Catholic sexual abuse scandal in Australia

Main article: Catholic sexual abuse scandal

The Catholic sexual abuse scandal in Australia is part of the wider Catholic sexual abuse scandal which are a series of convictions, trials and ongoing investigations into allegations of sex crimes committed by Catholic priests and members of religious orders.

As at August 2011, according to Broken Rites, a support and advocacy group for church-related sex abuse victims, there have been over one hundred cases where Catholic priests have been charged for child sex offences in Australia, as well as others involving non custodial sentences and inconclusive proceedings. There are also numerous cases involving members of religious orders (both priests and brothers) and lay teachers, although the latter are not the subject of this article. Other sources of concern in addition to the abuse itself was the failure of the Roman Catholic Church to prevent future abuse by clergy who had come to attention of religious authorities (of dioceses, religious orders or schools), transferring clergy and religious to further opportunities for abuse, the handling of allegations of abuse, and the continuing honouring within the church of known sex offenders.

Specific 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 Adelaide, 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. Monsignor Cappo subsequently resigned from several governmental positions. A formal independent inquiry found that there was no substance to the allegations.

Father Albert Davis (d. 2007), a member of the Dominican Fathers 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.

Father Charles Barnett pleaded guilty in 2009 (after extradition from Indonesia) to 3 child sex charges for events between 1977 and 1985 at Crystal Brook and Port Pirie.

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, plead guilty to some of the 21 charges.

Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle

See also: Roman Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle

The diocese has been referred to as the "epicentre of Catholic clerical sexual abuse in Australia" due to a number of paedophile priests with extensive abuse records being jailed since 1997: Father Vincent Ryan (a $6 million compensation payout to victims setting a record for the Catholic Church in Australia), Father David O'Hearn (due to stand trial in June 2010) and Father James Fletcher (died in jail in 2006). John Sidney Denham pleaded guilty to 29 child sex charges involving 27 boys under his care while a Roman Catholic priest in Newcastle in the 1970s. It has been alleged that the Archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, knew about clerical sexual abuse when serving in the NSW diocese of Maitland-Newcastle in the late 1970s and 1980s.

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 Catholic 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.

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. Comensoli was jailed and was later named during the Wood Royal Commission. Evans committed suicide.

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.

Diocese of Bathurst

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

St Stanislaus College Bathurst in the 1970s and 80's has been referred to by an old boy as a 'pedophile paradise' due to the activities of pedophile priests there. 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.

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.

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 Spillaine faces a further 135 charges relating to alleged offences against boys at St Stanislaus' College whilst Spillaine was chaplin. These latter charges are expected to be heard in four more trials that are expected to last until late 2011. Spillaine was refused bail.

Archdiocese of Melbourne

Main article: Sexual abuse scandal in Melbourne archdiocese

• Michael Charles Glennon - sentenced to 22 years jail with a non-parole period of 15 years for sexually abusing four Aboriginal boys between 1984 and 1991
• 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.
• Wilfred James Baker - sentenced to four years in prison (parole after 2 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.
• Father Michael Aulsebrook and priests Frank Klep and David Rapon were investigated and prosecuted for sexual abuse that took place at Rupertswood College Sunbury in the 1990s.

Diocese of Ballarat

See also: Roman Catholic Diocese of Ballarat

• Gerry Francis Ridsdale pleaded guilty to 81 child sex offences, including buggery, indecent assault and gross indecency against 41 children (comprising 40 boys and one girl). He is serving a total jail sentence of 28 years with a non-parole period of 19 years; he will be eligible for parole in 2013.
• On 8 August 2011, Robert Charles Best, a Christian Brother, was sentenced in the Victorian County Court to a 14 years and nine months custodial term, with a non-parole period of 11 years and three months, for 27 offences involving sexual abuse of 11 boys. The offences included the rape of a 9 year old physically impaired Year 3 pupil at St Alipius' Primary School in Ballarat in which the boy lost consciousness after the rape and was beaten by another Christian Brother until he denied anything had happened. Best has not been expelled by the Christian Brothers and the order has expended more than A$1 million on his legal costs.

Archdiocese of Brisbane

Diocese of Townsville

See also: Roman Catholic Diocese of Townsville

• Neville Joseph Creen - 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.

Archdiocese of Perth

See also: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Perth

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 to 10 at a Christian Brothers' orphanage in Western Australia. David Christian was fined A$10,500 on seven charges of indecently assaulting boys at the Marist Brothers school.

Diocese of Bunbury

See also: Roman Catholic Diocese of Bunbury

• Adrian Richard Van Klooster - plead guilty to four counts of indecently dealing with children under the age of 13 and was found with child pornography on his computer.

Archdiocese of Hobart

Marist Fathers of Tasmania

See also: Marist Regional College

• 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.
• 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.

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. Damages for sexual abuse have also been sought by former students at Marist College Canberra. 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.

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:

"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. 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." 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”. 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. 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.

See also

• Abuse
• Child abuse
• Child sexual abuse
• Religious abuse
• Sexual abuse
• Sexual misconduct
• Spiritual abuse
• Roman Catholicism in Australia
• William Kamm - leader of a schismatic group whose sexual offences predate his schism from the church
• Broken Rites Australia - support and advocacy group for church-related sex abuse victims in Australia