albury, Yass and Sydney. Kiss was the Diocesan Director of Youth in Wagga Wagga at the time of the offences and the four victims were members of the Young Christian Students Association.[69]

Diocese of Wollongong

See also: Roman Catholic Diocese of Wollongong

In 1993, the Illawarra Mercury alleged that Gwynneville parish priest Father Peter Lewis Comensoli and Brother Michael Evans had been involved in the sexual abuse of boys.[70][71] Comensoli was jailed and was later named during the Wood Royal Commission.[72] Evans committed suicide.[71]

In 1996 Father John Gerard Nestor was charged with the 1991 indecent assault of a 15-year-old altar boy. Nestor was initially convicted by a Local Court magistrate and sentenced to a 16-month gaol term which was overturned on an "all points" appeal to the District Court. The case ended suddenly when prosecution witnesses were caught in contradictions, Judge Phelen stating that the supposed victim seemed to have difficulty "distinguishing fact from imagination". Nestor went on to work as a priest for a number of years in senior appointments. After engaging in secular employment he was laicised in 2009.[73] The former Australian prime minister and leader of the Australian Liberal Party, Tony Abbott, provided a character reference for Nestor's trial describing him as "an upright and virtuous man whom he had known since 1984 while studying at Sydney's St Patrick's Seminary to become a priest".[73] The Illawarra Mercury reported lawyer Chris Murphy suggesting that the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse investigate the case of Nestor.[74]

In 2010, Kelvin Gerald Sharkey, 83, was sentenced in the Wollongong District Court to at least 15 months' jail for sexually abusing an altar boy on three occasions between 1969 and 1975 when Sharkey was parish priest of St John Vianney's Church at Fairy Meadow and at St Bernard's Church at Batemans Bay.[75]

In 2017, Marist Brother and former principal of the Mary Immaculate Catholic Parish Primary School in the Sydney suburb of Eagle Vale, pleaded guilty to four counts of sexually abusing a minor.[76]

In 2018, Bishop Peter Ingham issued an apology and acknowledged the history of sex abuse at various Catholic schools in the Diocese of Wollongong.[76]

In March 2019, Father Ron Peters, who was formerly listed as the "Dean and Administrator" of the Diocese of Wollongong,[77][78] was charged with sex abuse.[79]

Diocese of Bathurst

See also: Roman Catholic Diocese of Bathurst in Australia and St Stanislaus College (Bathurst)

St Stanislaus College Bathurst in the 1970s and 1980s was referred to by an anonymous former student as a "pedophile paradise" due to the abusive activities of priests there.[80] William Stanley Irwin, 55, for instance, a former Catholic brother, was convicted on 31 March 2011 by a jury in the Sydney District Court on two counts of gross indecency on a male under the age of 18 at St Stanislaus' College in Bathurst in the mid-1980s. Having been asked by the boy's parents to counsel him in relation to prior sexual abuse, Irwin kissed the youth and initiated mutual masturbation when the pair stayed at the boarding school overnight during a road trip in 1986. Irwin was later a dormitory master at St Stanislaus' for two years and a chaplain and teacher at St Aloysius' College at Milsons Point.[81]

Kevin Francis Phillips, similarly, pleaded guilty in a Sydney District Court on 3 December 2010 to four counts of gross indecency with a child under the age of 18. Phillips was sentenced on 21 April 2011 to a total of 15 months' jail. On the first three counts, he was sentenced to a concurrent term of nine months starting on 21 April 2011 and expiring on 20 January 2012. On the final charge of gross indecency by a male with a male under 18 years, Phillips was sentenced to a term of nine months to start on 21 October 2011 and expiring on 20 July 2012 with a non-parole period of three months.[82][83][84]

Brian Joseph Spillane also was convicted on 30 November 2010 on nine counts of indecent assault against three girls aged between eight and seventeen while he was based in Sydney in about 1979, a Vincentian priest at that time. During bail proceedings it was heard that Spillane faced a further 135 charges relating to alleged offences against boys at St Stanislaus' College whilst Spillaine was chaplain. These latter charges were expected to be heard in four more trials that were expected to last until late 2011. Spillaine was refused bail.[85] After a court-ordered media blackout was lifted, in place since 2013, it was reported in 2016 that Spillane was convicted of assaults on five St Stanislaus' College students after a trial in 2013, and in 2015 he pleaded guilty to assaults on four boys at the school in the late 1980s. It was reported that during 2016 Spillane was convicted of attacks on five students between 1974 and 1990.[86] Spillane, who is currently in custody, was sentenced in February 2017 to an additional nine years in prison, and is not eligible for parole.[87]

Diocese of Parramatta

In 1992, after allegations arose that a priest had been sexually abusing some of his parishioners, a meeting was held between the accused priest and three senior members of clergy. As a result of the meeting the priest was banned from conducting Mass, but was otherwise permitted to continue serving as a priest. The priest was laicised in 2005. In 2012, allegations arose through the Four Corners television program that the priest admitted to child sexual abuse at the 1992 meeting, and that the senior clergy present chose not to report the allegations to police. Cardinal George Pell subsequently denied that the priest admitted to sexual abuse at the meeting.[88]

In February 2010, Fr Robert MacGregor Fuller began serving a 6-to-18-month sentence months after pleading guilty to sending both a sexually lurid video broadcast of himself and sexually lurid text messages to a 13-year-old girl in the summer of 2009.[89]

Archdiocese of Melbourne

Main article: Sexual abuse scandal in Melbourne archdiocese

The Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police, in a submission to a parliamentary inquiry established in April 2012, stated that Melbourne archdiocese's Melbourne Response process, under which victims may not be legally represented appeared to "be a de facto substitute for criminal justice" that was detrimental to prosecuting suspected sexual criminals.[90] He noted that though the Melbourne Response states on its website that in the past 14 years the church has compensated 300 people as victims of sexual abuse and identified 86 offenders of whom 60 were priests, not one complainant was referred to Victoria Police.[90] The report stated that the process of moving offenders to other positions in the church restricted capacity to bring them to account and promoted a culture of secrecy that hindered more victims speaking out. The Melbourne Response's system, the report states, has outdated process that include requiring victims to confront alleged offenders.[90]

Notable cases have included: Michael Charles Glennon—sentenced to 22 years' jail with a non-parole period of 15 years for 23 offences against children, including rape, indecent assault, gross indecency, sexually penetrating a child under the age of 16 and sexually penetrating a child under the age of 10;[91] David Daniel—sentenced to six years' jail with a non-parole period of four years and six months for molesting four boys, a girl and an adult male;[92] and Wilfred James Baker—sentenced to four years in prison (parole after two years) for 16 counts of indecent assault and one of gross indecency, involving eight boys, aged 10 to 13, over a 20-year period between 1960 and 1979.[93] Three priests, Michael Aulsebrook, Frank Klep and David Rapson, were investigated and prosecuted for sexual abuse which took place at Rupertswood College Sunbury in the 1990s.[94][95][96] Rapson was jailed in 2013 for at least 13 years, with the possibility of parole after 10 years, for molesting eight students at a Catholic school in Melbourne between 1973 and 1990.[97] Klep was jailed for ten-and-a-half years in 2014 after he pleaded guilty to 15 sex offences involving many boys, including siblings at the school aged between 11 and 15, between the 1970s and 1980s and will be eligible for parole six-and-a-half years into his sentence.[98] Aulsebrook, who was convicted in a retrial, received a sentence on seven-and-a-half years in 2018 for raping a 12-year-old boy at the Salesian College boarding school in 1988 and will be eligible for parole four and half years in his sentence.[99]

Brother Tanson was found to have sexually abused Amber Louise while she resided at a Christian Brothers orphanage in Victoria in the 1970s.[100] Despite belonging to a different order, Tanson was allowed to visit the orphanage on a regular basis.[100] Tanson and an associate who was a Christian Brother were accused of abusing other children at the orphanage as well, though Louise"s case was the only one which was proven.[100]

Former Melbourne archbishop and former high ranking Roman Curia official Cardinal George Pell was sent to jail on 27 February 2019, two months after being convicted of molesting two choir boys.[101][102] Judge Peter Kidd sentenced Pell on 13 March 2019 to serve six years in jail, with three years and eight months' non-parole period.[103] In August 2019, the Victorian Court of Appeal rejected Pell's appeal to have his convictions overturned.[104][105] Pell then sought leave to have the matter heard in the High Court;[106] however, he did serve all 405 days of his required prison sentence.[107] On 7 April 2020, Pell won his appeal with the Australian High Court and was soon afterwards released from prison after serving 13 months of his six-year prison sentence.[108] On 11 April 2020, Pell stated in an interview with Sky News journalist Andrew Bolt, which aired on Sky News Australia on 14 April 2020, that he was "ashamed" of the way the Catholic Church dealt with sex abuse cases.[107][109] He maintained his innocence and suggested that the alleged victim had been "used".[110] On 16 April 2020, the Richmond Football Club denied Pell the right to be reinstated as the club's vice-patron and ambassador.[111][112][113]

On 27 April 2020 the Archdiocese of Melbourne issued an apology for shielding Father Gerard Mulvale, who had sexually abused a girl named Stephanie Piper on at least eight occasions between 1975 and 1979.[114] An investigation against Mulvale later started in 1993, during which the Archdiocese of Melbourne denied his guilt. In January 1994 Stephanie committed suicide at the age of 32.[114] However, Mulvale was eventually convicted on 3 November 1995 of sexually abusing two boys.[114][115] Stephanie's mother Eileen Piper has along been engaged in legal action against the Archdiocese of Melbourne as well.[114]

On 6 May 2020 it was revealed that previously undisclosed portions of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse report found Pell had shielded former Archdiocese of Melbourne priest Peter Searson from potential prosecution after the Catholic Church in Australia secretly concluded that he sexually abused children.[116] It had been previously revealed in 2014 that the Catholic Church in Australia concluded in 1997 that Searson sexually abused both boys and girls when he was teaching at Holy Family Parish Primary School in Doveton in Melbourne's south-east.[117][118] However, the results of the Catholic Church's investigation were not released to the public and Searson died in 2009 before he could face a criminal trial.[117] In 2014, Helen Last, the former director of the Archdiocese of Melbourne's pastoral response office, claimed that in 1997, Pell blocked her from doing more to investigate the claims against Searson, telling her in letter that it was "under control" and "there remains no need for any pro-active measures from your office" and then removed her from her post one month later after she defied his order.[117] The newly disclosed details, which were made public on 7 May 2020, also revealed that while he was serving as an auxiliary bishop of Melbourne, Pell knew that Searson not only sexually abused students at his school, but, as early as 1989, also ignored complaints that showed signs of Searson's aggressive behavior, such as his use of children's toilets and making his students watch him torture animals.[19]

The newly disclosed portions of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse report, which was originally published in redacted form in December 2017, also revealed that priests and clergy staff accused of abusing children within the Archdiocese of Melbourne were sometimes "dealt with" by being transferred to other parishes.[119]

Diocese of Ballarat

See also: Roman Catholic Diocese of Ballarat

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse final report published on 15 December 2017 found that 139 people made a claim of child sexual abuse to the Diocese of Ballarat between 1980 and 2015 and that there was 21 alleged perpetrators identified in claims. Of the 21 alleged and convicted perpetrators 17 were priests which is 8.7% of the priests who ministered during this period.[120]

The royal commission's final report of Catholic Church authorities in Ballarat was released on 6 December 2017.[121] The commission found that Bishop Ronald Mulkearns had failed to take action, saying that "Bishop Mulkearns again was derelict in his duty in failing to take any effective action to have (infamous paedophile Gerald) Ridsdale referred to police and to restrict Ridsdale's contact with children."[122] The commission pointed out to the structure of the diocese, culture and governance, concluding that "The most likely explanation for the conduct of Bishop Mulkearns and other senior clergy in the Diocese was that they were trying to minimise the risk of scandal and protect the reputation of the Catholic Church." The Melbourne report found that Peter Connors, a former Bishop of Ballarat, was part of a culture that practiced "using oblique or euphemistic language in correspondence and records concerning complaints of child sexual abuse".[123]

Below are some extracts from the conclusion of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse's report into Case Study 28—Catholic Church authorities in Ballarat:

This case study exposed a catastrophic failure in the leadership of the Diocese and ultimately in the structure and culture of the Church over decades to effectively respond to the sexual abuse of children by its priests. That failure led to the suffering and often irreparable harm to children, their families and the wider community. That harm could have been avoided if the Church had acted in the interests of children rather than in its own interests.

Euphemistic and elliptical language was often used in correspondence and minutes to mask the true nature of the conduct discussed. There was repeated reference to 'pressures', 'strains' and unspecified 'problems'. On occasions, records were deliberately not made or kept or were destroyed.

The result of these inexcusable failures was that more children were sexually abused by Catholic clergy in the Diocese. There was a catastrophic institutional failure which resulted in many children being sexually abused. We heard about the devastating, often lifelong, consequences in the lives of those children. The welfare of children was not the primary concern of Bishop Mulkearns and other senior members of the Diocese when responding to complaints and allegation of child sexual abuse against their priests. There is no doubt it should have been.[121]

The report on Ballarat also described the impact it had on victims. One section outlines suicide and premature death caused from the abuse. One victim said

Newspapers don't report suicides, so the public doesn't hear about the broken families and their shattered lives, about the unseen impact of institutional child sexual abuse. Children are left behind and they don't understand why. It doesn't end when the abuse ends.[124]

Other harms are outlined. Another victim outlines the general harm in the Ballarat community:

Such chronic sexual abuse in the Ballarat community has led to a large number of men who are not able to be productive members of society and in neglect have become either emotional, social or financial burdens upon the community.[124]

One victim who told their story to the Royal Commission was Paul Levey was sent to live with Ridsdale at the age of 14 at the presbytery in Mortlake.[125] The Levey said he was "sexually abused all the time just about every day" and the Commission heard evidence that Ronald Mulkearns was among a number of clergy who knew Ridsdale had a boy living with him, but failed to intervene.[126][127][128][129] The commission found that Mulkearns "ignored" pleas from Paul Levey's mother who was "concerned about the situation and sought his assistance" even though "By this time, Bishop Mulkearns knew of Ridsdale's admission of offending against boys."[130] The Commission stated that Bishop Mulkearns' response to Paul Levey living with Ridsdale in the Mortlake presbytery "demonstrated a total absence of concern for the welfare of that boy".[131] The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found that the then Bishop of Ballarat Diocese, James O'Collins, had received a complaint in the 1960s that Father Gerald Ridsdale had sexually abused a boy but did not take action.[132][133] The royal commission was also told Bishop Ronald Mulkearns knew in 1975 that Ridsdale had abused boys and again did nothing to stop the abuse from occurring.[134]

A priest, Gerald Ridsdale, was jailed in 1994 for 18 years, with a minimum of 15 years, after pleading guilty to 46 counts of child sexual offences, including buggery, indecent assault and gross indecency, committed over two decades on 21 victims.[135] In 2006, he pleaded guilty to 35 additional charges relating to indecent assault against 10 boys.[136] On these charges, he was sentenced to 13 years' imprisonment, with a minimum of seven years.[137] A few of his victims criticised the sentence.[137] Ridsdale would have been eligible for parole in August 2013, at the age of 79.[137] On 20 June 2013, Ridsdale was again charged by Victoria Police with an additional 84 offences against 14 victims committed between 1961 and 1981.[138] He pleaded guilty to 29 counts (27 of indecent assault, one count of buggery and one count of carnal knowledge of a girl under the age of 16) committed between 1960 and 1980 and asked for a further 27 counts to be taken into consideration at sentencing, which will take place at a date to be fixed.[139] After pleading guilty to the above charges, including raping and abusing children as young as four, Ridsdale was sentenced to eight years in prison in April 2014 and was scheduled to be eligible for parole in April 2019.[140] The latest charges bring the tally of Ridsdale's confirmed victims to 54.[141] In May 2015 Ridsdale gave an account of his offending in evidence to the Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.[142] However, his ineligibility for parole was eventually extended.[143]

Ridsdale pleaded guilty to a further 20 offences against 10 boys and a girl on 13 April 2017. These offences were committed between 1961 and 1988 in western Victoria and were expected to extend his release date further into the future.[144] On 15 August 2017 Ridsdale pleaded guilty to 23 charges including two counts of rape and one of buggery, for abusing 12 children, 11 boys and one girl with ages ranging from 6 to 13, between 1962 and 1988 in the Victoria state city of Ballarat and the surrounding area.[145][146] On 14 May 2020 Victorian County Court Judge Gerard Mullaly extended Ridsdale's non-parole period, which was originally scheduled to end in 2022, by another two years to 2024.[143]

On 8 August 2011, Robert Charles Best, a Christian Brother, was sentenced in the Victorian County Court to 14 years and nine months' jail, with a non-parole period of 11 years and three months, for 27 offences involving sexual abuse of 11 boys. Best taught at Catholic primary and secondary schools in Ballarat, Box Hill and Geelong (all in Victoria, Australia) between the 1960s and 1980s. Best has been convicted by a jury and has pleaded guilty to more than 40 child sex offences against dozens of students, some as young as eight years old.[147] As of 2011 Best had not been expelled by the Christian Brothers and the order had expended more than A$1 million on his legal costs.[148] In May 2013, the Christian Brothers admitted to Victoria's parliamentary inquiry into child abuse they did what they could to defend members accused of sexual assault against children. They admitted to hiring a private investigator to follow one of Best's victims. In addition to paying the aforementioned legal costs, the church also paid hundreds of thousands to defend other members also accused of rape.[149]

On 21 August 2019, Ballarat's Bishop Paul Bird acknowledged that Pell, who had lost his appeal in the state of Victoria, had ties to this Melbourne suffragan diocese and apologised for the history of sex abuse in the diocese as well.[150]

On 6 September 2019 the Diocese of Ballarat released a statement admitting that the high-ranking clergy in the diocese knew of sex abuse claims against Gerald Ridsdale and afterwards made efforts to shield Ridsdale from prosecution.[151] This confession came in the wake of civil lawsuit filed against thedDiocese by one of Ridsdale's victims.[151]

In addition to the Archdiocese of Melbourne sex abuse charges, Pell also faced numerous sex abuse charges stemming from his time in the Diocese of Ballarat.[152] The three-episode documentary series Revelation, which aired on ABC TV on 17 March, 31 March and 2 April 2020,[153] revealed two men, identified as Bernie and Peter Clarke, who accused Pell of sexually abusing them as boys when he served at the Catholic-run orphanage where they resided in the 1970s.[154] The new sex abuse allegations against Pell were also investigated by Australian journalist Sarah Ferguson.[154] Despite the fact that his sex abuse convictions related to his time in the Archdiocese of Melbourne were later overturned, Pell still faces 10 civil lawsuits, with some stemming from his time in the Diocese of Ballarat[155][156] The overturning of Pell's Melbourne conviction also did not prevent the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) from releasing a statement defending the accuracy of Revelation, stating that "The ABC has—and will continue to—report accurately and without fear or favour on stories that are in the public interest, including this one."[157] Despite the third episode being temporarily removed from online reruns, it was restored after undergoing some re-editing to update the content;[157] all three episodes also remain available on ABC Radio's website.[153] In his interview with Bolt, Pell stated that failures to act on the abuse, which he referred to as "cancer", still haunted him.[107][109] On 13 April 2020, the Revelation allegations developed into a new sex abuse investigation against Pell.[158]

Robert Patrick Claffey, a priest, pleaded guilty in 1998 to indecent assault of two boys aged 12 and 13 after their sister died in a road accident in 1978.[159] In 2014, he was also charged with 16 counts of indecent assault and one count of buggery against about seven child victims between 1970 and 1992.[160] In October, 2016, he pleaded guilty to the offences and was jailed for 18 years.[161] On 8 May 2020, it was revealed that Claffey was still serving a prison term for the sexual abuse of 14 children between 1969 and 1992 and that at least one of his victims, Joseph Barrett, was granted a settlement of $35,000 after filing a lawsuit against the Diocese of Ballarat.[20]

On 6 May 2020 it was revealed that the newly disclosed portions of the royal commission report found that Pell had attempted to protect Ridsdale from potential prosecution by transferring him when he was a priest of the Diocese of Ballarat.[117] Pell had also said to the commission that he "didn't do anything about it" when a young schoolboy told him that Brother Edward Dowlan was sexually abusing him, but also tried to hide the fact that it was also in part his duty to assist in the investigation.[162] According to the report's newly disclosed details, which were made public on 7 May 2020, by 1973 Pell was "not only conscious of child sexual abuse by clergy but that he also had considered measures of avoiding situations which might provoke gossip about it".[19] On 7 May 2020 the portions of the royal commission report involving Pell were made public and revealed that the commission found that Pell knew about the abuse committed by Ridsdale and deliberately attempted to cover it up when he took part in the College of Consultors decision to transfer Ridsdale from the Mortlake parish in Ballarat to Sydney in 1982.[119][163] The commission rejected Pell's claim that he was deceived when he cast his vote to transfer Ridsdale as "implausible".[119][163]

It was also reported that Pell had attempted to bribe Ridsdale's nephew David Ridsdale, who was also sexually abused by Ridsdale, into keeping quiet.[19][119][163] David Ridsdale testified to the Royal Commission that the attempted bribe took place when he told Pell about the sex abuse over the phone in February 1983.[164] David stated that after he brought up the abuse "[Pell] then began to talk about my growing family and my need to take care of their needs," and that "He mentioned how I would soon have to buy a car or house for my family."[19] David's Ridsdales's sisters, Patricia Ridsdale and Bernadette Lukaitis, also backed his account, telling the royal commission that their brother called them shortly after his conversation with Pell and said that Pell had tried to bribe him.[164] Despite not being satisfied with how David Ridsdale interpreted Pell's offer, which was believed to be mere assistance rather than an offer of silence,[163] the royal commission accepted that Pell "turned his mind" to Ridsdale taking his boy victims on overnight camps.[19]

Accusations against Pell, Ridsdale and Claffey also played a major role in the Australian Supreme Court's decision to create the Institutional Liability List on 8 May 2020.[20] The list will administer child sex abuse lawsuits nationwide.[20]

Marist Brothers

In June 2017, Marist Brother William Wade, who went by the names Brother Wade and Brother Christopher, was convicted of three counts of sexually abusing two boys at Hamilton Marist School in 1976 and Kogarah Marists in 1980 and served 18 months in prison.[67][66] In September 2018, Marist Brother Gerard McNamara, 80, was sentenced to nine months in prison for molesting five boys who were aspiring athletes at St Paul's Catholic College, where McNamara served as principal, in Traralgon between 1970 and 1975.[165] He also molested one of these boy 30 times.[165] In June 2019, the Marist Brothers produced a list of 154 members who were accused of sexually abusing children in Australia between 1980 and 2015.[166] In May 2020, McNamara began serving his second stint in prison after pleading guilty to charges of indecent assault and one count of common assault of more than 15 male students between 1970 and 1975.[167] This time, he received a sentence of 35 months in prison, with 28 months suspended.[167] Since his first sex abuse conviction in June 2006, which resulted in a suspended prison sentence, McNamara, who was also nicknamed "The Rat", has received three additional convictions and sentences on sex abuse charges, but was able to once again receive a suspended prison sentence following another conviction in December 2016.[167]

Archdiocese of Brisbane

In June 2010, Brisbane priest Michael Ambrose Endicott pleaded guilty to take indecent photos of two schoolboys between 1977 and 1978 and received a one-year suspended prison sentence.[168] In March 2019, he received an 18-month prison sentence after being convicted of making boys strip nude for photos during the 1970s and 1980s,[169] only to have this conviction overturned the next month.[170] In May 2017, Anthony Francis "Damian" Colbourne, an ex-member of the Capuchin Friars, pled guilty to indecently assaulting an eight-year-old girl in the presbytery and his office on four separate occasions in 1974 and received 18-month prison sentence, which became a suspended sentence after he was jail for four months.[171]

Diocese of Townsville

See also: Roman Catholic Diocese of Townsville

Notable cases include: Neville Joseph Creen, who molested young girls while he served as a priest at Mount Isa, north-west Queensland, from 1973 to 1981. In Brisbane District Court on 12 September 2003, Creen (aged 63) was sentenced to three-and-half years' jail with a 14-month minimum after admitting to 34 indecent dealing charges involving 18 girls under the age of 13. One girl was aged just 5 when Creen abused her at a youth camp and later at the home of her grandparents. Creen pleaded guilty to a further six charges on 4 November 2004 and was sentenced to an additional two years' jail.[172]

Marist College Ashgrove

In October 2020, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found that the church had failed to intervene against Thomas Butler, a Marist Brother known as Brother Patrick, when students reported that he sexually abused them within the three-year period he taught at Brisbane's Marist College Ashgrove.[68] Butler had received sex abuse complaints in between 1991 and 1993.[68] Provincial of the Marist Brothers in Australia, Brother Peter Carroll, delivered an apology at the royal commission's public hearing.[68]

Archdiocese of Perth

See also: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Perth

In 1920, Christian Brother Frederick Philip Carmody was sentenced to nine years gaol for sexual abuse of boys at Clontarf Boys' Orphanage.[173]

In 1995, Gerard William Dick, a self-confessed sexually abusive priest, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years' jail for 10 incidents of indecently dealing with boys aged between 8 and 10 at a Christian Brothers' orphanage in Western Australia.[174]

David Christian was fined A$10,500 on seven charges of indecently assaulting boys at the Marist Brothers school.[175]

In 1994, the Parliament of Western Australia was presented a petition with 30,000 signatures which demanded an inquiry into the sexual and physical assault that took place in various institutions run by the Christian Brothers including Castledare Boys' Home, Bindoon, Clontarf and Tardun.[176][177]

The Christian Brothers accepted that there was strong evidence that many of the allegations were true, and made a public apology.[176] A legal action brought by over 200 former students ran from 1993 in the New South Wales Supreme Court and was finalised in 1996 with an out of court settlement.[177]

In 2014, retired Subiaco and Shenton Park priest Patrick Holmes was sentenced to three years' jail. He had pled guilty to six child-sex charges dating between 1969 and 1981. He later appeared in court in 2018 and again in 2019, entering a not-guilty plea in response to 16 new charges filed after an investigation by the WA Police's Child Abuse Squad.[178]

In January 2019, retired Perth priest Allan John Mithen received a 13-month suspended prison sentence after pleading guilty to two counts of sexually abusing an Aborigine girl at a mission in 1965.[179]

Diocese of Bunbury

See also: Roman Catholic Diocese of Bunbury

The Royal Commission's report stated that there had been 29 cases reported to the Church in Bunbury and where addressed under the Towards Healing process by the Bishop of Bunbury. While Adrian Richard Van Klooster pleaded guilty to four counts of indecently dealing with children under the age of 13 and was found with child pornography on his computer, there are other cases of paedophile priests being convicted of grooming and sexually assaulting children and young teenagers. In 2018 amendments to the Civil Liability Act removed the time limits for victims of sexual abuse to seek restitution as well as importantly defining the churches responsibility to stop the loop hole exploited in the widely condemned "Ellis Defence" that said in a nutshell that priests where not employees of the church. As a result, according to the District Court of Western Australia, there have been 16 Writ of Summons issued against the Bishop of Bunbury for civil damages resulting form sexual abuse by the Catholic clergy of the diocese. The Bishop of Bunbury, Gerard Holohan, appointed in 2001, presided over the Towards Healing process limiting the average payout to the 29 victims at $25,000. This was achieved by using the tactics of delay and denial. However, it now seems with many of these victims, long dissatisfied with theses payouts made by the bishop, are taking up their rights for proper compensation through the court. The compensation paid so far for the 29 known victims amounts to less than $750,000. However, recent compensation payouts awarded by the courts to individual victims in similar cases has ranged between $1.2 to 2.4 million. This means that with legal costs the liability of the Bunbury diocese in the next year or two would conservatively be north of $10–15 million depending upon the number of cases that go to trial. If any more victims come forward this figure can only increase.[180]

Diocese of Broome

See also: Roman Catholic Diocese of Broome

In March 2020, Bishop Christopher Saunders voluntarily stood aside from the administration of the diocese. This was stated to be due to a review of the diocese ordered by the Vatican. He stepped down the day after the revelation that Western Australian Police had been investigating an allegation made 18 months earlier of sexual misconduct by him.[181] In November 2020, Saunders agreed to leave the diocese for at least six months.[182] Pope Francis accepted his resignation on 28 August 2021.[183]

Archdiocese of Hobart

Marist Fathers of Tasmania

See also: Marist Regional College

Notable cases include: in 2007 Gregory Ferguson was sentenced to two years' jail (eligible for parole after 12 months) for offences in 1971 against two boys aged 13 at Marist College, Burnie, Tasmania. On 13 December 2007 he was sentenced to an additional three years' jail for offences against a third boy;[184] in 2008 a jury found former priest Roger Michael Bellemore guilty on three counts of maintaining a sexual relationship with a young person under the age of 17 years in the 1960s and 1970s while he was at the same college.[185] By December 2018, six former priests who taught at the college had been convicted of committing acts of sexual abuse.[186]

Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn

Main article: Sexual abuse scandal in Canberra and Goulburn archdiocese

In February 2008, a teacher at Marist College Canberra, Brother John William Chute (also known as Brother Kostka) pleaded guilty in the ACT Magistrates Court to 11 charges of indecently assaulting students of the college during the 1980s.[187][188] Damages for sexual abuse have also been sought by former students at Marist College Canberra.[189][190][191] A teacher at Daramalan College in Canberra was also charged with numerous sexual assaults in 2000; however, he committed suicide shortly after he was charged.[192] Seven further charges against Chute relating to alleged offences committed before 1985 were dropped, due to a legal limitation that charges relating to sexual indecency had to be made within a year. In June 2008, Chute was sentenced in the ACT Supreme Court to six years in jail, serving two years in prison, one year in weekend detention, and three years suspended.[193][194]

Transfer of accused clergy to Fiji

On 13 July 2020, New Zealand's 1News revealed that of some of at least 1,300 clergy who were accused of committing sexually abusing children in the nation of Fiji were originally from Australia before they were transferred.[195] One example was Australian priest Julian Fox, was later convicted and jailed in 2015 for child sex crimes.[195] Fox was transferred to Fiji in 1999 after Australian police started an investigation against him.[195] The Catholic Church in Fiji also had knowledge of sex abuse allegations against Fox nine years before he was charged.[195]

Pope Benedict's statement

Main article: Ecclesiastical response to Catholic sex abuse cases

On 19 July 2008, before a congregation of 3,400 assembled in Sydney's St Mary's Cathedral, Pope Benedict XVI lamented that child sex abuse had taken place and the pain it caused. He also condemned those responsible for it and demanded punishment for them. However, he did not state or imply that the institutional church, or any of its leaders, accepted any responsibility for what had taken place. His statement reads:[196]

Here I would like to pause to acknowledge the shame which we have all felt as a result of the sexual abuse of minors by some clergy and religious in this country. I am deeply sorry for the pain and suffering the victims have endured and I assure them that, as their pastor, I too share in their suffering. ... Victims should receive compassion and care, and those responsible for these evils must be brought to justice. These misdeeds, which constitute so grave a betrayal of trust, deserve unequivocal condemnation. I ask all of you to support and assist your bishops, and to work together with them in combating this evil. It is an urgent priority to promote a safer and more wholesome environment, especially for young people.

On 21 July 2008, before flying out of Australia, Pope Benedict met at St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney, with two male and two female victims of sex abuse by priests. He listened to their stories and celebrated Mass with them.[197] The Premier of New South Wales, Morris Iemma, said that "Hopefully it will be a sign of righting the wrongs of the past and of a better future and better treatment by the church of the victims and their families."[198][199]

Mark Fabbro, a victim of abuse and member of the Catholic Abuse Survivors Collective, said that while he was "happy to receive the apology, we still consider it indirect and insufficient".[citation needed] Chris MacIsaac of the victims' rights advocacy group Broken Rites said the Pope had taken his apology further than his previous comments on the issue as he has "never put it quite so strongly before", but expressed disappointment that the Pope had not made his apology directly to sexual abuse victims.[citation needed] One Australian victim of sexual abuse by a Catholic priest has stated in the media: "Dealing with the church itself was a hell of a lot more traumatic than dealing with the abuse."[200]

See also

Sexual abuse cases in catholic church
Critique & consequences related topics
Investigation, prevention and victim support related topics
Other related topics

References

  1. ^ "Child abuse scandals faced by Roman Catholic Church". The Telegraph. United Kingdom. 12 March 2010. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
  2. ^ Pope John Paul II (22 November 2001). "Ecclesia in Oceania". Apostolic exhortation. Rome: Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
  3. ^ Williams, Jecqueline (14 December 2017). "Australia and Catholic Church 'Failed' Abused Children, Inquiry Finds". The New York Times.
  4. ^ a b Royal Commission: ANALYSIS OF CLAIMS OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE MADE WITH RESPECT TO CATHOLIC CHURCH INSTITUTIONS IN AUSTRALIA 31 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine; June 2017
  5. ^ . Professional Standards Office. Australian Catholic Bishops Conference. 1996. Archived from the original on 22 July 2011. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
  6. ^ Campbell, James (29 August 2010). "Church must face scrutiny for child sex abuse". Sunday Herald Sun. Australia. Retrieved 24 September 2011.
  7. ^ Victoria Police in false claim on child-abuse suicides; theaustralian.com.au; 25 July
  8. ^ McKenzie, Nick; Baker, Richard; Lee, Jane (13 April 2012). . Canberra Times. Archived from the original on 13 June 2012. Retrieved 2 July 2012.
  9. ^ Lee, Jane; Zwartz, Barney (11 October 2012). "Police slam Catholic Church". The Age. Australia.
  10. ^ Drape, Julian (13 November 2012). "Abuse inquiry to run 'as long as it takes'". The Australian. AAP. Retrieved 13 November 2012.
  11. ^ . Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese. 16 November 2012. Archived from the original on 18 November 2012. Retrieved 20 November 2012.
  12. ^ "Reports of Pell guilty verdict emerge, despite gag order". Catholic News Agency. Catholic News Agency. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
  13. ^ "Announcement of Chair and CEO of the Catholic Church Council for the Royal Commission" (Press release). Australian Catholic Bishops Conference. 12 December 2012. Retrieved 16 May 2015.
  14. ^ Neuman, Scott (15 December 2017). "Catholic Church Singled Out In Australian Sex Abuse Report". Retrieved 15 December 2017.
  15. ^ "'Shocking' scale of Catholic Church sex crimes revealed". www.aljazeera.com.
  16. ^ "Case Study 50: Institutional review of Catholic Church authorities". Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. 6 February 2017.
  17. ^ "Black Collar Crime in Australia". Broken Rites. 28 August 2011. Archived from the original on 22 April 2001. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
  18. ^ a b c "Australian Catholic Church releases standards for child protection". National Catholic Reporter. 3 June 2019.
  19. ^ a b c d e f "George Pell, a former advisor to Pope Francis and Australia's most senior Catholic cleric, knew about child sex abuse within the Catholic Church for decades, report alleges". Business Insider.
  20. ^ a b c d e f Tomazin, Farrah (8 May 2020). "Catholic Church's legal deluge compounded by damning Pell findings". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  21. ^ a b "Queensland passes law to jail priests who don't report child sexual abuse confessions". ABC News. 8 September 2020.
  22. ^ "Queensland to force priests to report child sexual abuse - Criminal Law - Australia".
  23. ^ Metherell, Mark (14 September 2011). "Senator names priest on 'rape'". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 14 September 2011.
  24. ^ "David Cappo resigns over John Hepworth case". news.com.au. 15 September 2011. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  25. ^ "No substance to priest John Hepworth's rape claim – church". news.com.au. 28 November 2011. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  26. ^ "Tasmanian priest guilty of abuse, SA accused dies". Catholic News. 27 March 2007. Retrieved 19 September 2011.
  27. ^ "Extradited ex-priest admits child sex". ABC News. Australia. 9 September 2009. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
  28. ^ "Catholic brother to plead guilty to abuse". ABC News. Australia. 18 September 2007. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
  29. ^ a b c Barlass, Tim (25 February 2016). "Paedophile Catholic priest aged 72 sentenced to two years in prison". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  30. ^ Oriti, Thomas (24 January 2017). "Australian Catholic priest accused of abuse at Scottish school arrested in Sydney". ABC News.
  31. ^ Daly, Mark (29 July 2013). "Abuse claims at ex-boarding school". BBC News.
  32. ^ Daly, Mark (16 April 2019). "Abuse claim monk 'should return to Scotland'". BBC News.
  33. ^ Rawsthorne, Megan Gorrey, Sally (13 April 2019). "Catholic priest charged over alleged child sex abuse at NSW school". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  34. ^ Baker, Richard (10 November 2020). "Senior Jesuits charged with historical sex offences at Sydney's Saint Ignatius' College Riverview". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
  35. ^ "History after Marist Brother pleads guilty to concealing serious child sex crimes". 28 February 2020.
  36. ^ "Catholic Diocese of Armidale", Catholic Church, Australia, 17 May 2017, retrieved 17 May 2017
  37. ^ "Unholy Silence – Paedophiles in the Catholic Church" – via www.youtube.com.[dead YouTube link]
  38. ^ "Unholy Silence". 28 June 2012 – via www.abc.net.au.
  39. ^ "Armidale reacts to church abuse investigation". Archived from the original on 21 December 2021 – via www.youtube.com.
  40. ^ "Case Study 44: Catholic Church authorities in Armidale and Parramatta". Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. 12 September 2016.
  41. ^ "CASE STUDY 44: JOHN JOSEPH FARRELL" (PDF). www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au. 13 September 2016. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  42. ^ Browne, Rachel (22 September 2016). "Royal commission: Monsignor John Usher denies protecting Cardinal George Pell". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  43. ^ "Former priest David Perrett pleads not guilty to 139 charges of child sexual assault". ABC News. November 2019.
  44. ^ "81yo retired priest refused bail on historical sex abuse charges". 22 August 2018.
  45. ^ "'A spent volcano': 'old, ill' former priest bailed on 131 charges". 9 April 2019.
  46. ^ "Trial set for former New England priest accused of historical sex abuse charges". 24 February 2020.
  47. ^ "Former Catholic clergyman dies awaiting trial for sex abuse". 7 July 2020.
  48. ^ a b Crittenden, Stephen; Smith, Suzanne (18 May 2010). "Archbishop's handling of abuse claims challenged". ABC News. Australia. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
  49. ^ "Newcastle Catholic Bishop supports abuse inquiry". ABC News. Australia. 26 July 2012. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
  50. ^ Brown, Michelle (22 August 2016). "Hunter Catholic priest David O'Hearn sentenced to more than five years over child sex offences". ABC News. Australia. Retrieved 22 May 2018.
  51. ^ . ABC News. Australia. 16 May 2010. Archived from the original on 21 May 2010.
  52. ^ "Priest sex abuse sentence delayed". ABC News. Australia. 5 February 2010. Retrieved 5 February 2010.
  53. ^ McCarthy, Joanne (28 July 2012). "Abused Man Takes His Life". The Sydney Morning Herald. p. 3.
  54. ^ McCarthy, Joanne; Besser, Linton (31 July 2012). "Police Move on Priests Over Abuse 'Cover-Up'". The Sydney Morning Herald. p. 1. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
  55. ^ Salusinszky, Imre (9 November 2012). "Farrell orders inquiry into Catholic church sex abuse investigations". The Australian. Retrieved 12 November 2012.
  56. ^ Ansari, Tahmina (30 May 2014). "Special Commission of Inquiry clears police, finds whistleblower Peter Fox 'not credible' over child abuse cover-up claims". ABC News. Australia. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
  57. ^ Notzon, Nancy (22 May 2018). "Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson found guilty of covering up child sexual abuse". ABC News. Retrieved 22 May 2018.
  58. ^ "Catholic Archbishop found guilty of covering up child sexual abuse". ABC News. 22 May 2018. Retrieved 22 May 2018.
  59. ^ "Archbishop Philip Wilson sentenced for concealing child sex abuse". BBC. Australia. 3 July 2018.
  60. ^ a b c d "Australian Catholic church has paid $276m to abuse victims so far, inquiry shows". Guardian Australia. Australian Associated Press. 16 February 2017. Retrieved 22 May 2018.
  61. ^ "Serving Newcastle priest charged with child sex offences". 23 March 2017.
  62. ^ "Priest David O'Hearn facing fresh child-sex charges". 6 March 2018.
  63. ^ "'Burn in hell': Former priest Vincent Ryan to go back behind bars". 7NEWS.com.au. 22 May 2019.
  64. ^ a b c d Farquhar, Liz; Lewis, Madeline (20 October 2020). "Royal commission files reveal previously unseen details about abuse by priests in Newcastle". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  65. ^ a b c Maitland-Newcastle, Catholic Diocese of. "Detailed communication in support of Bishop Bill Wright's open letter to the People of the Diocese". www.mn.catholic.org.au. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
  66. ^ a b "Senior Catholic escapes jail for concealing child sex abuse at schools". ABC News. 30 September 2020.
  67. ^ a b "Marist Brother 'entitled to know' why judge didn't believe him". 31 March 2018.
  68. ^ a b c d Gramenez, Emile (20 October 2020). "Sex abuse royal commission finds Catholic church failed to act against Brisbane brother over abuse complaints". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  69. ^ "Father Kiss pleads guilty to sex charges". The Age. Australia. 8 August 2002. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
  70. ^ Kirkpatrick, Rod (September 2005). "Guts-and-glory, murder and more during the Mercury's 150 years" (PDF). PANPA Bulletin: 56–57. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
  71. ^ a b Robinson, Gareth (30 August 1998). . ABC Radio National. Background Briefing. Australia. Archived from the original (transcript) on 16 February 2009. Retrieved 16 May 2010.
  72. ^ Minus, Jodie (4 June 2009). "Underbelly 3: A tale of Wollongong's darkest hour". Illawarra Mercury. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
  73. ^ a b "Abbott vouched for priest later struck off". The Age. Melbourne. 6 February 2013. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
  74. ^ Osborne, Paul (8 February 2013). "Royal commission 'should examine Nestor case'". Illawarra Mercury. AAP. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
  75. ^ "Church to deregister sex abuse ex-priest". ABC News. Australia. 30 April 2010. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
  76. ^ a b "Australian bishop apologizes for school abuse, calls on victims to come forward". Cruxnow.com. 6 February 2018. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  77. ^ "Dutch in Wollongong". www.facebook.com.
  78. ^ . www.lumenchristi.org.au. Archived from the original on 20 October 2016. Retrieved 15 January 2022.
  79. ^ Mardon, Cydonee (22 March 2019). "Former Campbelltown priest charged with indecent assaults on boy". Camden-Narellan Advertiser.
  80. ^ Murphy, Damien (6 September 2008). "Old boy calls school a pedophile paradise". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
  81. ^ Courts, Louise Hall (1 April 2011). "Catholic brother abused boy he was counselling". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 1 April 2011.
  82. ^ "Sixth teacher charged over sex abuse". The Australian. AAP. 5 May 2009. Retrieved 22 November 2010.
  83. ^ Marr, David (4 December 2010). "Stannies priest convicted of abuse". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 4 December 2010.
  84. ^ "Ex-Stannies priest jailed". Central Western Daily. Australia. 11 May 2011. Retrieved 11 May 2011.
  85. ^ Marr, David (1 December 2010). "God help me: former priest found guilty of child abuse". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 4 December 2010.
  86. ^ Gardiner, Stephanie (5 December 2016). "Notorious paedophile Brian Spillane convicted of more Stannies sex assaults". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 10 December 2016.
  87. ^ Rubinsztein-Dunlop, Sean (16 February 2017). "Paedophile priest Brian Spillane jailed for nine years". ABC News.
  88. ^ Allard, Tom (4 July 2012). "Calls for royal commission over alleged cover-up of Catholic abuse". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 6 July 2012.
  89. ^ "Priest jailed but celibacy vow 'cruel'". ABC News. Abc.net.au. 24 February 2010. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
  90. ^ a b c Lee, Jane (11 October 2012). "Police Slam Catholic Church. Investigations impeded, accused abusers moved on, inquiry told". The Age.
  91. ^ Topsfield, Jewel (10 October 2003). . Herald Sun. The Poynter Institute. Archived from the original on 21 May 2006. Retrieved 11 December 2006.
  92. ^ Gannaway, Kath (7 August 2007). . Mountain Views Mail. Archived from the original on 28 October 2007. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
  93. ^ Ellingsen, Peter (4 May 2002). "Speak no evil". The Age. Melbourne. Retrieved 30 January 2012.
  94. ^ Lowe, Adrian (23 August 2011). "Sunbury priest jailed for sex abuse". The Age. Australia. Retrieved 17 September 2011.
  95. ^ Stayner, Guy (25 June 2004). . Lateline. Australia. Archived from the original on 13 November 2012. Retrieved 17 September 2011.
  96. ^ Daly, Martin (24 July 2004). "Priest used drink on boys: victim". The Age. Australia. Retrieved 17 September 2011.
  97. ^ Akerman, Pia (17 October 2013). "Ex-priest David Edwin Rapson jailed for 'heartless' sex abuse of students". The Australian. Retrieved 28 February 2019.
  98. ^ Crayon, Peta (26 May 2014). "Frank Klep, former Victorian Catholic priest and teacher at Salesian College, sentenced to 10 years in prison". ABC. Retrieved 28 February 2019.
  99. ^ Wilson, Amber (3 August 2018). "Ex-priest who drugged and raped 12-year-old boy gets reduced jail time". The Age. Retrieved 28 February 2019.
  100. ^ a b c "Amber Louise's story". 23 October 2017.
  101. ^ "Pell wakes up in 'Boneyard' prison after child sex offences conviction". www.9news.com.au.
  102. ^ "Cardinal Pell jailed in Australia ahead of March 13 sentencing". National Catholic Reporter. 27 February 2019.
  103. ^ "George Pell to be sentenced for child sex abuse". 9News. 13 March 2019. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
  104. ^ McGown, Michael (21 August 2019). "Cardinal Pell likely to be stripped of Order of Australia – as it happened". Guardian Australia. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  105. ^ Austin, Henry (21 August 2019). "Cardinal George Pell has child sex abuse convictions upheld by Australian court". The Independent. United Kingdom. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  106. ^ Farnsworth, Sarah (17 September 2019). "George Pell seeks leave to appeal child sex abuse convictions in High Court". ABC News. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  107. ^ a b c "WORLD EXCLUSIVE: Cardinal Pell reveals Catholic Church shame in wake of child sex 'cancer'". 11 April 2020.
  108. ^ Phil Helsel and The Associated Press (7 April 2020). "Cardinal George Pell out of prison after Australia's High Court overturns abuse convictions". NBC News. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
  109. ^ a b "Pell: Abusers 'a cancer' in Catholic Church". 11 April 2020.
  110. ^ "George Pell tells Andrew Bolt the man who testified against him may have been used", The Guardian, 14 April 2020.
  111. ^ "Subscribe to the Australian | Newspaper home delivery, website, iPad, iPhone & Android apps".
  112. ^ https://www.heraldsun.com.au/subscribe/news/1/?sourceCode=HSWEB_WRE170_a_GGL&dest=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.heraldsun.com.au%2Fnews%2Fvictoria%2Frichmond-tigers-wont-reinstate-george-pells-club-ambassador-role-following-acquittal%2Fnews-story%2F982fe7ebe425d92fd6ab134d4c7454b1&memtype=anonymous&mode=premium[bare URL]
  113. ^ "Subscribe to the Chronicle".
  114. ^ a b c d "The Catholic Church said Stephanie was lying about abuse. More than 20 years later, Eileen has cleared her daughter's name". ABC News. 26 April 2020.
  115. ^ "Convicted priest Gerard Mulvale (Pallottine Fathers)".
  116. ^ "Subscribe to the Australian | Newspaper home delivery, website, iPad, iPhone & Android apps".
  117. ^ a b c d "Angry victim of 'creepy priest' reveals details of Pell apology". ABC News. 25 November 2015.
  118. ^ "Frustration over abuse response at Melbourne Catholic school".
  119. ^ a b c d "George Pell: Cardinal was aware of children being sexually abused, royal commission report finds". TheGuardian.com. 7 May 2020.
  120. ^ Commonwealth of Australia (December 2017). "Final Report: Volume 16, Religious institutions Book 2" (PDF). Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. p. 106.
  121. ^ a b Gemma.Choy (6 December 2017). "Report into Catholic Church authorities in Ballarat released | Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse". Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Retrieved 16 December 2017.
  122. ^ Wrigley, Brendan (6 December 2017). "We failed and we are sorry: church responds to scathing report". The Courier. Retrieved 16 December 2017.
  123. ^ Wrigley, Brendan (5 December 2017). "Royal Commission slams former Ballarat Bishop in Melbourne report". The Courier. Retrieved 16 December 2017.
  124. ^ a b "Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse: Catholic Church authorities in Ballarat – Report of Case Study No. 28" (PDF). Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. pp. 433–436.
  125. ^ Patterson, Andrew Thomson and Monique (6 December 2017). "Claims of sexual abuse at south-west parishes fell on deaf ears, Commission finds". The Standard. Retrieved 29 December 2017.
  126. ^ Marr, David; Martignoni, Miles; Davey, Melissa (11 December 2017). "The Reckoning part one: the road to the royal commission – podcast | David Marr". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 29 December 2017.
  127. ^ Cunningham, Melissa (2 March 2016). "Abuse royal commission: George Pell must have known, says Ridsdale victim". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 29 December 2017.
  128. ^ Cunningham, Melissa (7 December 2017). "Ballarat diocese's 'catastrophic' failure led to more abuse, commission finds". The Age. Retrieved 29 December 2017.
  129. ^ "About my life and my abuse by the Catholic paedophile priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale". www.traumainreligion.com. Retrieved 29 December 2017.
  130. ^ Davey, Melissa (6 December 2017). "Catholic bishop cared little for children and left them in danger, royal commission finds". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 29 December 2017.
  131. ^ "Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse: Catholic Church authorities in Ballarat – Report of Case Study No. 28" (PDF). Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. p. 318.
  132. ^ "'No moral compass': Priest's abuse victim slams church over compo dispute". ABC News. 6 August 2017. Retrieved 22 December 2017.
  133. ^ "Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse: Final Report: Volume 16, Religious institutions Book 2" (PDF). Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. p. 127.
  134. ^ "Paedo Ridsdale: 'I went haywire with altar boys'". NewsComAu. Retrieved 22 December 2017.
  135. ^ Ellingsen, Peter (14 June 2002). "Ballarat's good men of the cloth". The Age. Melbourne. Retrieved 19 June 2010.
  136. ^ "Former priest pleads guilty to child abuse". ABC News. 7 August 2006. Retrieved 25 November 2009.
  137. ^ a b c Berry, Jamie (11 August 2006). "Victims slam pedophile sentence". The Age. Melbourne. Retrieved 25 November 2009.
  138. ^ Donovan, Samantha (31 May 2014). "Paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale interviewed over new abuse claims". AM, ABC News. Australia. Retrieved 22 May 2015.
  139. ^ "Paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale pleads guilty to 29 child sex offences". ABC News. Australia. 18 November 2013.
  140. ^ "Paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale sentenced to 8 years in jail for child abuse". ABC News. Australia. 18 March 2014. Retrieved 21 May 2015.
  141. ^ "Victims of paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale felt dirty, scared and confused, court told". ABC News. Australia. 18 March 2014. Retrieved 21 May 2015.
  142. ^ J. Franklin, Gerald Ridsdale, pedophile priest, in his own words, Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society 36 (2105), 219–230.
  143. ^ a b "Australian pedophile priest sentenced to more jail time". 14 May 2020.
  144. ^ Younger, Callum (13 April 2017). "Gerald Ridsdale, paedophile priest, pleads guilty to more sexual abuse involving 11 children in western Victoria". ABC News. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  145. ^ EDT, Sofia Lotto Persio On 8/15/17 at 1:54 PM (15 August 2017). "Australian court hears harrowing accounts of child abuse by pedophile priest". Newsweek.
  146. ^ Press, Australian Associated (15 August 2017). "Paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale abused girl on church altar, Victorian court told" – via www.theguardian.com.
  147. ^ "Christian brother found guilty of child sex offences". ABC News. Australia. 25 July 2011. Retrieved 25 July 2011.
  148. ^ Cresswell, Joel (20 September 2011). "Pedophile Christian Brother Robert Best's appeal an insult-victims". The Australian. AAP. Retrieved 31 October 2011.
  149. ^ Morris, Madeleine (3 May 2013). "Christian Brothers spent $1m defending paedophile". ABC News. Australia. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
  150. ^ Neil, Kaitlyn Offer and Megan (21 August 2019). "Archbishop urges Pell verdict respect". The Standard.
  151. ^ a b Sainsbury, Michael (13 September 2019). "New admission by diocese could cost Australian Church millions in claims". Cruxnow.com. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  152. ^ "George Pell told to face court on historical sexual assault charges". ABC News. 29 June 2017. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  153. ^ a b "Revelation | Episode 3". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 2 April 2020.
  154. ^ a b . Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 1 April 2020.
  155. ^ "Vatican welcomes Pell verdict, affirms anti-abuse resolve as survivors protest".
  156. ^ "George Pell to be sued over alleged 1970s sexual abuse in Ballarat". TheGuardian.com. 3 March 2019.
  157. ^ a b "ABC to re-edit and restore George Pell episode of Revelation as News Corp goes on attack". TheGuardian.com. 8 April 2020.
  158. ^ The Daily Telegraph
  159. ^ "This priest assaulted two boys after their sister died in a road accident". brokenrites.org.au. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  160. ^ "Former disability adviser charged with indecent assault". The Age. 25 November 2014.
  161. ^ "Paedophile priest Robert Claffey jailed for 18 years". The Age. 4 October 2016. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  162. ^ "George Pell sections of child abuse royal commission report to be published on Thursday". TheGuardian.com. 6 May 2020.
  163. ^ a b c d Le Grand, Chip (7 May 2020). "Pell knew in 1982 that Ridsdale was being moved to keep lid on scandal". The Age. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  164. ^ a b "Pell knew in 1982 that Ridsdale was being moved to keep lid on scandal". 7 May 2020.
  165. ^ a b Press, Australian Associated (3 September 2018). "Marist brother who sexually assaulted five boys sentenced to nine months' jail" – via www.theguardian.com.
  166. ^ "The Marist Brothers and a secret list of 154 accused child sex offenders". www.msn.com.
  167. ^ a b c "Marist brother 'The Rat' jailed for sex abuse of four schoolboys". ABC News. 15 May 2020.
  168. ^ "Full story: Father Michael Ambrose Endicott sentenced". brokenrites.org.au.
  169. ^ "Qld priest guilty of historical sex abuse". Blayney Chronicle. 8 March 2019.
  170. ^ "Former priest's indecent dealing conviction overturned on appeal". ABC News. 17 April 2019.
  171. ^ Caldwell, Felicity (13 September 2017). "Prosecutors will not appeal friar's child abuse sentence". Brisbane Times. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
  172. ^ "Prison for Townsville Diocese priest who molested 18 girls". CathNews. 15 September 2003. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
  173. ^ Western Australian News, Daily Mail (Brisbane), 9 Dec 1920.
  174. ^ Blyth, Bruce (1997). In the Shadow of the Cross: the story of VOICES : how the Christian Brothers' victims fought for justice (paperback). Perth, Western Australia: P&B Press. p. 106. ISBN 0-646-33774-2.
  175. ^ Blyth. In the Shadow of the Cross: the story of VOICES : how the Christian Brothers' victims fought for justice. p. 181.
  176. ^ a b McDonald, Alex; Wilkins, John; Ransom, David; et al. (24 November 1998). . Lateline (Interview). Interviewed by Maxine McKew. Australia: ABC TV. Archived from the original (transcript) on 20 April 2008. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
  177. ^ a b Murray, Andrew (28 October 2002). (Speech). 1st International Congress on Child Migration. Australian Democrats. Archived from the original on 12 September 2009. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
  178. ^ "This priest has been in jail, and now he faces new charges". Retrieved 31 March 2020.
  179. ^ "'It's disgusting': Community anger as former priest receives suspended sentence". NITV. 16 January 2019.
  180. ^ . The Catholic Weekly. 2 February 2003. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
  181. ^ Parke, Erin; Tomlin, Sam; Collins, Ben (11 March 2020). "Catholic Bishop of Broome Christopher Saunders voluntarily steps down amid investigation into allegation of sexual misconduct". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
  182. ^ Tomlin, Sam (29 November 2020). "Bishop of Broome Christopher Saunders to leave diocese for six months amid police and Vatican investigations". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
  183. ^ "Resignations and Appointments, 28.08.2021" (Press release). Holy See Press Office. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
  184. ^ "Pedophile may get parole after one year's prison". CathNews. 17 May 2007. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
  185. ^ "Guilty verdict for former priest". ABC News. Australia. 12 February 2008. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
  186. ^ Wahlquist, Calla (21 December 2018). "Former priest becomes sixth teacher at Burnie Marist College convicted of historic child sex offences" – via www.theguardian.com.
  187. ^ "Marist Brother pleads guilty to assaulting boys". ABC News. Australia. 21 February 2008. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
  188. ^ Violante, Victor (23 June 2008). "Two years in jail for Brother Kostka". The Canberra Times. Retrieved 18 September 2011.[permanent dead link]
  189. ^ "More teachers linked to Marist sex abuse case". ABC News. Australia. 25 February 2008. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
  190. ^ . CathNews. Australia. 24 June 2008. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
  191. ^ Violante, Victor (11 July 2009). . The Canberra Times. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
  192. ^ "Colleges settle sex abuse cases". ABC Canberra. 1 December 2009. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
  193. ^ Byrne, Elizabeth (28 March 2019). "Court accepts notorious paedophile abused boys, but can't convict him". ABC News.
  194. ^ Violante, Victor (23 June 2008). "Two years in jail for Brother Kostka". The Canberra Times. Retrieved 6 September 2019.[permanent dead link]
  195. ^ a b c d "Uncovering child sexual abuse in Fiji's public schools". 1News. 13 July 2020. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
  196. ^ "Text of Pope's apology for sexual abuse in Australia". Reuters. 19 July 2008. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
  197. ^ . The Australian. 2008. Archived from the original on 27 July 2008. Retrieved 21 July 2008.
  198. ^ . Inquirer.net. Philippines. Agence France-Presse. 19 July 2008. Archived from the original on 29 July 2012. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
  199. ^ McMahon, Barbara (20 July 2008). "Pope says he is 'deeply sorry' to Australian sexual abuse victims". The Observer. United Kingdom. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
  200. ^ McKenzie, Nick; Epstein, Rafael (17 May 2010). "Priests kept working despite investigations". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 16 May 2010.

External links

  • Australian Catholic Historical Society: The Sexual Abuse Crisis

March 09, 2023
catholic, church, sexual, abuse, cases, australia, catholic, sexual, abuse, cases, australia, like, catholic, church, sexual, abuse, cases, elsewhere, have, involved, convictions, trials, ongoing, investigations, into, allegations, crimes, committed, catholic,. Catholic sexual abuse cases in Australia like Catholic Church sexual abuse cases elsewhere have involved convictions trials and ongoing investigations into allegations of sex crimes committed by Catholic priests members of religious orders and other personnel which have come to light in recent decades along with the growing awareness of sexual abuse within other religious and secular institutions 1 Criticisms of the church have centred both on the nature and extent of abuse and on historical and contemporary management of allegations by church officials Internally the church began updating its protocols in the 1990s and papal apologies for abuse in Australia were made by Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI 2 A number of government enquiries have also examined church practices most notably the 2015 17 Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse The royal commission established that some 4 444 claimants alleged incidents of child sexual abuse in 4 756 reported claims to Catholic Church authorities some claimants made a claim of child sexual abuse against more than one Catholic Church authority and at least 1 880 suspected abusers from 1980 to 2015 Most of those suspected of abuse were Catholic priests and religious brothers and 62 of the survivors who told the commission they were abused in religious institutions were abused in a Catholic facility 3 4 Australia s Catholic leaders had been among the first in the world to publicly address management of child abuse In 1996 the church issued a document Towards Healing which it described as seeking to establish a compassionate and just system for dealing with complaints of abuse 5 Inquiries have since established that historically church officials had often failed to prevent future abuse by clergy who had come to their attention by transferring clergy and religious to new parishes or dioceses and not stripping them of their religious status 6 A widely reported 2012 claim in a Victorian police report that 43 suicide deaths were directly related to abuse by clergy spurred the formation of a Victorian state Parliamentary Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and other Organisations 7 8 In October 2012 the Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police Ken Lay in a submission to a parliamentary inquiry on the issue recommended that some of the church s actions to hinder investigations including dissuading victims from reporting to police failing to engage with police and alerting suspects of allegations against them be criminalised 9 The Gillard Government called a wide ranging royal commission in 2013 to examine religious and non religious institutions and their responses to child abuse allegations Archbishop Denis Hart president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference said he welcomed the royal commission as did the Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal George Pell who said that he hoped it would help victims and stop a smear campaign against the church 10 11 Pell was himself later convicted of child sex offences but was acquitted by the High Court of Australia on 7 April 2020 12 The Bishops Conference established a national co ordinating body called the Truth Justice and Healing Council to oversee the church s engagement with the royal commission and the pastoral and other ramifications that arose from the sexual abuse scandal 13 Of the 201 Catholic Church authorities surveyed by the royal commission 92 46 reported having received at least one claim of child sexual abuse Overall some 4 444 claimants alleged incidents of abuse in 4 756 reported claims over the period 1950 2015 86 of claims related to pre 1990 incidents The 3 057 claims resulting in a payment for redress amounted to 268 million between 1980 and 2015 Alleged perpetrators were overwhelmingly male 90 and religious brothers were disproportionally highly responsible having the most claimants and some 37 of all alleged perpetrators despite being numerically inferior to priests and religious sisters By means of a weighted index the commission found that at 75 archdioceses dioceses and religious institutes with priest members examined some 7 of priests who worked in Australia between 1950 and 2009 14 were alleged perpetrators this finding did not represent allegations tested in a court of law 4 Senior Counsel Gail Furness told the commission that Children were ignored or worse punished Allegations were not investigated Priests and religious leaders were moved The parishes or communities to which they were moved knew nothing of their past Documents were not kept or they were destroyed 15 16 By August 2011 according to Broken Rites a support and advocacy group for church related sex abuse victims there had been over 100 cases in Australia where Catholic priests had been charged for sex offences against minors as well as others involving non custodial sentences and inconclusive proceedings 17 On 3 June 2019 18 months after being ordered to do so by the country s Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse the Australian Catholic Church published its National Catholic Safeguarding Standards 18 The standards closely parallel the commission s recommendations as well as norms enshrined by the government in the National Principles for Child Safe Organizations although some provisions were watered down 18 One notable alteration concerned the number of hours per year that people should be undergoing professional and pastoral supervision which was reduced from the recommended 12 hours to six hours 18 On 7 May 2020 newly released portions of the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse s report stated that Pell knew about sex abuse in the church as early as 1973 19 On 8 May 2020 the Australian Supreme Court established an Institutional Liability List to administer child sex abuse lawsuits 20 The list includes claims for damages arising from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse 20 The royal commission s allegations against George Pell and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ballarat played a role in the creation of the list 20 In September 2020 the Australian state of Queensland passed legislation which makes it so that religious institutions such as the Catholic Church and their members are no longer able to use the sanctity of confession as a defence against failing to report material information about the sexual abuse of children 21 22 Under the new Queensland law clergy who refuse to report confessions of sex abuse will face a maximum sentence of three years in prison 21 Contents 1 Cases 1 1 Archdiocese of Adelaide 1 2 Archdiocese of Sydney 1 2 1 Marist Brothers 1 2 2 Diocese of Armidale 1 2 3 Diocese of Maitland Newcastle 1 2 3 1 Marist Brothers 1 2 4 Diocese of Wagga Wagga 1 2 5 Diocese of Wollongong 1 2 6 Diocese of Bathurst 1 2 7 Diocese of Parramatta 1 3 Archdiocese of Melbourne 1 3 1 Diocese of Ballarat 1 4 Marist Brothers 1 5 Archdiocese of Brisbane 1 5 1 Diocese of Townsville 1 5 2 Marist College Ashgrove 1 6 Archdiocese of Perth 1 6 1 Diocese of Bunbury 1 7 Diocese of Broome 1 8 Archdiocese of Hobart 1 8 1 Marist Fathers of Tasmania 1 9 Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn 1 10 Transfer of accused clergy to Fiji 2 Pope Benedict s statement 3 See also 4 References 5 External linksCases EditArchdiocese of Adelaide Edit See also Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide On 13 September 2011 Senator Nick Xenophon used parliamentary privilege to name an Adelaide priest as the alleged perpetrator of six sexual assaults on John Hepworth about 50 years earlier Senator Xenophon alleged that the vicar general of the Adelaide archdiocese Monsignor David Cappo had been provided with detailed allegations in 2008 but had failed to act upon them the investigations still being at a preliminary stage and the priest concerned not being stood down during the investigation 23 Monsignor Cappo subsequently resigned from several governmental positions 24 The Catholic Church established a formal independent inquiry conducted by Michael Abbott QC found that there was no substance to the allegations 25 Father Albert Davis d 2007 a member of the Dominican order was charged in 2006 with 17 incidents of indecent assault involving seven boys at Blackfriars Priory School between 1956 and 1960 Davis was committed to stand trial in the Adelaide District Court but he died before proceedings were commenced 26 Father Charles Barnett pleaded guilty in 2009 after extradition from Indonesia to three child sex charges for events between 1977 and 1985 at Crystal Brook and Port Pirie 27 Archdiocese of Sydney Edit See also Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney In 2007 Ross Murrin 52 a former Sydney Catholic school teacher and Marist Brother accused of indecently assaulting eight male Year 5 students at a Daceyville school in south east Sydney in 1974 pleaded guilty to some of the 21 charges 28 In 2016 Fr Roger Flaherty received a sentence of two years and two weeks in prison five months after pleading guilty to molesting three altar boys in the 1970s and 1980s 29 However Flaherty s advanced age and poor health allowed him to be eligible for parole six months into his sentence 29 Former Sydney archbishop Cardinal James Freeman and auxiliary bishop Edward Kelly were accused of shielding Flaherty from prosecution when the acts of sex abuse were committed 29 In 2017 Fr Denis Chrysostom Alexander was arrested in Sydney and faces an extradition to Scotland for sexual and physical abuse he reportedly committed at the former Fort Augustus Abbey in the 1970s 30 The sex abuse investigation against Alexander also resulted in the Archdiocese of Sydney stripping him being of his priestly faculties in Australia by 2013 as well 31 32 In 2018 the Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal George Pell was convicted of child sex offences but was acquitted by the High Court of Australia in 2020 In April 2019 Fr Anthony Caruana was arrested and charged with sexually abusing five minors including one male minor between the years 1982 and 1988 when he was a dormitory manager rugby coach and band teacher at Chevalier College 33 In November 2020 Theo Overberg the secretary for the Jesuit Conference Asia Pacific at the Jesuit Curia in Rome and Laurence Leonard who recently served as spiritual director at the Corpus Christi seminary in Melbourne have each been charged with indecently assaulting three boys during the 1970s at Sydney s Saint Ignatius College Riverview 34 Marist Brothers Edit In February 2020 convicted Marist Brother William Wade who served as principal of five Australian Marist Brother run high schools pleaded guilty to also concealing the abuse from authorities 35 Diocese of Armidale Edit See also Roman Catholic Diocese of Armidale This diocese incorporates 25 parishes and 24 schools within about 90 000 km2 36 and is one of if not the highest density locations of Catholic child sexual abuse in Australia on a per capita basis The extraordinary and shocking story of Father F later to be identified as former Armidale local and former Catholic Priest John Joseph Farrell was central to the ABC Television program Four Corners expose Unholy Silence 37 This was first broadcast on Monday 2 July 2012 38 and was potentially the final trigger that led to the then prime minister Julia Gillard announcing the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse The reaction of Armidale locals to the program was strong and one of indignation that something should have been done sooner by the Catholic Church 39 Case Study 44 of the Royal Commission Held Monday 19 to Thursday 22 September 2016 40 focused specifically on this case of a former Catholic priest abusing children over a 20 year period and the alleged cover up by the church hierarchy including Father Bernard Flood Father Richard Gleeson Monsignor Wayne Peters dec Father Brian Lucas Monsignor John Usher Bishop Gerard Hanna ret Bishop Bede Heather ret Bishop Luc Matthys most of whom gave evidence to the Royal Commission 41 and even Australia s most senior Catholic Cardinal George Pell 42 On 1 November 2019 former Diocese of Armidale priest David Perrett pleaded not guilty to 139 charges of child sexual assault at a number of locations including Armidale Guyra Walgett Moree Penrith Bundarra Lower Creek and Sawtell between the 1960s and 1990s 43 Perrett aged 82 had been arrested for these charges and was denied bail in August 2018 44 but was later granted bail in April 2019 after he was told he had only six months to a year to live 45 In February 2020 it was ruled that Perrett would stand trial starting 18 January 2021 46 However Perrett died while awaiting trial 47 Diocese of Maitland Newcastle Edit See also Roman Catholic Diocese of Maitland Newcastle and Philip Wilson The diocese has been referred to as the epicentre of Catholic clerical sexual abuse in Australia 48 due to a number of paedophile priests with extensive abuse records being jailed since 1997 a dedicated clergy abuse police strikeforce Strike Force Lantle having laid more than 170 abuse charges 49 Convicted abusers include Father Vincent Ryan a 6 million compensation payout to victims setting a record for the Catholic Church in Australia Father David O Hearn serving a 23 year sentence 50 and Father James Fletcher died in jail in 2006 51 John Sidney Denham pleaded guilty to 29 child sex charges involving 27 boys under his care while a priest in Newcastle in the 1970s 52 It was alleged that the Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson knew about clerical sexual abuse when serving in the New South Wales diocese of Maitland Newcastle in the late 1970s and 1980s 48 On 27 July 2012 John Pirona was found dead in his car five days after leaving a letter ending too much pain this referring to his abuse by a paedophile priest in 1979 when Pirona was 12 the event occurring a year after Maitland Newcastle bishop Leo Clarke was informed that the priest was a sex offender 53 On 31 July 2012 NSW Police in Strike Force Lantle announced they would be providing prosecutors with evidence that Father Brian Lucas general secretary of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference Archbishop Wilson of Adelaide and Michael Malone retired Bishop of Maitland Newcastle had committed the offence of concealing a serious crime under s316 of the Crimes Act 1900 NSW in concealing child sexual abuse by the priest Denis McAlinden now deceased in the Maitland Newcastle diocese The evidence includes an admission by then Maitland Newcastle bishop Leo Clarke to McAlinden that your good name will be protected by the confidential nature of the process despite your admission to Father Brian Lucas and other evidence and a letter from the late Maitland Newcastle monsignor Patrick Cotter to Bishop Clarke that McAlinden feels no such inclination towards mature females but towards the little ones I have never heard of this condition before and knowing Father McAlinden as we do we do not think it can be real serious 54 In November 2012 the Premier of New South Wales Barry O Farrell ordered a special commission of inquiry into allegations of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in this diocese and whether the church had hindered police investigations 55 Presided over by Margaret Cunneen SC she reported her findings to the Governor of New South Wales Marie Bashir on 30 May 2014 56 On 22 May 2018 the Newcastle Local Court found Wilson guilty of the charge of failing to report allegations of child sexual abuse by Fletcher in 1976 57 58 Wilson was given a maximum sentence of 12 months in detention for concealing child sexual abuse in the 1970s 59 On 6 December 2018 Wilson was acquitted of all the charges of which he had previously been found guilty The Director of Public Prosecutions had been reported to be considering a challenge in the Supreme Court of New South Wales but on 20 December announced that there were no reasonable prospects of success of appeal on errors of law On 15 February 2017 it was reported that the Catholic Church in Australia had secretly paid the equivalent of 276 1 million in compensation to thousands of people sexually abused as children by priests and religious brothers 60 Between 1980 and 2015 the Christian Brothers which operated a number of residential facilities made the highest number of payments at 763 totaling 48 5 million 60 Most reported incidents of sex abuse occurred between 1950 and 1989 60 Some reported incidents occurred as early as the 1920s and the latest after 2010 60 On March 17 2020 it was revealed that a 76 year old priest was charged with three counts of indecent assault which reportedly occurred between 1979 and 1980 61 On 6 March 2018 it was reported that Lake Macquarie Strike Force Georgiana detectives charged Maitland Newcastle priest David O Hearn who was previously convicted of 44 sex abuse offences against six boys in August 2016 with nine new counts of aggravated indecent assault 62 In May 2019 Father Vincent Ryan who had previously served 14 years in jail for sex abusing for abusing 34 boys from 1973 to 1991 was jailed for at least 14 months for sex abuse he committed against two altar boys during this timeframe which were not prosecuted 63 In October 2020 it was revealed that while two nuns reported claims of abuse against Ryan while he served at St Josephs Primary School nobody made an effort to report these claims to the police 64 In March 2020 the Diocese of Maitland Newcastle responded to the imminent release of the TV series Revelation by issuing an open letter detailing matters such as a timeline of Ryan s offending Bishop Leo Clarke s failure to respond to Ryan s abuse the treatment of the abuse victim Andrew Nash s family and Father William Burston 65 The report concluded that Vincent Ryan was properly convicted and that Andrew Nash tragically committed suicide after he was abused by the criminal William Cable Br Romuald 65 The Diocese agreed to remove Leo Clarke s honorary plaque from the Maitland Cathedral and it was also claimed that the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith would recommend to Pope Francis that Ryan be laicised 65 Marist Brothers Edit In October 2020 Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse revealed previously undisclosed details regarding reports of sex abuse against the Marist Brothers chapter in Newcastle and Lower Hunter 64 One notable case involved former Marist Brothers Hamilton student Andrew Nash who committed suicide at the age of 13 in 1974 in what his mother believed was a result of trauma from sexual abuse 64 Though William Wade also known as Brother Wade pled guilty to concealing the reports of abuse the accused perpetrator was another Marist Brother teacher at the school named Francis Cable also known as Brother Cable Brother Romuald and Brother Dominic 64 In September 2020 Wade now 84 years old pled guilty to concealing this and received a sentence of four months community service 66 Wade also was convicted in 2017 for sexually abusing a boy at Hamilton in 1976 as well 67 In October 2020 it was acknowledged that at least one former teacher at Marist College Ashgrove located in Queensland s capital of Brisbane had sexually abused students 68 Diocese of Wagga Wagga Edit See also Roman Catholic Diocese of Wagga Wagga In 2002 Vincent Kieran Kiss 70 pleaded guilty in the Sydney District Court for sex crimes against four teenage boys aged 13 to 17 between 1966 and 1973 at locations including Albury Yass and Sydney Kiss was the Diocesan Director of Youth in Wagga Wagga at the time of the offences and the four victims were members of the Young Christian Students Association 69 Diocese of Wollongong Edit See also Roman Catholic Diocese of Wollongong In 1993 the Illawarra Mercury alleged that Gwynneville parish priest Father Peter Lewis Comensoli and Brother Michael Evans had been involved in the sexual abuse of boys 70 71 Comensoli was jailed and was later named during the Wood Royal Commission 72 Evans committed suicide 71 In 1996 Father John Gerard Nestor was charged with the 1991 indecent assault of a 15 year old altar boy Nestor was initially convicted by a Local Court magistrate and sentenced to a 16 month gaol term which was overturned on an all points appeal to the District Court The case ended suddenly when prosecution witnesses were caught in contradictions Judge Phelen stating that the supposed victim seemed to have difficulty distinguishing fact from imagination Nestor went on to work as a priest for a number of years in senior appointments After engaging in secular employment he was laicised in 2009 73 The former Australian prime minister and leader of the Australian Liberal Party Tony Abbott provided a character reference for Nestor s trial describing him as an upright and virtuous man whom he had known since 1984 while studying at Sydney s St Patrick s Seminary to become a priest 73 The Illawarra Mercury reported lawyer Chris Murphy suggesting that the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse investigate the case of Nestor 74 In 2010 Kelvin Gerald Sharkey 83 was sentenced in the Wollongong District Court to at least 15 months jail for sexually abusing an altar boy on three occasions between 1969 and 1975 when Sharkey was parish priest of St John Vianney s Church at Fairy Meadow and at St Bernard s Church at Batemans Bay 75 In 2017 Marist Brother and former principal of the Mary Immaculate Catholic Parish Primary School in the Sydney suburb of Eagle Vale pleaded guilty to four counts of sexually abusing a minor 76 In 2018 Bishop Peter Ingham issued an apology and acknowledged the history of sex abuse at various Catholic schools in the Diocese of Wollongong 76 In March 2019 Father Ron Peters who was formerly listed as the Dean and Administrator of the Diocese of Wollongong 77 78 was charged with sex abuse 79 Diocese of Bathurst Edit See also Roman Catholic Diocese of Bathurst in Australia and St Stanislaus College Bathurst St Stanislaus College Bathurst in the 1970s and 1980s was referred to by an anonymous former student as a pedophile paradise due to the abusive activities of priests there 80 William Stanley Irwin 55 for instance a former Catholic brother was convicted on 31 March 2011 by a jury in the Sydney District Court on two counts of gross indecency on a male under the age of 18 at St Stanislaus College in Bathurst in the mid 1980s Having been asked by the boy s parents to counsel him in relation to prior sexual abuse Irwin kissed the youth and initiated mutual masturbation when the pair stayed at the boarding school overnight during a road trip in 1986 Irwin was later a dormitory master at St Stanislaus for two years and a chaplain and teacher at St Aloysius College at Milsons Point 81 Kevin Francis Phillips similarly pleaded guilty in a Sydney District Court on 3 December 2010 to four counts of gross indecency with a child under the age of 18 Phillips was sentenced on 21 April 2011 to a total of 15 months jail On the first three counts he was sentenced to a concurrent term of nine months starting on 21 April 2011 and expiring on 20 January 2012 On the final charge of gross indecency by a male with a male under 18 years Phillips was sentenced to a term of nine months to start on 21 October 2011 and expiring on 20 July 2012 with a non parole period of three months 82 83 84 Brian Joseph Spillane also was convicted on 30 November 2010 on nine counts of indecent assault against three girls aged between eight and seventeen while he was based in Sydney in about 1979 a Vincentian priest at that time During bail proceedings it was heard that Spillane faced a further 135 charges relating to alleged offences against boys at St Stanislaus College whilst Spillaine was chaplain These latter charges were expected to be heard in four more trials that were expected to last until late 2011 Spillaine was refused bail 85 After a court ordered media blackout was lifted in place since 2013 it was reported in 2016 that Spillane was convicted of assaults on five St Stanislaus College students after a trial in 2013 and in 2015 he pleaded guilty to assaults on four boys at the school in the late 1980s It was reported that during 2016 Spillane was convicted of attacks on five students between 1974 and 1990 86 Spillane who is currently in custody was sentenced in February 2017 to an additional nine years in prison and is not eligible for parole 87 Diocese of Parramatta Edit In 1992 after allegations arose that a priest had been sexually abusing some of his parishioners a meeting was held between the accused priest and three senior members of clergy As a result of the meeting the priest was banned from conducting Mass but was otherwise permitted to continue serving as a priest The priest was laicised in 2005 In 2012 allegations arose through the Four Corners television program that the priest admitted to child sexual abuse at the 1992 meeting and that the senior clergy present chose not to report the allegations to police Cardinal George Pell subsequently denied that the priest admitted to sexual abuse at the meeting 88 In February 2010 Fr Robert MacGregor Fuller began serving a 6 to 18 month sentence months after pleading guilty to sending both a sexually lurid video broadcast of himself and sexually lurid text messages to a 13 year old girl in the summer of 2009 89 Archdiocese of Melbourne Edit Main article Sexual abuse scandal in Melbourne archdiocese This section needs to be updated Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information April 2020 The Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police in a submission to a parliamentary inquiry established in April 2012 stated that Melbourne archdiocese s Melbourne Response process under which victims may not be legally represented appeared to be a de facto substitute for criminal justice that was detrimental to prosecuting suspected sexual criminals 90 He noted that though the Melbourne Response states on its website that in the past 14 years the church has compensated 300 people as victims of sexual abuse and identified 86 offenders of whom 60 were priests not one complainant was referred to Victoria Police 90 The report stated that the process of moving offenders to other positions in the church restricted capacity to bring them to account and promoted a culture of secrecy that hindered more victims speaking out The Melbourne Response s system the report states has outdated process that include requiring victims to confront alleged offenders 90 Notable cases have included Michael Charles Glennon sentenced to 22 years jail with a non parole period of 15 years for 23 offences against children including rape indecent assault gross indecency sexually penetrating a child under the age of 16 and sexually penetrating a child under the age of 10 91 David Daniel sentenced to six years jail with a non parole period of four years and six months for molesting four boys a girl and an adult male 92 and Wilfred James Baker sentenced to four years in prison parole after two years for 16 counts of indecent assault and one of gross indecency involving eight boys aged 10 to 13 over a 20 year period between 1960 and 1979 93 Three priests Michael Aulsebrook Frank Klep and David Rapson were investigated and prosecuted for sexual abuse which took place at Rupertswood College Sunbury in the 1990s 94 95 96 Rapson was jailed in 2013 for at least 13 years with the possibility of parole after 10 years for molesting eight students at a Catholic school in Melbourne between 1973 and 1990 97 Klep was jailed for ten and a half years in 2014 after he pleaded guilty to 15 sex offences involving many boys including siblings at the school aged between 11 and 15 between the 1970s and 1980s and will be eligible for parole six and a half years into his sentence 98 Aulsebrook who was convicted in a retrial received a sentence on seven and a half years in 2018 for raping a 12 year old boy at the Salesian College boarding school in 1988 and will be eligible for parole four and half years in his sentence 99 Brother Tanson was found to have sexually abused Amber Louise while she resided at a Christian Brothers orphanage in Victoria in the 1970s 100 Despite belonging to a different order Tanson was allowed to visit the orphanage on a regular basis 100 Tanson and an associate who was a Christian Brother were accused of abusing other children at the orphanage as well though Louise s case was the only one which was proven 100 Former Melbourne archbishop and former high ranking Roman Curia official Cardinal George Pell was sent to jail on 27 February 2019 two months after being convicted of molesting two choir boys 101 102 Judge Peter Kidd sentenced Pell on 13 March 2019 to serve six years in jail with three years and eight months non parole period 103 In August 2019 the Victorian Court of Appeal rejected Pell s appeal to have his convictions overturned 104 105 Pell then sought leave to have the matter heard in the High Court 106 however he did serve all 405 days of his required prison sentence 107 On 7 April 2020 Pell won his appeal with the Australian High Court and was soon afterwards released from prison after serving 13 months of his six year prison sentence 108 On 11 April 2020 Pell stated in an interview with Sky News journalist Andrew Bolt which aired on Sky News Australia on 14 April 2020 that he was ashamed of the way the Catholic Church dealt with sex abuse cases 107 109 He maintained his innocence and suggested that the alleged victim had been used 110 On 16 April 2020 the Richmond Football Club denied Pell the right to be reinstated as the club s vice patron and ambassador 111 112 113 On 27 April 2020 the Archdiocese of Melbourne issued an apology for shielding Father Gerard Mulvale who had sexually abused a girl named Stephanie Piper on at least eight occasions between 1975 and 1979 114 An investigation against Mulvale later started in 1993 during which the Archdiocese of Melbourne denied his guilt In January 1994 Stephanie committed suicide at the age of 32 114 However Mulvale was eventually convicted on 3 November 1995 of sexually abusing two boys 114 115 Stephanie s mother Eileen Piper has along been engaged in legal action against the Archdiocese of Melbourne as well 114 On 6 May 2020 it was revealed that previously undisclosed portions of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse report found Pell had shielded former Archdiocese of Melbourne priest Peter Searson from potential prosecution after the Catholic Church in Australia secretly concluded that he sexually abused children 116 It had been previously revealed in 2014 that the Catholic Church in Australia concluded in 1997 that Searson sexually abused both boys and girls when he was teaching at Holy Family Parish Primary School in Doveton in Melbourne s south east 117 118 However the results of the Catholic Church s investigation were not released to the public and Searson died in 2009 before he could face a criminal trial 117 In 2014 Helen Last the former director of the Archdiocese of Melbourne s pastoral response office claimed that in 1997 Pell blocked her from doing more to investigate the claims against Searson telling her in letter that it was under control and there remains no need for any pro active measures from your office and then removed her from her post one month later after she defied his order 117 The newly disclosed details which were made public on 7 May 2020 also revealed that while he was serving as an auxiliary bishop of Melbourne Pell knew that Searson not only sexually abused students at his school but as early as 1989 also ignored complaints that showed signs of Searson s aggressive behavior such as his use of children s toilets and making his students watch him torture animals 19 The newly disclosed portions of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse report which was originally published in redacted form in December 2017 also revealed that priests and clergy staff accused of abusing children within the Archdiocese of Melbourne were sometimes dealt with by being transferred to other parishes 119 Diocese of Ballarat Edit See also Roman Catholic Diocese of Ballarat The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse final report published on 15 December 2017 found that 139 people made a claim of child sexual abuse to the Diocese of Ballarat between 1980 and 2015 and that there was 21 alleged perpetrators identified in claims Of the 21 alleged and convicted perpetrators 17 were priests which is 8 7 of the priests who ministered during this period 120 The royal commission s final report of Catholic Church authorities in Ballarat was released on 6 December 2017 121 The commission found that Bishop Ronald Mulkearns had failed to take action saying that Bishop Mulkearns again was derelict in his duty in failing to take any effective action to have infamous paedophile Gerald Ridsdale referred to police and to restrict Ridsdale s contact with children 122 The commission pointed out to the structure of the diocese culture and governance concluding that The most likely explanation for the conduct of Bishop Mulkearns and other senior clergy in the Diocese was that they were trying to minimise the risk of scandal and protect the reputation of the Catholic Church The Melbourne report found that Peter Connors a former Bishop of Ballarat was part of a culture that practiced using oblique or euphemistic language in correspondence and records concerning complaints of child sexual abuse 123 Below are some extracts from the conclusion of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse s report into Case Study 28 Catholic Church authorities in Ballarat This case study exposed a catastrophic failure in the leadership of the Diocese and ultimately in the structure and culture of the Church over decades to effectively respond to the sexual abuse of children by its priests That failure led to the suffering and often irreparable harm to children their families and the wider community That harm could have been avoided if the Church had acted in the interests of children rather than in its own interests Euphemistic and elliptical language was often used in correspondence and minutes to mask the true nature of the conduct discussed There was repeated reference to pressures strains and unspecified problems On occasions records were deliberately not made or kept or were destroyed The result of these inexcusable failures was that more children were sexually abused by Catholic clergy in the Diocese There was a catastrophic institutional failure which resulted in many children being sexually abused We heard about the devastating often lifelong consequences in the lives of those children The welfare of children was not the primary concern of Bishop Mulkearns and other senior members of the Diocese when responding to complaints and allegation of child sexual abuse against their priests There is no doubt it should have been 121 The report on Ballarat also described the impact it had on victims One section outlines suicide and premature death caused from the abuse One victim saidNewspapers don t report suicides so the public doesn t hear about the broken families and their shattered lives about the unseen impact of institutional child sexual abuse Children are left behind and they don t understand why It doesn t end when the abuse ends 124 Other harms are outlined Another victim outlines the general harm in the Ballarat community Such chronic sexual abuse in the Ballarat community has led to a large number of men who are not able to be productive members of society and in neglect have become either emotional social or financial burdens upon the community 124 One victim who told their story to the Royal Commission was Paul Levey was sent to live with Ridsdale at the age of 14 at the presbytery in Mortlake 125 The Levey said he was sexually abused all the time just about every day and the Commission heard evidence that Ronald Mulkearns was among a number of clergy who knew Ridsdale had a boy living with him but failed to intervene 126 127 128 129 The commission found that Mulkearns ignored pleas from Paul Levey s mother who was concerned about the situation and sought his assistance even though By this time Bishop Mulkearns knew of Ridsdale s admission of offending against boys 130 The Commission stated that Bishop Mulkearns response to Paul Levey living with Ridsdale in the Mortlake presbytery demonstrated a total absence of concern for the welfare of that boy 131 The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found that the then Bishop of Ballarat Diocese James O Collins had received a complaint in the 1960s that Father Gerald Ridsdale had sexually abused a boy but did not take action 132 133 The royal commission was also told Bishop Ronald Mulkearns knew in 1975 that Ridsdale had abused boys and again did nothing to stop the abuse from occurring 134 A priest Gerald Ridsdale was jailed in 1994 for 18 years with a minimum of 15 years after pleading guilty to 46 counts of child sexual offences including buggery indecent assault and gross indecency committed over two decades on 21 victims 135 In 2006 he pleaded guilty to 35 additional charges relating to indecent assault against 10 boys 136 On these charges he was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment with a minimum of seven years 137 A few of his victims criticised the sentence 137 Ridsdale would have been eligible for parole in August 2013 at the age of 79 137 On 20 June 2013 Ridsdale was again charged by Victoria Police with an additional 84 offences against 14 victims committed between 1961 and 1981 138 He pleaded guilty to 29 counts 27 of indecent assault one count of buggery and one count of carnal knowledge of a girl under the age of 16 committed between 1960 and 1980 and asked for a further 27 counts to be taken into consideration at sentencing which will take place at a date to be fixed 139 After pleading guilty to the above charges including raping and abusing children as young as four Ridsdale was sentenced to eight years in prison in April 2014 and was scheduled to be eligible for parole in April 2019 140 The latest charges bring the tally of Ridsdale s confirmed victims to 54 141 In May 2015 Ridsdale gave an account of his offending in evidence to the Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse 142 However his ineligibility for parole was eventually extended 143 Ridsdale pleaded guilty to a further 20 offences against 10 boys and a girl on 13 April 2017 These offences were committed between 1961 and 1988 in western Victoria and were expected to extend his release date further into the future 144 On 15 August 2017 Ridsdale pleaded guilty to 23 charges including two counts of rape and one of buggery for abusing 12 children 11 boys and one girl with ages ranging from 6 to 13 between 1962 and 1988 in the Victoria state city of Ballarat and the surrounding area 145 146 On 14 May 2020 Victorian County Court Judge Gerard Mullaly extended Ridsdale s non parole period which was originally scheduled to end in 2022 by another two years to 2024 143 On 8 August 2011 Robert Charles Best a Christian Brother was sentenced in the Victorian County Court to 14 years and nine months jail with a non parole period of 11 years and three months for 27 offences involving sexual abuse of 11 boys Best taught at Catholic primary and secondary schools in Ballarat Box Hill and Geelong all in Victoria Australia between the 1960s and 1980s Best has been convicted by a jury and has pleaded guilty to more than 40 child sex offences against dozens of students some as young as eight years old 147 As of 2011 update Best had not been expelled by the Christian Brothers and the order had expended more than A 1 million on his legal costs 148 In May 2013 the Christian Brothers admitted to Victoria s parliamentary inquiry into child abuse they did what they could to defend members accused of sexual assault against children They admitted to hiring a private investigator to follow one of Best s victims In addition to paying the aforementioned legal costs the church also paid hundreds of thousands to defend other members also accused of rape 149 On 21 August 2019 Ballarat s Bishop Paul Bird acknowledged that Pell who had lost his appeal in the state of Victoria had ties to this Melbourne suffragan diocese and apologised for the history of sex abuse in the diocese as well 150 On 6 September 2019 the Diocese of Ballarat released a statement admitting that the high ranking clergy in the diocese knew of sex abuse claims against Gerald Ridsdale and afterwards made efforts to shield Ridsdale from prosecution 151 This confession came in the wake of civil lawsuit filed against thedDiocese by one of Ridsdale s victims 151 In addition to the Archdiocese of Melbourne sex abuse charges Pell also faced numerous sex abuse charges stemming from his time in the Diocese of Ballarat 152 The three episode documentary series Revelation which aired on ABC TV on 17 March 31 March and 2 April 2020 153 revealed two men identified as Bernie and Peter Clarke who accused Pell of sexually abusing them as boys when he served at the Catholic run orphanage where they resided in the 1970s 154 The new sex abuse allegations against Pell were also investigated by Australian journalist Sarah Ferguson 154 Despite the fact that his sex abuse convictions related to his time in the Archdiocese of Melbourne were later overturned Pell still faces 10 civil lawsuits with some stemming from his time in the Diocese of Ballarat 155 156 The overturning of Pell s Melbourne conviction also did not prevent the Australian Broadcasting Corporation ABC from releasing a statement defending the accuracy of Revelation stating that The ABC has and will continue to report accurately and without fear or favour on stories that are in the public interest including this one 157 Despite the third episode being temporarily removed from online reruns it was restored after undergoing some re editing to update the content 157 all three episodes also remain available on ABC Radio s website 153 In his interview with Bolt Pell stated that failures to act on the abuse which he referred to as cancer still haunted him 107 109 On 13 April 2020 the Revelation allegations developed into a new sex abuse investigation against Pell 158 Robert Patrick Claffey a priest pleaded guilty in 1998 to indecent assault of two boys aged 12 and 13 after their sister died in a road accident in 1978 159 In 2014 he was also charged with 16 counts of indecent assault and one count of buggery against about seven child victims between 1970 and 1992 160 In October 2016 he pleaded guilty to the offences and was jailed for 18 years 161 On 8 May 2020 it was revealed that Claffey was still serving a prison term for the sexual abuse of 14 children between 1969 and 1992 and that at least one of his victims Joseph Barrett was granted a settlement of 35 000 after filing a lawsuit against the Diocese of Ballarat 20 On 6 May 2020 it was revealed that the newly disclosed portions of the royal commission report found that Pell had attempted to protect Ridsdale from potential prosecution by transferring him when he was a priest of the Diocese of Ballarat 117 Pell had also said to the commission that he didn t do anything about it when a young schoolboy told him that Brother Edward Dowlan was sexually abusing him but also tried to hide the fact that it was also in part his duty to assist in the investigation 162 According to the report s newly disclosed details which were made public on 7 May 2020 by 1973 Pell was not only conscious of child sexual abuse by clergy but that he also had considered measures of avoiding situations which might provoke gossip about it 19 On 7 May 2020 the portions of the royal commission report involving Pell were made public and revealed that the commission found that Pell knew about the abuse committed by Ridsdale and deliberately attempted to cover it up when he took part in the College of Consultors decision to transfer Ridsdale from the Mortlake parish in Ballarat to Sydney in 1982 119 163 The commission rejected Pell s claim that he was deceived when he cast his vote to transfer Ridsdale as implausible 119 163 It was also reported that Pell had attempted to bribe Ridsdale s nephew David Ridsdale who was also sexually abused by Ridsdale into keeping quiet 19 119 163 David Ridsdale testified to the Royal Commission that the attempted bribe took place when he told Pell about the sex abuse over the phone in February 1983 164 David stated that after he brought up the abuse Pell then began to talk about my growing family and my need to take care of their needs and that He mentioned how I would soon have to buy a car or house for my family 19 David s Ridsdales s sisters Patricia Ridsdale and Bernadette Lukaitis also backed his account telling the royal commission that their brother called them shortly after his conversation with Pell and said that Pell had tried to bribe him 164 Despite not being satisfied with how David Ridsdale interpreted Pell s offer which was believed to be mere assistance rather than an offer of silence 163 the royal commission accepted that Pell turned his mind to Ridsdale taking his boy victims on overnight camps 19 Accusations against Pell Ridsdale and Claffey also played a major role in the Australian Supreme Court s decision to create the Institutional Liability List on 8 May 2020 20 The list will administer child sex abuse lawsuits nationwide 20 Marist Brothers Edit In June 2017 Marist Brother William Wade who went by the names Brother Wade and Brother Christopher was convicted of three counts of sexually abusing two boys at Hamilton Marist School in 1976 and Kogarah Marists in 1980 and served 18 months in prison 67 66 In September 2018 Marist Brother Gerard McNamara 80 was sentenced to nine months in prison for molesting five boys who were aspiring athletes at St Paul s Catholic College where McNamara served as principal in Traralgon between 1970 and 1975 165 He also molested one of these boy 30 times 165 In June 2019 the Marist Brothers produced a list of 154 members who were accused of sexually abusing children in Australia between 1980 and 2015 166 In May 2020 McNamara began serving his second stint in prison after pleading guilty to charges of indecent assault and one count of common assault of more than 15 male students between 1970 and 1975 167 This time he received a sentence of 35 months in prison with 28 months suspended 167 Since his first sex abuse conviction in June 2006 which resulted in a suspended prison sentence McNamara who was also nicknamed The Rat has received three additional convictions and sentences on sex abuse charges but was able to once again receive a suspended prison sentence following another conviction in December 2016 167 Archdiocese of Brisbane Edit In June 2010 Brisbane priest Michael Ambrose Endicott pleaded guilty to take indecent photos of two schoolboys between 1977 and 1978 and received a one year suspended prison sentence 168 In March 2019 he received an 18 month prison sentence after being convicted of making boys strip nude for photos during the 1970s and 1980s 169 only to have this conviction overturned the next month 170 In May 2017 Anthony Francis Damian Colbourne an ex member of the Capuchin Friars pled guilty to indecently assaulting an eight year old girl in the presbytery and his office on four separate occasions in 1974 and received 18 month prison sentence which became a suspended sentence after he was jail for four months 171 Diocese of Townsville Edit See also Roman Catholic Diocese of Townsville Notable cases include Neville Joseph Creen who molested young girls while he served as a priest at Mount Isa north west Queensland from 1973 to 1981 In Brisbane District Court on 12 September 2003 Creen aged 63 was sentenced to three and half years jail with a 14 month minimum after admitting to 34 indecent dealing charges involving 18 girls under the age of 13 One girl was aged just 5 when Creen abused her at a youth camp and later at the home of her grandparents Creen pleaded guilty to a further six charges on 4 November 2004 and was sentenced to an additional two years jail 172 Marist College Ashgrove Edit In October 2020 the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found that the church had failed to intervene against Thomas Butler a Marist Brother known as Brother Patrick when students reported that he sexually abused them within the three year period he taught at Brisbane s Marist College Ashgrove 68 Butler had received sex abuse complaints in between 1991 and 1993 68 Provincial of the Marist Brothers in Australia Brother Peter Carroll delivered an apology at the royal commission s public hearing 68 Archdiocese of Perth Edit See also Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Perth In 1920 Christian Brother Frederick Philip Carmody was sentenced to nine years gaol for sexual abuse of boys at Clontarf Boys Orphanage 173 In 1995 Gerard William Dick a self confessed sexually abusive priest was sentenced to three and a half years jail for 10 incidents of indecently dealing with boys aged between 8 and 10 at a Christian Brothers orphanage in Western Australia 174 David Christian was fined A 10 500 on seven charges of indecently assaulting boys at the Marist Brothers school 175 In 1994 the Parliament of Western Australia was presented a petition with 30 000 signatures which demanded an inquiry into the sexual and physical assault that took place in various institutions run by the Christian Brothers including Castledare Boys Home Bindoon Clontarf and Tardun 176 177 The Christian Brothers accepted that there was strong evidence that many of the allegations were true and made a public apology 176 A legal action brought by over 200 former students ran from 1993 in the New South Wales Supreme Court and was finalised in 1996 with an out of court settlement 177 In 2014 retired Subiaco and Shenton Park priest Patrick Holmes was sentenced to three years jail He had pled guilty to six child sex charges dating between 1969 and 1981 He later appeared in court in 2018 and again in 2019 entering a not guilty plea in response to 16 new charges filed after an investigation by the WA Police s Child Abuse Squad 178 In January 2019 retired Perth priest Allan John Mithen received a 13 month suspended prison sentence after pleading guilty to two counts of sexually abusing an Aborigine girl at a mission in 1965 179 Diocese of Bunbury Edit See also Roman Catholic Diocese of Bunbury The Royal Commission s report stated that there had been 29 cases reported to the Church in Bunbury and where addressed under the Towards Healing process by the Bishop of Bunbury While Adrian Richard Van Klooster pleaded guilty to four counts of indecently dealing with children under the age of 13 and was found with child pornography on his computer there are other cases of paedophile priests being convicted of grooming and sexually assaulting children and young teenagers In 2018 amendments to the Civil Liability Act removed the time limits for victims of sexual abuse to seek restitution as well as importantly defining the churches responsibility to stop the loop hole exploited in the widely condemned Ellis Defence that said in a nutshell that priests where not employees of the church As a result according to the District Court of Western Australia there have been 16 Writ of Summons issued against the Bishop of Bunbury for civil damages resulting form sexual abuse by the Catholic clergy of the diocese The Bishop of Bunbury Gerard Holohan appointed in 2001 presided over the Towards Healing process limiting the average payout to the 29 victims at 25 000 This was achieved by using the tactics of delay and denial However it now seems with many of these victims long dissatisfied with theses payouts made by the bishop are taking up their rights for proper compensation through the court The compensation paid so far for the 29 known victims amounts to less than 750 000 However recent compensation payouts awarded by the courts to individual victims in similar cases has ranged between 1 2 to 2 4 million This means that with legal costs the liability of the Bunbury diocese in the next year or two would conservatively be north of 10 15 million depending upon the number of cases that go to trial If any more victims come forward this figure can only increase 180 Diocese of Broome Edit See also Roman Catholic Diocese of Broome In March 2020 Bishop Christopher Saunders voluntarily stood aside from the administration of the diocese This was stated to be due to a review of the diocese ordered by the Vatican He stepped down the day after the revelation that Western Australian Police had been investigating an allegation made 18 months earlier of sexual misconduct by him 181 In November 2020 Saunders agreed to leave the diocese for at least six months 182 Pope Francis accepted his resignation on 28 August 2021 183 Archdiocese of Hobart Edit Marist Fathers of Tasmania Edit See also Marist Regional College Notable cases include in 2007 Gregory Ferguson was sentenced to two years jail eligible for parole after 12 months for offences in 1971 against two boys aged 13 at Marist College Burnie Tasmania On 13 December 2007 he was sentenced to an additional three years jail for offences against a third boy 184 in 2008 a jury found former priest Roger Michael Bellemore guilty on three counts of maintaining a sexual relationship with a young person under the age of 17 years in the 1960s and 1970s while he was at the same college 185 By December 2018 six former priests who taught at the college had been convicted of committing acts of sexual abuse 186 Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn Edit Main article Sexual abuse scandal in Canberra and Goulburn archdiocese In February 2008 a teacher at Marist College Canberra Brother John William Chute also known as Brother Kostka pleaded guilty in the ACT Magistrates Court to 11 charges of indecently assaulting students of the college during the 1980s 187 188 Damages for sexual abuse have also been sought by former students at Marist College Canberra 189 190 191 A teacher at Daramalan College in Canberra was also charged with numerous sexual assaults in 2000 however he committed suicide shortly after he was charged 192 Seven further charges against Chute relating to alleged offences committed before 1985 were dropped due to a legal limitation that charges relating to sexual indecency had to be made within a year In June 2008 Chute was sentenced in the ACT Supreme Court to six years in jail serving two years in prison one year in weekend detention and three years suspended 193 194 Transfer of accused clergy to Fiji Edit On 13 July 2020 New Zealand s 1News revealed that of some of at least 1 300 clergy who were accused of committing sexually abusing children in the nation of Fiji were originally from Australia before they were transferred 195 One example was Australian priest Julian Fox was later convicted and jailed in 2015 for child sex crimes 195 Fox was transferred to Fiji in 1999 after Australian police started an investigation against him 195 The Catholic Church in Fiji also had knowledge of sex abuse allegations against Fox nine years before he was charged 195 Pope Benedict s statement EditMain article Ecclesiastical response to Catholic sex abuse cases On 19 July 2008 before a congregation of 3 400 assembled in Sydney s St Mary s Cathedral Pope Benedict XVI lamented that child sex abuse had taken place and the pain it caused He also condemned those responsible for it and demanded punishment for them However he did not state or imply that the institutional church or any of its leaders accepted any responsibility for what had taken place His statement reads 196 Here I would like to pause to acknowledge the shame which we have all felt as a result of the sexual abuse of minors by some clergy and religious in this country I am deeply sorry for the pain and suffering the victims have endured and I assure them that as their pastor I too share in their suffering Victims should receive compassion and care and those responsible for these evils must be brought to justice These misdeeds which constitute so grave a betrayal of trust deserve unequivocal condemnation I ask all of you to support and assist your bishops and to work together with them in combating this evil It is an urgent priority to promote a safer and more wholesome environment especially for young people On 21 July 2008 before flying out of Australia Pope Benedict met at St Mary s Cathedral Sydney with two male and two female victims of sex abuse by priests He listened to their stories and celebrated Mass with them 197 The Premier of New South Wales Morris Iemma said that Hopefully it will be a sign of righting the wrongs of the past and of a better future and better treatment by the church of the victims and their families 198 199 Mark Fabbro a victim of abuse and member of the Catholic Abuse Survivors Collective said that while he was happy to receive the apology we still consider it indirect and insufficient citation needed Chris MacIsaac of the victims rights advocacy group Broken Rites said the Pope had taken his apology further than his previous comments on the issue as he has never put it quite so strongly before but expressed disappointment that the Pope had not made his apology directly to sexual abuse victims citation needed One Australian victim of sexual abuse by a Catholic priest has stated in the media Dealing with the church itself was a hell of a lot more traumatic than dealing with the abuse 200 See also Edit Crime portal Human sexuality portal Catholicism portalSexual abuse cases in catholic churchCatholic Church sex abuse cases Catholic Church sex abuse cases by countryCritique amp consequences related topicsCriticism of Pope John Paul II Debate on the causes of clerical child abuse Ecclesiastical response to Catholic sex abuse cases Instruction Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations with Regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in View of Their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders Sex Crimes and the Vatican BBC documentaryInvestigation prevention and victim support related topicsBroken Rites Australia support and advocacy group in Australia Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors Vos estis lux mundi church procedure for abuse casesOther related topicsChild sexual abuse in Australia Clerical celibacy Pontifical secret Roman Catholicism in AustraliaReferences Edit Child abuse scandals faced by Roman Catholic Church The Telegraph United Kingdom 12 March 2010 Retrieved 21 September 2011 Pope John Paul II 22 November 2001 Ecclesia in Oceania Apostolic exhortation Rome Libreria Editrice Vaticana Retrieved 30 March 2012 Williams Jecqueline 14 December 2017 Australia and Catholic Church Failed Abused Children Inquiry Finds The New York Times a b Royal Commission ANALYSIS OF CLAIMS OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE MADE WITH RESPECT TO CATHOLIC CHURCH INSTITUTIONS IN AUSTRALIA Archived 31 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine June 2017 Towards Healing Professional Standards Office Australian Catholic Bishops Conference 1996 Archived from the original on 22 July 2011 Retrieved 30 March 2012 Campbell James 29 August 2010 Church must face scrutiny for child sex abuse Sunday Herald Sun Australia Retrieved 24 September 2011 Victoria Police in false claim on child abuse suicides theaustralian com au 25 July McKenzie Nick Baker Richard Lee Jane 13 April 2012 Church s suicide victims Canberra Times Archived from the original on 13 June 2012 Retrieved 2 July 2012 Lee Jane Zwartz Barney 11 October 2012 Police slam Catholic Church The Age Australia Drape Julian 13 November 2012 Abuse inquiry to run as long as it takes The Australian AAP Retrieved 13 November 2012 Cardinal Welcomes Royal Commission Catholic Communications Sydney Archdiocese 16 November 2012 Archived from the original on 18 November 2012 Retrieved 20 November 2012 Reports of Pell guilty verdict emerge despite gag order Catholic News Agency Catholic News Agency Retrieved 31 May 2019 Announcement of Chair and CEO of the Catholic Church Council for the Royal Commission Press release Australian Catholic Bishops Conference 12 December 2012 Retrieved 16 May 2015 Neuman Scott 15 December 2017 Catholic Church Singled Out In Australian Sex Abuse Report Retrieved 15 December 2017 Shocking scale of Catholic Church sex crimes revealed www aljazeera com Case Study 50 Institutional review of Catholic Church authorities Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse 6 February 2017 Black Collar Crime in Australia Broken Rites 28 August 2011 Archived from the original on 22 April 2001 Retrieved 18 September 2011 a b c Australian Catholic Church releases standards for child protection National Catholic Reporter 3 June 2019 a b c d e f George Pell a former advisor to Pope Francis and Australia s most senior Catholic cleric knew about child sex abuse within the Catholic Church for decades report alleges Business Insider a b c d e f Tomazin Farrah 8 May 2020 Catholic Church s legal deluge compounded by damning Pell findings The Sydney Morning Herald Retrieved 9 May 2020 a b Queensland passes law to jail priests who don t report child sexual abuse confessions ABC News 8 September 2020 Queensland to force priests to report child sexual abuse Criminal Law Australia Metherell Mark 14 September 2011 Senator names priest on rape The Sydney Morning Herald Retrieved 14 September 2011 David Cappo resigns over John Hepworth case news com au 15 September 2011 Retrieved 21 February 2012 No substance to priest John Hepworth s rape claim church news com au 28 November 2011 Retrieved 21 February 2012 Tasmanian priest guilty of abuse SA accused dies Catholic News 27 March 2007 Retrieved 19 September 2011 Extradited ex priest admits child sex ABC News Australia 9 September 2009 Retrieved 8 October 2020 Catholic brother to plead guilty to abuse ABC News Australia 18 September 2007 Retrieved 18 September 2011 a b c Barlass Tim 25 February 2016 Paedophile Catholic priest aged 72 sentenced to two years in prison The Sydney Morning Herald Oriti Thomas 24 January 2017 Australian Catholic priest accused of abuse at Scottish school arrested in Sydney ABC News Daly Mark 29 July 2013 Abuse claims at ex boarding school BBC News Daly Mark 16 April 2019 Abuse claim monk should return to Scotland BBC News Rawsthorne Megan Gorrey Sally 13 April 2019 Catholic priest charged over alleged child sex abuse at NSW school The Sydney Morning Herald Baker Richard 10 November 2020 Senior Jesuits charged with historical sex offences at Sydney s Saint Ignatius College Riverview Sydney Morning Herald Retrieved 29 November 2020 History after Marist Brother pleads guilty to concealing serious child sex crimes 28 February 2020 Catholic Diocese of Armidale Catholic Church Australia 17 May 2017 retrieved 17 May 2017 Unholy Silence Paedophiles in the Catholic Church via www youtube com dead YouTube link Unholy Silence 28 June 2012 via www abc net au Armidale reacts to church abuse investigation Archived from the original on 21 December 2021 via www youtube com Case Study 44 Catholic Church authorities in Armidale and Parramatta Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse 12 September 2016 CASE STUDY 44 JOHN JOSEPH FARRELL PDF www childabuseroyalcommission gov au 13 September 2016 Retrieved 22 September 2019 Browne Rachel 22 September 2016 Royal commission Monsignor John Usher denies protecting Cardinal George Pell The Sydney Morning Herald Former priest David Perrett pleads not guilty to 139 charges of child sexual assault ABC News November 2019 81yo retired priest refused bail on historical sex abuse charges 22 August 2018 A spent volcano old ill former priest bailed on 131 charges 9 April 2019 Trial set for former New England priest accused of historical sex abuse charges 24 February 2020 Former Catholic clergyman dies awaiting trial for sex abuse 7 July 2020 a b Crittenden Stephen Smith Suzanne 18 May 2010 Archbishop s handling of abuse claims challenged ABC News Australia Retrieved 16 September 2011 Newcastle Catholic Bishop supports abuse inquiry ABC News Australia 26 July 2012 Retrieved 28 July 2012 Brown Michelle 22 August 2016 Hunter Catholic priest David O Hearn sentenced to more than five years over child sex offences ABC News Australia Retrieved 22 May 2018 Cases against clergy in Maitland Newcastle Diocese ABC News Australia 16 May 2010 Archived from the original on 21 May 2010 Priest sex abuse sentence delayed ABC News Australia 5 February 2010 Retrieved 5 February 2010 McCarthy Joanne 28 July 2012 Abused Man Takes His Life The Sydney Morning Herald p 3 McCarthy Joanne Besser Linton 31 July 2012 Police Move on Priests Over Abuse Cover Up The Sydney Morning Herald p 1 Retrieved 31 July 2012 Salusinszky Imre 9 November 2012 Farrell orders inquiry into Catholic church sex abuse investigations The Australian Retrieved 12 November 2012 Ansari Tahmina 30 May 2014 Special Commission of Inquiry clears police finds whistleblower Peter Fox not credible over child abuse cover up claims ABC News Australia Retrieved 17 April 2015 Notzon Nancy 22 May 2018 Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson found guilty of covering up child sexual abuse ABC News Retrieved 22 May 2018 Catholic Archbishop found guilty of covering up child sexual abuse ABC News 22 May 2018 Retrieved 22 May 2018 Archbishop Philip Wilson sentenced for concealing child sex abuse BBC Australia 3 July 2018 a b c d Australian Catholic church has paid 276m to abuse victims so far inquiry shows Guardian Australia Australian Associated Press 16 February 2017 Retrieved 22 May 2018 Serving Newcastle priest charged with child sex offences 23 March 2017 Priest David O Hearn facing fresh child sex charges 6 March 2018 Burn in hell Former priest Vincent Ryan to go back behind bars 7NEWS com au 22 May 2019 a b c d Farquhar Liz Lewis Madeline 20 October 2020 Royal commission files reveal previously unseen details about abuse by priests in Newcastle Australian Broadcasting Corporation Retrieved 14 November 2020 a b c Maitland Newcastle Catholic Diocese of Detailed communication in support of Bishop Bill Wright s open letter to the People of the Diocese www mn catholic org au Retrieved 24 March 2021 a b Senior Catholic escapes jail for concealing child sex abuse at schools ABC News 30 September 2020 a b Marist Brother entitled to know why judge didn t believe him 31 March 2018 a b c d Gramenez Emile 20 October 2020 Sex abuse royal commission finds Catholic church failed to act against Brisbane brother over abuse complaints Australian Broadcasting Corporation Retrieved 14 November 2020 Father Kiss pleads guilty to sex charges The Age Australia 8 August 2002 Retrieved 18 September 2011 Kirkpatrick Rod September 2005 Guts and glory murder and more during the Mercury s 150 years PDF PANPA Bulletin 56 57 Retrieved 18 September 2011 a b Robinson Gareth 30 August 1998 Wonderful Wollongong ABC Radio National Background Briefing Australia Archived from the original transcript on 16 February 2009 Retrieved 16 May 2010 Minus Jodie 4 June 2009 Underbelly 3 A tale of Wollongong s darkest hour Illawarra Mercury Retrieved 18 September 2011 a b Abbott vouched for priest later struck off The Age Melbourne 6 February 2013 Retrieved 15 May 2015 Osborne Paul 8 February 2013 Royal commission should examine Nestor case Illawarra Mercury AAP Retrieved 15 May 2015 Church to deregister sex abuse ex priest ABC News Australia 30 April 2010 Retrieved 18 September 2011 a b Australian bishop apologizes for school abuse calls on victims to come forward Cruxnow com 6 February 2018 Retrieved 22 September 2019 Dutch in Wollongong www facebook com Fr Ron Peters www lumenchristi org au Archived from the original on 20 October 2016 Retrieved 15 January 2022 Mardon Cydonee 22 March 2019 Former Campbelltown priest charged with indecent assaults on boy Camden Narellan Advertiser Murphy Damien 6 September 2008 Old boy calls school a pedophile paradise The Sydney Morning Herald Retrieved 22 September 2011 Courts Louise Hall 1 April 2011 Catholic brother abused boy he was counselling The Sydney Morning Herald Retrieved 1 April 2011 Sixth teacher charged over sex abuse The Australian AAP 5 May 2009 Retrieved 22 November 2010 Marr David 4 December 2010 Stannies priest convicted of abuse The Sydney Morning Herald Retrieved 4 December 2010 Ex Stannies priest jailed Central Western Daily Australia 11 May 2011 Retrieved 11 May 2011 Marr David 1 December 2010 God help me former priest found guilty of child abuse The Sydney Morning Herald Retrieved 4 December 2010 Gardiner Stephanie 5 December 2016 Notorious paedophile Brian Spillane convicted of more Stannies sex assaults The Sydney Morning Herald Retrieved 10 December 2016 Rubinsztein Dunlop Sean 16 February 2017 Paedophile priest Brian Spillane jailed for nine years ABC News Allard Tom 4 July 2012 Calls for royal commission over alleged cover up of Catholic abuse The Sydney Morning Herald Retrieved 6 July 2012 Priest jailed but celibacy vow cruel ABC News Abc net au 24 February 2010 Retrieved 9 October 2020 a b c Lee Jane 11 October 2012 Police Slam Catholic Church Investigations impeded accused abusers moved on inquiry told The Age Topsfield Jewel 10 October 2003 Notorious pedophile guilty Herald Sun The Poynter Institute Archived from the original on 21 May 2006 Retrieved 11 December 2006 Gannaway Kath 7 August 2007 Hear the truth Mountain Views Mail Archived from the original on 28 October 2007 Retrieved 18 September 2011 Ellingsen Peter 4 May 2002 Speak no evil The Age Melbourne Retrieved 30 January 2012 Lowe Adrian 23 August 2011 Sunbury priest jailed for sex abuse The Age Australia Retrieved 17 September 2011 Stayner Guy 25 June 2004 Paedophile priest arrested in Melbourne Lateline Australia Archived from the original on 13 November 2012 Retrieved 17 September 2011 Daly Martin 24 July 2004 Priest used drink on boys victim The Age Australia Retrieved 17 September 2011 Akerman Pia 17 October 2013 Ex priest David Edwin Rapson jailed for heartless sex abuse of students The Australian Retrieved 28 February 2019 Crayon Peta 26 May 2014 Frank Klep former Victorian Catholic priest and teacher at Salesian College sentenced to 10 years in prison ABC Retrieved 28 February 2019 Wilson Amber 3 August 2018 Ex priest who drugged and raped 12 year old boy gets reduced jail time The Age Retrieved 28 February 2019 a b c Amber Louise s story 23 October 2017 Pell wakes up in Boneyard prison after child sex offences conviction www 9news com au Cardinal Pell jailed in Australia ahead of March 13 sentencing National Catholic Reporter 27 February 2019 George Pell to be sentenced for child sex abuse 9News 13 March 2019 Retrieved 13 March 2019 McGown Michael 21 August 2019 Cardinal Pell likely to be stripped of Order of Australia as it happened Guardian Australia Retrieved 22 September 2019 Austin Henry 21 August 2019 Cardinal George Pell has child sex abuse convictions upheld by Australian court The Independent United Kingdom Retrieved 22 September 2019 Farnsworth Sarah 17 September 2019 George Pell seeks leave to appeal child sex abuse convictions in High Court ABC News Retrieved 22 September 2019 a b c WORLD EXCLUSIVE Cardinal Pell reveals Catholic Church shame in wake of child sex cancer 11 April 2020 Phil Helsel and The Associated Press 7 April 2020 Cardinal George Pell out of prison after Australia s High Court overturns abuse convictions NBC News Retrieved 7 April 2020 a b Pell Abusers a cancer in Catholic Church 11 April 2020 George Pell tells Andrew Bolt the man who testified against him may have been used The Guardian 14 April 2020 Subscribe to the Australian Newspaper home delivery website iPad iPhone amp Android apps https www heraldsun com au subscribe news 1 sourceCode HSWEB WRE170 a GGL amp dest https 3A 2F 2Fwww heraldsun com au 2Fnews 2Fvictoria 2Frichmond tigers wont reinstate george pells club ambassador role following acquittal 2Fnews story 2F982fe7ebe425d92fd6ab134d4c7454b1 amp memtype anonymous amp mode premium bare URL Subscribe to the Chronicle a b c d The Catholic Church said Stephanie was lying about abuse More than 20 years later Eileen has cleared her daughter s name ABC News 26 April 2020 Convicted priest Gerard Mulvale Pallottine Fathers Subscribe to the Australian Newspaper home delivery website iPad iPhone amp Android apps a b c d Angry victim of creepy priest reveals details of Pell apology ABC News 25 November 2015 Frustration over abuse response at Melbourne Catholic school a b c d George Pell Cardinal was aware of children being sexually abused royal commission report finds TheGuardian com 7 May 2020 Commonwealth of Australia December 2017 Final Report Volume 16 Religious institutions Book 2 PDF Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse p 106 a b Gemma Choy 6 December 2017 Report into Catholic Church authorities in Ballarat released Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse Retrieved 16 December 2017 Wrigley Brendan 6 December 2017 We failed and we are sorry church responds to scathing report The Courier Retrieved 16 December 2017 Wrigley Brendan 5 December 2017 Royal Commission slams former Ballarat Bishop in Melbourne report The Courier Retrieved 16 December 2017 a b Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse Catholic Church authorities in Ballarat Report of Case Study No 28 PDF Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse pp 433 436 Patterson Andrew Thomson and Monique 6 December 2017 Claims of sexual abuse at south west parishes fell on deaf ears Commission finds The Standard Retrieved 29 December 2017 Marr David Martignoni Miles Davey Melissa 11 December 2017 The Reckoning part one the road to the royal commission podcast David Marr The Guardian ISSN 0261 3077 Retrieved 29 December 2017 Cunningham Melissa 2 March 2016 Abuse royal commission George Pell must have known says Ridsdale victim The Sydney Morning Herald Retrieved 29 December 2017 Cunningham Melissa 7 December 2017 Ballarat diocese s catastrophic failure led to more abuse commission finds The Age Retrieved 29 December 2017 About my life and my abuse by the Catholic paedophile priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale www traumainreligion com Retrieved 29 December 2017 Davey Melissa 6 December 2017 Catholic bishop cared little for children and left them in danger royal commission finds The Guardian ISSN 0261 3077 Retrieved 29 December 2017 Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse Catholic Church authorities in Ballarat Report of Case Study No 28 PDF Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse p 318 No moral compass Priest s abuse victim slams church over compo dispute ABC News 6 August 2017 Retrieved 22 December 2017 Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse Final Report Volume 16 Religious institutions Book 2 PDF Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse p 127 Paedo Ridsdale I went haywire with altar boys NewsComAu Retrieved 22 December 2017 Ellingsen Peter 14 June 2002 Ballarat s good men of the cloth The Age Melbourne Retrieved 19 June 2010 Former priest pleads guilty to child abuse ABC News 7 August 2006 Retrieved 25 November 2009 a b c Berry Jamie 11 August 2006 Victims slam pedophile sentence The Age Melbourne Retrieved 25 November 2009 Donovan Samantha 31 May 2014 Paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale interviewed over new abuse claims AM ABC News Australia Retrieved 22 May 2015 Paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale pleads guilty to 29 child sex offences ABC News Australia 18 November 2013 Paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale sentenced to 8 years in jail for child abuse ABC News Australia 18 March 2014 Retrieved 21 May 2015 Victims of paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale felt dirty scared and confused court told ABC News Australia 18 March 2014 Retrieved 21 May 2015 J Franklin Gerald Ridsdale pedophile priest in his own words Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society 36 2105 219 230 a b Australian pedophile priest sentenced to more jail time 14 May 2020 Younger Callum 13 April 2017 Gerald Ridsdale paedophile priest pleads guilty to more sexual abuse involving 11 children in western Victoria ABC News Retrieved 13 April 2017 EDT Sofia Lotto Persio On 8 15 17 at 1 54 PM 15 August 2017 Australian court hears harrowing accounts of child abuse by pedophile priest Newsweek Press Australian Associated 15 August 2017 Paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale abused girl on church altar Victorian court told via www theguardian com Christian brother found guilty of child sex offences ABC News Australia 25 July 2011 Retrieved 25 July 2011 Cresswell Joel 20 September 2011 Pedophile Christian Brother Robert Best s appeal an insult victims The Australian AAP Retrieved 31 October 2011 Morris Madeleine 3 May 2013 Christian Brothers spent 1m defending paedophile ABC News Australia Retrieved 8 October 2020 Neil Kaitlyn Offer and Megan 21 August 2019 Archbishop urges Pell verdict respect The Standard a b Sainsbury Michael 13 September 2019 New admission by diocese could cost Australian Church millions in claims Cruxnow com Retrieved 22 September 2019 George Pell told to face court on historical sexual assault charges ABC News 29 June 2017 Retrieved 2 April 2020 a b Revelation Episode 3 Australian Broadcasting Corporation 2 April 2020 a b Two new accusers say George Pell abused them when they were boys in the 1970s ABC News Australian Broadcasting Corporation Australian Broadcasting Corporation Archived from the original on 1 April 2020 Vatican welcomes Pell verdict affirms anti abuse resolve as survivors protest George Pell to be sued over alleged 1970s sexual abuse in Ballarat TheGuardian com 3 March 2019 a b ABC to re edit and restore George Pell episode of Revelation as News Corp goes on attack TheGuardian com 8 April 2020 The Daily Telegraph This priest assaulted two boys after their sister died in a road accident brokenrites org au Retrieved 8 May 2020 Former disability adviser charged with indecent assault The Age 25 November 2014 Paedophile priest Robert Claffey jailed for 18 years The Age 4 October 2016 Retrieved 8 May 2020 George Pell sections of child abuse royal commission report to be published on Thursday TheGuardian com 6 May 2020 a b c d Le Grand Chip 7 May 2020 Pell knew in 1982 that Ridsdale was being moved to keep lid on scandal The Age Retrieved 9 May 2020 a b Pell knew in 1982 that Ridsdale was being moved to keep lid on scandal 7 May 2020 a b Press Australian Associated 3 September 2018 Marist brother who sexually assaulted five boys sentenced to nine months jail via www theguardian com The Marist Brothers and a secret list of 154 accused child sex offenders www msn com a b c Marist brother The Rat jailed for sex abuse of four schoolboys ABC News 15 May 2020 Full story Father Michael Ambrose Endicott sentenced brokenrites org au Qld priest guilty of historical sex abuse Blayney Chronicle 8 March 2019 Former priest s indecent dealing conviction overturned on appeal ABC News 17 April 2019 Caldwell Felicity 13 September 2017 Prosecutors will not appeal friar s child abuse sentence Brisbane Times Retrieved 29 November 2020 Prison for Townsville Diocese priest who molested 18 girls CathNews 15 September 2003 Retrieved 18 September 2011 Western Australian News Daily Mail Brisbane 9 Dec 1920 Blyth Bruce 1997 In the Shadow of the Cross the story of VOICES how the Christian Brothers victims fought for justice paperback Perth Western Australia P amp B Press p 106 ISBN 0 646 33774 2 Blyth In the Shadow of the Cross the story of VOICES how the Christian Brothers victims fought for justice p 181 a b McDonald Alex Wilkins John Ransom David et al 24 November 1998 Sins Of The Brothers Lateline Interview Interviewed by Maxine McKew Australia ABC TV Archived from the original transcript on 20 April 2008 Retrieved 15 May 2015 a b Murray Andrew 28 October 2002 Key note address Speech 1st International Congress on Child Migration Australian Democrats Archived from the original on 12 September 2009 Retrieved 15 May 2015 This priest has been in jail and now he faces new charges Retrieved 31 March 2020 It s disgusting Community anger as former priest receives suspended sentence NITV 16 January 2019 Bishop s plea after priest convicted The Catholic Weekly 2 February 2003 Archived from the original on 27 September 2011 Retrieved 18 September 2011 Parke Erin Tomlin Sam Collins Ben 11 March 2020 Catholic Bishop of Broome Christopher Saunders voluntarily steps down amid investigation into allegation of sexual misconduct ABC News Australian Broadcasting Corporation Retrieved 29 November 2020 Tomlin Sam 29 November 2020 Bishop of Broome Christopher Saunders to leave diocese for six months amid police and Vatican investigations Australian Broadcasting Corporation Retrieved 29 November 2020 Resignations and Appointments 28 08 2021 Press release Holy See Press Office Retrieved 28 August 2021 Pedophile may get parole after one year s prison CathNews 17 May 2007 Retrieved 19 January 2011 Guilty verdict for former priest ABC News Australia 12 February 2008 Retrieved 22 September 2011 Wahlquist Calla 21 December 2018 Former priest becomes sixth teacher at Burnie Marist College convicted of historic child sex offences via www theguardian com Marist Brother pleads guilty to assaulting boys ABC News Australia 21 February 2008 Retrieved 9 October 2020 Violante Victor 23 June 2008 Two years in jail for Brother Kostka The Canberra Times Retrieved 18 September 2011 permanent dead link More teachers linked to Marist sex abuse case ABC News Australia 25 February 2008 Retrieved 18 September 2011 Marists apologise for Canberra abuse CathNews Australia 24 June 2008 Archived from the original on 27 September 2011 Retrieved 18 September 2011 Violante Victor 11 July 2009 School s paedophile ring The Canberra Times Archived from the original on 27 September 2011 Retrieved 18 September 2011 Colleges settle sex abuse cases ABC Canberra 1 December 2009 Retrieved 9 October 2020 Byrne Elizabeth 28 March 2019 Court accepts notorious paedophile abused boys but can t convict him ABC News Violante Victor 23 June 2008 Two years in jail for Brother Kostka The Canberra Times Retrieved 6 September 2019 permanent dead link a b c d Uncovering child sexual abuse in Fiji s public schools 1News 13 July 2020 Retrieved 14 July 2020 Text of Pope s apology for sexual abuse in Australia Reuters 19 July 2008 Retrieved 29 November 2019 Pope Benedict meets abuse victims before flying out The Australian 2008 Archived from the original on 27 July 2008 Retrieved 21 July 2008 Pope s Australia sex abuse apology not enough critics Inquirer net Philippines Agence France Presse 19 July 2008 Archived from the original on 29 July 2012 Retrieved 18 September 2011 McMahon Barbara 20 July 2008 Pope says he is deeply sorry to Australian sexual abuse victims The Observer United Kingdom Retrieved 18 September 2011 McKenzie Nick Epstein Rafael 17 May 2010 Priests kept working despite investigations The Sydney Morning Herald Retrieved 16 May 2010 External links EditAustralian Catholic Historical Society The Sexual Abuse Crisis Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Catholic Church sexual abuse cases in Australia amp oldid 1126059687, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.