• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 9 July 2019

Broken Rites is researching Father Kevin Wright, who spent many years in the Wagga diocese which covers a large region in southern New South Wales. There is evidence that the Catholic Church authorities knew about Wright's offending but they allowed him to continue in the priesthood, thus enabling him to assault more children in more parishes.

Fr Kevin Wright's parishes (this is not a complete list) included:

• Culcairn parish in the 1960s;
• Jerilderie parish in the early 1970s; and, later,
• Junee parish.

A male victim ("Max"), who encountered Fr Kevin Wright in the mid-1970s at the age of ten, has told Broken Rites: "I was assaulted by Father Kevin Wright in the Jerilderie parish in the mid-1970s, but recently I found evidence that another family had already complained to the Wagga diocese headquarters in the 1960s that Father Wright sexually assaulted their nine-year-old daughter in an earlier parish, the Culcairn parish. That is, long before I became a victim, the church authorities knew that Wright was a danger to children but they still inflicted him on later victims, including me.

A female victim ("Charlotte") has told Broken Rites: " I was sexually assaulted by Fr Kevin Wright at the Jerilderie parish when I was about nine years old."

Another male victim ("Patrick", from Junee) has told Broken Rites:

"In the 1970s, when I was aged nine at, Fr Kevin Wright used to invite me for visits at his parish house at Junee, where he offered me a cool drink and biscuits. Eventually he took advantage of his position in the church and community and committed acts of sexual abuse toward me over a two-year period. He said that, if I told anyone, God would take my mother and father away and that I would never see them again. I remember being so scared that this would happen to my parents that I never ever mentioned my ordeals to anyone and that when I left primary school to go to secondary school, I felt relief that I would never have see him ever again.

"I found concentrating at school very difficult in my senior primary years and recollections of my abuse haunted me throughout my school life. As I matured, I realised that what had happened to me was a lurid act of indecent crime that sickens me to this day.

"Eventually, when I was married, I realised that this childhood-abuse was affecting our marriage. 

"Fr Kevin Wright used the power of the church to inflict unfair intolerant paedophilic practices, behaviour and sexual abuse toward me, a trusting loyal child who would never say negative things about a priest in the eyes of our Catholic faith. After all, he was the one person in the community that connected our families, our spirituality and our trust in ongoing religious beliefs. The Catholic Church has a lot to answer for."

By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 10 July 2019

In the 1970s and 1980s, Father Richard Cattell was a Catholic priest in western Sydney. In the early 1990s, the Catholic Church promoted Cattell to become the Vicar-General of the Parramatta diocese, supervising 48 parishes in western Sydney on behalf of the bishop. In 2015, Cattell was jailed for sexual crimes committed against boys during his time in western Sydney. Later, police filed additional charges against Cattell and, as a result, Cattell is due to be sentenced on these charges in the Penrith District Court in mid-2019 — case number 2017/00073102. (By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 10 July 2019.)

Some background research by Broken Rites

Broken Rites has ascertained that Father Richard St John Cattell was ordained on 18 July 1964 for the Sydney archdiocese. He was in the same graduating group as another New South Wales priest, Vincent Kiss, of the Wagga Wagga diocese. (Vincent Kiss was eventually jailed for sexual crimes against children.)

Cattell worked in various parishes (Broken Rites has compiled a list of these) until one victim managed to get Cattell convicted in court in 1994. (The 1994 case is described later in this article.) Since 1994, various Cattell victims have contacted Broken Rites which has advised these victims to have a private chat with NSW Police detectives These victims are from several parishes (and various years) and they do not know each other. In 2014, the New South Wales Office of Public Prosecutors selected one of these victims ("Zachary") as the case most suitable for laying charges in court, resulting in a jail sentence for Cattell in 2015.

How the 2015 case began

Father Richard Cattell retired from parish work after his 1994 conviction. He later lived privately at Port Macquarie on the New South Wales mid-north coast and, after that, on the Gold Coast in Queensland. On 28 February 2014, New South Wales detectives travelled to the NSW/Queensland border, and interviewed Richard Cattell about one former altar boy ("Zachary") who alleged that he was sexually abused while Cattell was based at parishes in western Sydney in the 1980s. The matter was officially filed in a NSW Local Court on 24 March 2014.

At the time of the offences against Zachary in the 1980s, Father Cattell was based at a parish called "Our Lady of the Rosary" in a suburb called St Marys [situated 45 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, near Penrith]. According to a church website, Reverend Richard Cattell was the parish priest in charge of Our Lady of the Rosary parish 1982 from to 1994.

Police alleged (in court documents) that, during three years between 1984 and 1987, the priest interfered with the young boy’s genitalia.

During 2014 the case began going through its next steps at the magistrate level in Local Courts in western Sydney. In late 2014, Cattell pleaded guilty to two charges.

The guilty plea meant that Cattell was convicted. Therefore, the victim was not required to appear in court.

The case was then passed on to a higher court, the Penrith District Court, for sentencing by a judge on the particular charges relating to the guilty plea. The District Court case number was 2014/00062169.

The victim in the 2015 sentencing

The police investigation in Zachary's case was conducted by Plain Clothes Senior Constable Peter Shedden, of the Taree Detectives Office, because it was he who conducted the first interview with this victim. (Other alleged victims of Cattell have spoken to Detectives Offices at other police stations around Sydney.)

Zachary told the police how he came from a broken, disadvantaged family (his father was absent from the home). Zachary encountered Cattell in the early 1980s at the age of 11. Cattell used his status as a Catholic priest to take control of Zachary's life.

The abuse of Zachary began at Cattell's holiday house in Mollymook on NSW south coast, 225 miles from Sydney. That is, Zachary was away from home and in Cattell's custody. The abuse continued, at various times, in Cattell's parish house (the presbytery) in western Sydney.

Zachary has stated that he was intimidated into remaining silent about the crimes, because (according to Cattell) "nobody" would believe complaints about a Catholic priest. This church cover-up damaged Zachary's teenage and adult development.

Although Zachary suffered multiple incidents, the Office of Public Prosecutions selected (for court purposes) two representative incidents (occurring after Zachary reached the age of 12).

Pre-sentence procedures in the 2015 case

In Penrith District Court on 20 February 2015, Judge Jennifer English began by hearing submissions from the prosecutor and the defence about what kind of sentence should be imposed.

The defence requested a suspended, non-custodial sentence, claiming that Cattell had been successfully rehabilitated after he served a jail sentence in the mid-1990s for similar offences.

The prosecutor, however, called for a “full-time custodial sentence” as the victim was just 12-years-old when the sexual assaults began and the assaults took place when “the victim was under the authority of the accused”.

The court was told that one of the early assaults involved Cattell handling his young victim’s genitals in a fold-out bed of Cattell’s church residence at St Marys.

Similar sexual assaults took place during holidays at other locations in country New South Wales.

“The behaviour of the accused represents a gross breach of his trust and position,” the prosecutor stated. “The offences were not isolated and occurred over a number of years,” the prosecution stated.

Victim impact statement in the 2015 case

As well as giving police a written statement about the crimes, Zachary was invited to compile a separate statement (called a victim impact statement), which was submitted to the judge to help her in preparing for the sentencing.

Zachary's impact statement (tabled in court) said:

"As a 43 year old father of four and a survivor of child sexual assault, I recognise this crime as hideous and horrific perpetrated by cowards for deviant purposes.  But as an 11 year old victim, you, Richard Cattell, stole my childhood and robbed me of a normal adult life. Your actions have both pervaded and devastated my life for the past 30 years.

"You were aware that I came from a broken family and that we didn’t have much, and in 1982 when my mother started volunteering at the local Catholic Church you saw this as an opportunity to take me under your wing where you started grooming me with holidays, gifts and pocket money for doing odd jobs.

"Your holiday house in Mollymook is where the abuse started.  I was only a child, I was petrified, hurt, confused and very alone.  This is the day you exploited your position of trust, violated my innocence and destroyed my ability to trust another human.

"If this wasn’t enough, you then started to control all aspects of my life – I found myself sleeping over at the presbytery on weekends; you also engineered a change of school. I had no way of escaping your cycle of abuse. My helplessness often turned to uncertainty as you would tell me you loved me and what you were doing to me was normal.  If it was so normal, why was it a secret?

"I was conflicted internally —  'tell someone' [but]  'they’ll never believe you'—  thoughts raced through my head constantly about wanting to speak up, but shame and fear held me back. 

" I spent my late teens isolating myself from friends and family, so they didn’t see the guilt, shame and toxic thoughts I carried with me. (Feelings of worthlessness and wanting to hurt myself.)  This isolation lead to a period of unemployment as I spiralled into a world of depression, abandoned to face the demons of the abuse you inflicted.  I simply lost the ability to see any joy and have fun.

"During my 20s and into my 30s I struggled to keep jobs having had 14 different jobs in total.  I continued to suffer socially and now I was feeling the full economic stress of my past. 

"The burden of your abuse weighs heavily on my marriage and my children, your actions have not only impacted my childhood but theirs.  I’m overly protective, lack the confidence to trust people in their lives and they go without wonderful childhood opportunities so they never have to carry the pain and suffering I endured at your hands.

"The impact of your crime has also passed to my extended family and handful of friends, who have also struggled.  You conducted the wedding for my sister and brother-in-law, who now feel guilty, as they should have known…or should have been there for me.

"It took until 1998 before I had the courage to tell my wife and for the first time in my life I felt a little less dirty.

"In February 2012 I decided it was time to change my life.  I consulted a psychiatrist and was diagnosed with Major Depression.  I’m currently taking anti-depressants and have been seeing a clinical psychologist on a fortnightly basis for the past two and a half years.

"It is with this help I understand why this happened to me. I did nothing wrong. I was an easy, vulnerable target for a predator.

"For the first time since you attacked and assaulted this 11 year old boy in Mollymook all those years ago, he now has the strength and courage to say no more.

"Today I leave this courtroom with my head held high." 

The sentencing in 2015

In handing down the jail sentence, Judge Jennifer English read extracts from the victim’s impact statement, for example, where the victim described being “deprived of a normal childhood”.

Judge English said she had taken into account Cattell’s age (74 years in 2015) and his recent good behaviour but, she said, a full-time custodial sentence was important because “a message must be sent to those who abuse trust”.

Judge English sentenced Cattell on two charges (one charge called sexual assault and one called indecent assault) regarding this one boy, "Zachary". Cattell had pleaded guilty to both charges. Cattell was sentenced to 1 year 6 months on one charge and 2 years 6 months on the other charge, with parole possible. These jail terms were to be served concurrently, with Cattell becoming eligible to apply for parole after 18 months behind bars. He received a discount on his sentence because of his guilty plea.

In 2017 and 2018, after more alleged victims contacted the police, additional charges were laid against Cattell. As a result, Cattell was convicted on some of these charges and he was scheduled to be sentenced in the Penrith District Court in mid-2019 — case number 2017/00073102.

The priest's career

Broken Rites has searched through old editions of the annual Australian Catholic Directory to compile a list of Cattell's parishes. His early parishes included: Concord West and Lakemba in the 1960s; and Liverpool, Windsor and Castle Hill in the 1970s. These are in Sydney's west.

In addition, he spent time at Forestville (Our Lady of Good Counsel parish), in Sydney's north, about 1970; plus some some time at the East Gosford parish, north of Sydney, in the 1970s.

In 1982, Cattell was listed as being in charge of St Matthew's parish, Windsor, in Sydney's north-west.

For the remainder of the 1980s, until 1994, he was listed (in the Australian Catholic Directory) as the parish priest in charge of the "Our Lady of the Rosary" parish in the outer-western Sydney suburb of St Marys, near Penrith. The "Our Lady of the Rosary Parish" includes the suburbs of Claremont Meadows, Colyton, Oxley Park, St Marys and Werrington.

In the mid-1980s, parishes in Sydney's outer-west were separated from the Sydney archdiocese to form a new separate western-suburbs diocese, which is called the "Diocese of Parramatta" (because the bishop is located in Parramatta). Father Richard Cattell became a senior priest in the new diocese; and in the early 1990s he was listed as the Vicar-General, helping Bishop Bede Heather to administer the new diocese.

More complaints

Apart from the above-mentioned story of "Zachary", Broken Rites has received complaints about Richard Cattell from other parishes. For example, "Percy" (a former altar boy at St Patrick's parish, Gosford) told us:

"In the early 1970s, Cattell wanted to take me from Gosford to a religious retreat at Orange. My parents liked this idea. Near Orange, Cattell merely took me to an isolated house where I would be staying the night alone with him. He molested me in my bed but I managed to ward him off.

"Cattell apologised for his action. He begged me to keep quiet about it.

"I didn't tell my parents, or anybody else about it, because I didn't think I would be believed. Years later, I told my father, who said that if he had known at the time, he would have flattened Cattell."

More background:

The bishop supported Cattell, ignoring the victims

• The following information was written by Broken Rites while researching the 1994 court case.

In 1973, when Father Richard Cattell was a Catholic priest in the Liverpool parish in Sydney's south-west, he sexually abused a boy ("Albert") who eventually reported this crime to the police twenty years later. This resulted in Cattell being jailed in 1994 after pleading guilty. This 1994 court case, researched by Broken Rites, demonstrates that church victims should report sexual crimes to the civil authorities, not to the offending organisation (the church).

In the early 1990s, Cattell was the vicar-general of the newly-created Parramatta diocese, administering it on behalf of Bishop Bede Heather. In his role as the vicar-general, it was possible that Cattell could be approached by church-abuse victims wanting to report the crimes of one of  Cattell's fellow-priests.  It was after his appointment as the vicar-general that "Albert" (a victim of Cattell from the 1970s, at  the Liverpool parish) spoke to detectives from the New South Wales Police, resulting in the 1994 court case.

In the Penrith Local Court on 19 August 1994, Richard St John Cattell (then aged 54) pleaded guilty to five counts of indecent assault on a male. The court was told that in 1973 (when Cattell was aged 33, working at the Liverpool parish), a 14-year-old boy ("Albert") went to him, reporting that he had been sexually assaulted by a schoolteacher. Instead of helping the boy (for example, by getting the teacher punished), Cattell allegedly told the boy that this sort of experience was "normal". Cattell then committed indecent assaults against the boy several times during the next three years.

The sentencing process began in Penrith District Court on 25 November 1994. The prosecution brief was compiled by Det. Sgt. Malcolm Hockenberg (of Penrith), working in association with Detective Sue Lightfoot of Penrith.

On 9 December 1994, Judge Saunders sentenced Richard Cattell to three years jail, with parole possible after serving two years behind bars. 

On the day of the sentencing, the head of the Parramatta diocese (Bishop Bede Heather), wrote to Cattell's former parishioners, supporting the convicted criminal Richard Cattell, rather than supporting the victim.

Bishop Heather wrote:"The Church's message is one of mercy.From me and the priests of Parramatta Father Richard will receive forgiveness and support.He continues to be our brother priest..."

Bishop Heather's attitude demonstrates why church victims should report the crime to the civil authorities — not to the offending organisation, the church.

On 19 December 1994, Heather wrote to his clergy about the Cattell case and several similar cases in his diocese. He gave Cattell's prison address, with suggestions for those priests "intending to visit". He also indicated his depressed mood about all the scandals, saying that "priestly ministry has suffered a severe setback in the eyes of many people." (That is, it was unfortunate that the scandals had become public.)

The Liverpool victim ("Albert") who got Cattell jailed in 1994 was setting an example which could be followed by other victims. Broken Rites knows the contact address for child-protection units in each Australian state, where a victim can have a confidential chat with a specialist detective.

Cattell in retirement

Broken Rites has ascertained that, after retiring from parish work in the 1990s, Richard Cattell lived privately at Port Macquarie on the New South Wales mid-north coast. At the sentencing in the Penrith District Court on 20 February 2015, the court was told that Cattell left Port Macquarie after local people learned about his connection with child-abuse.

The Port Macquarie house was then put up for sale. The real estate agent's advertisement (which Broken Rites has examined) said that the house was being sold because the owner was "moving interstate". Indeed, Cattell went to live with his brother on the Queensland Gold Coast — until the New South Wales police caught up with him in 2014, resulting in his conviction in 2015.

Another sentencing in 2019

In 2017 and 2018, prosecutors filed multiple additional charges against Cattell with a magistrate in the Penrith Local Court. In mid-2019, Richard Cattell is scheduled to be sentenced on some of these charges in the Penrith District Court— case number 2017/00073102.

• Article updated 10 July 2019

In 2019, New South Wales police have charged a Catholic priest (Father Ron Peters) with having indecently assaulted a schoolboy in Sydney in 1993 (this was before Ron Peters became a priest). Ronald Peters (born in 1958) has written about how he was originally a Brother in the Catholic teaching order of Patrician Brothers in NSW (in the 1980s and 1990s). Early in the 2000s, he was accepted by the Wollongong diocese (south of Sydney) as a trainee priest and, after training as a deacon in parishes, he was finally ordained as a priest for this diocese in 2005. The indecent-assault charge is due to have a preliminary mention in court in mid-2019.

Father Ron Peters has stated (on a website of the Dominican order) that he is from a family of Dutch immigrants who settled in Sydney. He stated:

"I was educated by the Mercy Sisters and Patrician Brothers in Blacktown, western Sydney. In February 1979 I was professed into the Patrician Brothers. I served in a number of schools run by the Order and also served some time as Director of Formation as well as working in the Catholic Education Office of Sydney as an adviser in Religious Education for secondary schools . . .

"I decided to apply to the Bishop of Wollongong for admission into the formation program for ordination. I spent some time at the Beda College in Rome, as well as the Good Shepherd Seminary in Sydney. I was ordained by Bishop Peter Ingham on 4th June 2005 in the Cathedral of Saint Francis Xavier . . ."

[Wollongong is one of the eleven Catholic regional dioceses in New South Wales. This diocese covers some territory known as the Illawarra region, situated on the coast immediately south of Sydney. Wollongong is the city where the diocesan cathedral is located.]

On 21 March 2019, the Sydney Morning Herald website published a news item (from Wollongong's daily Illawarra Mercury):

'Wollongong priest Father Ron Peters has been charged with historical indecent assaults.

'Father Peters, a co-founder of Illawarra People for Peace, was arrested in Berkeley [a suburb of Wollongong] on Tuesday [19 March 2019]. The 61-year-old priest, who is chair of the Diocesan Schools Council and works in many Illawarra school communities, was charged at Lake Illawarra Police Station with three counts of aggravated indecent assault and aggravated indecency.

'The charges follow an investigation launched in 2018 by Fairfield police [in Sydney] after they received allegations of indecent assaults on a 15-year-old boy at a high school in the Fairfield area in 1993.

'Father Peters has been granted conditional bail to appear in Port Kembla Local Court on May 15. He is suspended from the church, according to NSW Police.

'The Wollongong Diocese refused however to comment on Father Peters' status.

"This is a situation where the police have laid charges and will be bringing the matter before the courts. For all involved, this process needs to be given the total respect it deserves," the diocese said in a statement.

'A spokesman refused to answer questions on how parents and students would be informed of any change to Father Peters' status and whether there was counselling available with regard to the sudden removal of a priest.

'Illawarra parents said they were concerned about the lack of information. One said she saw a brief note in a school newsletter late last year saying Father Peters was on leave "with no details".

'Another said: "I believe more information and advice on how to talk to children would be very valuable."

'Father Peters' profile has this week [March 2019] been removed from the Wollongong Catholic Diocese website.

'It previously stated that Father Peters was ordained by Bishop Peter Ingham in 2005 and briefly served in the Ruse and Nowra parishes. He was a chaplain for the Berrima Womens Correctional Facility before being appointed Dean and Administrator to the Wollongong Cathedral in 2006.

'He "continues his role as Dean and is now the Administrator of the Lumen Christi Parishes, Wollongong", the site stated. "He is the Chair of the Diocesan Schools Council and sits on a number of the diocesan school committees."

[A website of the Catholic order of Dominican priests has stated that, on 17 March 2015, Father Ron Peters (of the Wollongong diocese) was received into the "Priestly Fraternities of St Dominic"]

By a Broken Rites researcher

An Australian woman, who allegedly suffered sexual abuse by a Catholic priest when she was just six years old, has finally broken her silence after 50 years. At the age of 56, Gina Swannell finally exercised her right to have a private interview with Australia's national child-abuse Royal Commission. She told how the priest's tactics included using the sacrament of Confession.

Broken Rites has a policy of protecting the privacy of victims — for example, by not publishing the victim's name. However, Ms Swannell has spoken to the Australian media, giving them permission to publish her name.

Gina Swannell says she was abused several times over a six month period by Father Charles Holdsworth when she was a student at St Francis Xavier's boarding school at Urana, in south-west New South Wales in 1966.

Ms Swannell was placed into this boarding school with her elder sister Kerrie in 1966 when their mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer and their father was working in the air force.

The alleged abuse started when Ms Swannell, then aged six years, was required to attend Confession with Fr Holdsworth to prepare for her First Holy Communion.

She alleges that Father Holdsworth, who was killed in a car accident in 1969, digitally penetrated her, and he forced her to watch him masturbate on multiple occasions.

When she attempted to report the abuse to the head nun, Gina was told by the nun: "That man [Fr Holdsworth] was hand-picked by God … any more of this nonsense and there will be no Communion for you."

The order of nuns which ran the school, the Presentation Sisters, has since offered to mediate the case but the other respondent to the action (the Wagga diocese) has dithered, she said.

Therefore, the matter is scheduled now to be submitted to the New South Wales Supreme Court on 16 October 2015. There is still time for the church authorities to enter into mediation with Ms Swannell's lawyer, thereby making court action unnecesary.

Wagga Bishop Gerard Hanna has stated: “We [the church authorities] have to work through the legal questions. We are definitely open to mediation, we just need some time.”

Ms Swannell said her adult life had been punctuated by anger issues, drug addiction and broken relationships, all stemming from the abuse.

“It [the abuse] destroyed my trust in everyone, including my own family,” she said.

“I want justice, I want an apology, I want compensation. The church says one thing to the public and then does another thing behind closed doors.”

Reverend Father Charles William Edward Holdsworth died in November 1969, when Gina Swannell was nine years old, after his car crashed into a tree in southern NSW. A newspaper report gave Holdsworth's address as "the Bishop's House, Wagga".

By a Broken Rites researcher

In 1993, Broken Rites Australia began researching sexually-abusive Catholic priests, including Fr Ronald Pickering and Fr John Stockdale. Eighteen years later, in September 2011, another clergyman (Archbishop John Hepworth) revealed in the media that Pickering and Stockdale were among three priests who sexually abused him, beginning in 1960 when he was aged 15.

For many years now, Fr Pickering and Fr Stockdale have been featured in articles on the Broken Rites website (see links at the end of this article).

In his September 2011 statements, Archbishop Hepworth alleged that he was also sexually abused in the 1960s by a third Catholic priest, who (he said) is still a clergyman in the Adelaide archdiocese in South Australia.

Archbishop Hepworth (born in 1944) says he encountered these three priests in South Australia when he was studying in the 1960s to join the Catholic priesthood. But, he says, when he complained about this abuse in the 1960s and early '70s, the Catholic authorities threatened to make like difficult for him if he revealed the matter to anyone. That is, it was a cover-up.

John Hepworth left the Catholic priesthood in the 1970s. He later joined the Anglican Church and, eventually, became Archbishop Hepworth in a new Anglican breakaway group, the Traditional Anglican Communion.

How it all began

John Anthony Hepworth grew up in Adelaide, with the ambition of becoming a Catholic priest.

In 1960 when he was 15, he entered a minor seminary, doing a qualifying course (which included completing his secondary schooling Years 11 and 12) as an aspirant for the priesthood. He says the sexual abuse began a month after he entered this minor seminary.

After finally completing the whole seminary course, he was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1968 for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide.

Abuser #1: John Stockdale

Archbishop Hepworth says that at the Adelaide minor-seminary, aged 15, he was sexually abused by an older seminary student, John Stockdale. He says this included Stockdale committing buggery on Hepworth.

John Hepworth says he was later warned by a prefect at the seminary that he would be expelled if he revealed the matter.

Hepworth says that Stockdale abused him again on a number of occasions for about two years.

Father John Peregrine Stockdale later worked as a priest in the Sandhurst Catholic diocese, which has its headquarters at Bendigo in northern Victoria. Broken Rites has ascertained that, in Victorian parishes, Stockdale became a habitual sexual-abuser of boys.

The Broken Rites website has reported how, on 31 December 1995, Stockdale died while celebrating New Year's Eve in a sex-cubicle at a males-only club in Melbourne.

Broken Rites has interviewed victims who were sexually abused by Father Stockdale when they were boys in northern Victoria.

There is a full article about Father John Peregrine Stockdale on the Broken Rites website.

Abuser #2: Ronald Pickering

Archbishop Hepworth says that, as a seminary student, he was also sexually abused by a Melbourne priest, Father Ronald Dennis Pickering, who was visiting Adelaide.. Hepworth says Pickering coerced him into sexual activity. The Pickering incidents continued on later occasions, including in Melbourne.

In 1993, Broken Rites learned that Father Pickering had suddenly fled from Australia to England, where he hoped to be out of reach of the Australian police. Research by Broken Rites has demonstrated that, both before and after his escape, Father Pickering was protected by the Melbourne Catholic hierarchy.

The Melbourne Catholic Archdiocese, which had long known about Pickering's liking for boys, has admitted that Pickering was an offender and it has made civil settlements with some of his victims, so as to limit the church's financial liability.

Broken Rites has interviewed Melbourne victims who were abused by Father Pickering when they were schoolboys.

It has been reported that Pickering is dead, although Broken Rites has been unable to find any trace of a death notice or funeral notice.

There is a full article about Father Ronald Pickering on the Broken Rites website.

Abuser #3: Another priest

Archbishop Hepworth said that, after being ordained at age 24, he began working as a priest in Adelaide. He alleges that he was then sexually abused by an Adelaide priest who (he alleged) is still located in the Adelaide archdiocese.

However, this Broken Rites article is confined to the two earlier priests — Fr Stockdale and Fr Pickering.

Cover-up

Hepworth says that, on several occasions, he tried to report the three priests to the church authorities.

• Firstly, while in the seminary, he spoke to the seminary administration but he was warned that any mention of sexual experiences could disqualify him from ordination.
• Later, he spoke to senior clergy in the Adelaide Catholic archdiocese, including Most Reverend Philip Kennedy, who became an auxiliary bishop. He says Kennedy warned him about speaking out about the abuse.
• Father Hepworth also spoke to Most Reverend James Gleeson, who became the archbishop of Adelaide. Gleeson, also, warned Hepworth about speaking out.

That is, according to Hepworth, the culture of cover-up was flourishing in the Catholic Church in Adelaide.

In the early 1970s, Father Hepworth spent a year being in charge of the Glenelg parish in Adelaide. After this, Hepworth and the Adelaide Catholic archdiocese parted company. The reasons for his departure are not fully clear. He says now that he left because he was upset by the Catholic Church's cover-up of his sexual abuse.

Anglicans and Catholics

Later in the 1970s, John Hepworth was accepted as a minister for the Anglican Church in the Ballarat diocese (in western Victoria). From 1977 to 1978 he was the assistant priest in the Colac parish and, from 1978 to 1980, was in charge of a parish at Sebastopol. After that, he evidently quit the Ballarat Anglican diocese, in which he was accused of mismanagement of the Sebastopol parish funds.

In 1992, John Hepworth joined a body called the "Anglican Catholic Church" in Australia. In the late 1990s he became an assistant bishop — and then a full bishop — in this splinter group. In 2002 he became the worldwide primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion — this communion has become involved in discussions with the Vatican with view to becoming associated with the Roman Catholic Church.

The Roman Catholic authorities are now considering ways of accepting the former Anglicans into an "Anglican Catholic Ordinariate" within the Roman Catholic Church (this could be a kind of special diocese in Australia, similar to Australia's Lebanese Maronite Catholic diocese).

It is not clear whether Archbishop Hepworth's revelations in September 2011, about church sex-abuse, will help or hinder his re-admittance into the Roman Catholic clergy.

Slow response in Adelaide

Archbishop Hepworth says that his reason for going public in September 2011 about church sex-abuse is that he wants the Catholic Church authorities (in Rome and Australia) to be aware of why he fled from Catholicism in the 1960s. He hoped that the recognition of his 1960s pain might help the mainstream Catholic Church to accept him and his Traditional Anglican Communion back into the Catholic Church in the future.

Archbishop Hepworth says that, between 2007 and 2011, he contacted the Adelaide Catholic archdiocese leadership several times, giving them information about how he was sexually abused, by three older churchmen, beginning at the age of 15 when he was a minor-seminary student in the full-time care of the Adelaide archdiocese.

At this stage, Hepworth says, he was assuming that all the abuse (from the age of 15 onwards) was the responsibility of the Adelaide archdiocese.

However, he says, Adelaide seemed to be slow to begin acting on this matter and, furthermore (he says), Adelaide seemed reluctant to accept responsibility for the totality of the abuse — by all three priests — even though all three of them abused Hepworth in Adelaide while he was training and ministering in the Adelaide archdiocese.

Melbourne Catholic Archdiocese

Archbishop Hepworth says that, in mid-2010, he contacted Peter O'Callaghan, QC, who is retained by the Melbourne archdiocese to receive (and adjudicate on) complaints about Melbourne priests. Within a couple of hours, Hepworth says, O'Callaghan had phoned back.

Hepworth gave O'Callaghan all the documents that he had previously given to Adelaide. O'Callaghan then investigated what Hepworth calls "the totality" of Hepworth's youthful abuse. In mid-2011, acting on behalf of the Melbourne archdiocese, O'Callaghan returned a decision, declaring that John Hepworth had indeed suffered church-related sexual abuse.

Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart (who became the archbishop of Melbourne in 2001) then gave Archbishop Hepworth a written apology regarding Fr Pickering (the Melbourne priest). Hart wrote:

• "We cannot change what has happened . . . You may never be rid of the memories or the hurt . . . On behalf of the Catholic Church and personally, I apologise to you and to those around you for the wrongs and hurt you have suffered at the hands of Father Ronald Pickering."

(Fr John Stockdale, however, did not come under the jurisdiction of the Melbourne process. After being trained at the Adelaide seminary, he ministered in the Sandhurst diocese in northern Victoria.)

More background

In September 2011, Archbishop Hepworth evidently allowed the story of his abuse to be told in The Australian newspaper on 10 September 2010 — in an article by Tess Livingstone and an article by Christopher Pearson.

Pearson, a former Anglican from Adelaide who has converted to Catholicism, knows Hepworth personally. Person describes a culture that existed among some seminarians and priests in Adelaide (including Fr Ronald Pickering, who used to visit Adelaide from Melbourne). Pearson writes:

• "...I had occupied one of the flats in the large North Adelaide house where he [Hepworth] had been periodically abused all those years ago. The house belonged to James Govenlock, the [Catholic] cathedral organist, who entertained a coterie of guests, some of whom were predatory homosexuals. Govenlock had tested the waters to see if I could be recruited in my first year out from university and he introduced me to some of his regular guests. They included bishop Philip Kennedy and paedophile priest Ronald Pickering, both deceased, and other clergy.

  "At the time I was a regular communicant at Christ Church [Anglican], North Adelaide. My father had just been ordained as an Anglican priest. I had spent enough time in the company of seminarians not to be flummoxed by the phenomenon of same-sex-attracted clergy and was trying to come to terms with my own sexuality.

  "That homosexual clergy should prefer one another's company was generally seen as perfectly understandable, but even in the mid-1970s we expected that they'd do their best to live up to their vows of celibacy. By the time I moved out of the flat I had stopped going to church and — to Govenlock's dismay — become politicised as a gay activist. I've followed his and his guests' subsequent careers closely enough via newspaper reports..."

A journalist from Fairfax media, Martin Daly, obtained further information from Hepworth about these priests and seminarians (published in The Age newspaper, Melbourne, on September 17, 2011).

• "... In evidence already accepted as fact by the Catholic archdiocese of Melbourne, Hepworth has previously described a separate priests' sex ring that indulged in fine foods and drank wine from crystal glasses as they listened to the great symphonies in the Dandenongs [a mountain range in Victoria], Melbourne and Adelaide, and then raped him...

  "He met the notorious paedophile Father Ronald Pickering at the Adelaide home of a member of the gay circle to which the priests belonged. Pickering quickly became Hepworth's abuser at various locations, including his presbytery at Warburton [in the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese], as well as raping him violently in a hotel...

  "Throughout the abuse, says Hepworth, he felt violated, fearful and confused. He liked the circle in which his abusers moved. There was money, and talk of music, the arts and culture. So he went along with it, but not, he says, by choice. He had been only 15 when it all started in Stockdale's rooms at the Adelaide seminary where he had been given alcohol and then violently raped.

  "In some way, he says, he knew no other life. And he was afraid of their threats that if he revealed what went on within the circle he would be expelled from the seminary. His parents would find out. There would be shame and ruination..."

Broken Rites research

Here are articles by Broken Rites about two of the priests who are the subject of Archbishop John Hepworth's complaint:

• Fr Ronald Dennis Pickering.
• Fr John Peregrine Stockdale.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 20 July March 2019

This Broken Rites article reveals how Catholic Church authorities covered up the child-sex crimes of an Australian priest, Father Paul David Ryan, during his career in the state of Victoria (and also during seven visits by Ryan to the United States). This enabled Ryan to endanger more children in more parishes in TWO countries. Eventually, helped by Broken Rites, some victims began reporting Ryan to Victoria Police detectives, resulting in a twelve-months jail sentence for Ryan in 2006. Since the 2006 jailing, the detectives have received further information about Ryan's priestly career in Victoria. In March 2019, Ryan pleaded guilty regarding three more of his victims, and the judge ordered him to go into custody to await his sentencing, which will be held in mid-2019.

The court proceedings in early 2019 are described towards the end of this article. But, first, here is some background.

Broken Rites research

During Ryan's court appearance in 2006, Broken Rites took copious notes from the evidence. This Broken Rites article is based on that research, plus numerous other sources.

With the permission of his Australian superiors, Father Ryan made seven trips to the United States — and he ministered in parishes there. In between these trips, his Australian superiors kept placing Father Ryan in various Victorian parishes, giving him access to new victims. In Victoria, the church even promoted him to a higher rank in the priesthood.

Father Ryan’s movements were revealed in his 2006 court case. On 8 September 2006. Ryan appeared in the Warrnambool Magistrates Court in south-western Victoria, aged 57. He was jailed for at least a year after pleading guilty to indecently assaulting two altar boys in his parish house in rural Penshurst. Three incidents concerned one boy (“Drew”) and two incidents concerned the other boy (“Anton”).

These two were not Ryan’s only victims. These were merely the two who were chosen by the prosecutors for the purpose of this 2006 court case. It is impossible to estimate the number of boys who were targeted by Ryan in both Australia and the United States.

Another one of Ryan's victims in Victoria (Peter) ended up dying by suicide — and Peter's mother (Mrs Helen Watson) has finally forced the Catholic Church to apologise. The tragic story of Peter is told towards the end of this article. Ryan was never prosecuted for the crimes he committed against Peter.

What Father Ryan did to victims

In Australian states, the crime of “indecent assault” involves an invasive touching of another person’s genitalia – that is, offences falling short of rape or buggery. Typically, Ryan used to invite a boy to his parish house, where he would show him videos containing sex scenes. He would offer alcohol (and, in the United States, marijuana) to the boy before undressing him and mauling him – in the lounge room or in bed or while the boy was having a bath.

Ryan’s offences were facilitated by the fact that his status as a “celibate” priest placed him above suspicion in the Catholic community. Unsuspecting parents would allow their son to have an overnight stay in Father Ryan’s parish house, thinking that their son was in safe hands, but the victims were reluctant to report the assaults because they felt embarrassed or because they did not want to upset their parents or because they thought their complaints might not be believed.

The cover-up disrupted the adolescent development of these victims, and some had to undertake years of psychological counselling to repair the damage.

The inside story of this priest

When Broken Rites began researching church-related sexual abuse in 1993, it soon began hearing mentions of Father Paul David Ryan in the Diocese of Ballarat. This diocese covers the western half of the state of Victoria.

Broken Rites kept contact with some of these people. Eventually, in 2005, detectives from Victoria Police began investigating Ryan. Broken Rites co-operated with that investigation, giving the detectives some possible lines of inquiry.

Broken Rites can reveal now the full story of Father Ryan and the church's handling of this case.

According to his passport application (of which Broken Rites possesses a copy), Paul David Carl Ryan was born 12 September 1948 in Melbourne. In his younger years, he evidently spent some time in Adelaide, South Australia. After working in his late teens, he began training for the priesthood at the Adelaide Catholic seminary (St Francis Xavier's seminary, conducted by the Vincentian Fathers) in 1969, aged 20. In June 1971, half-way through third year, the Adelaide seminary asked Ryan to leave.

Meanwhile, Ryan became a close friend of prominent priest of the Melbourne archdiocese, Father Ronald Dennis Pickering, who had already been a priest for 20 years. Ronald Pickering had contacts in the Catholic hierarchy. For example, Pickering knew the new Bishop of Ballarat, Bishop Ronald Mulkearns. Pickering and Mulkearns had both studied for the priesthood at the Melbourne seminary in the early 1950s. Pickering became Ryan’s main mentor and career adviser for the next 20 years.

Trainee priest, Melbourne 1972-6

In late 1971, Paul David Ryan moved to Victoria to take up a temporary teaching position in the Diocese of Ballarat. This position was at St Joseph’s College, Mildura, in the far north-west of this state. In October 1971, Ryan applied to Bishop Mulkearns to sponsor him as a Ballarat candidate for the priesthood at the Melbourne seminary (Corpus Christi College). Paul David Ryan’s Adelaide references were not good but Ballarat accepted him as a candidate and he spent the next five years at the Melbourne seminary.

According to seminary documents, Ryan’s seminary teachers reported that they found him abrasive and difficult to deal with. In mid-1975, as the end of Ryan’s training approached, the Ballarat Diocese and seminary authorities had to decide what to do about him. Before ordination, he was given a three-months probationary period in St Columba’s parish, Ballarat North, and he spent some of this time teaching at a Ballarat Catholic school.

On 28 May 1976, aged 27, Ryan was ordained in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Ballarat. In that very week, a Ballarat woman (Mrs M) contacted the diocese in distress, complaining that Ryan sexually abused her son (“Sid”) at the Ballarat North parish. After this abuse, she said, Sid had a breakdown and had to leave his university course. The mother blamed Ryan for this and she threatened to “go to the newspapers” about Ryan if he was allowed to minister in parishes. Despite Mrs M’s complaint, the church took a tolerant attitude towards Ryan, hoping that he might mend his ways.

Sex in the seminary, 1972-6

After his ordination, like all seminarians, Ryan remained at the Melbourne seminary until the end of 1976 to complete his studies. About October 1976, according to seminary correspondence, the seminary authorities learned that Father Ryan had been engaged in sexual relationships with about six trainee priests during his seminary course [more about this later].

At the end of 1976, having completed his seminary course, Paul Ryan was living with Fr Pickering, who was the parish priest at St Peter's parish at Clayton, in Melbourne. Ryan was to also to become a frequent visitor at a later parish of Pickering's, in Gardenvale, Melbourne. Ryan frequently carried out priestly duties in Pickering's parish, including conducting services.

At the end of 1976, church authorities were considering which parishes their newly-ordained priests would be assigned to for the coming year. But where could they put Ryan? According to seminary documents, the seminary arranged for him to see its consulting Catholic psychologist, Ronald Conway who, in turn referred Ryan to a Catholic psychiatrist, Dr Eric Seal. On 18 November 1976, Dr Seal wrote to the rector of the Melbourne seminary (Fr Kevin Mogg), saying that he had a comprehensive report from Ronald Conway – “and I have also spoken at length about him to Fr Pickering who is an old friend and confident of his [Ryan’s].” Seal supported a suggestion by Pickering that Ryan should have at least a year’s “spiritual formation” in a religious community overseas.

The American solution, 1977

The Melbourne seminary happened to know a Father John Harvey in the U.S. who specialized in “ministry to homosexuals”. Harvey (who was located at De Sales Hall school of theology in Hyattsville, Maryland, USA) later founded a Catholic group, called "Courage", for ministering to homosexuals.

In January 1977, Fr Harvey was asked where Paul David Ryan could undergo “spiritual formation” in the United States. The Ballarat diocese was keen to place Ryan in the U.S. quickly because Ballarat usually made its parish appointments at this time (January) and some awkward questions could be asked if Ryan was not assigned to a parish or to further study.

Father Harvey suggested that Ryan could stay at a certain Catholic “spiritual center” in the state of Maryland. Harvey's letter suggested that, as well as “spiritual formation”, Ryan should do “some form of work or study while here.” (This idea about Ryan working in the U.S. would eventually result in more sexual abuse – against U.S. victims.)

Fr Harvey requested details from Australia about Ryan’s kind of sexual activity. Did it involve adults or minors? The Melbourne seminary replied to Harvey (on 19 February 1977), stating that the sexual behaviour of Ryan and his fellow seminarians had included “mutual masturbation … but it seems certain that more serious acts occurred not infrequently”. The letter said that Ryan was sexually active “even on the night of his ordination.”

The Melbourne seminary’s letter added: “As to how long homosexual acts have been occurring, I do not know. A close friend of Paul’s, Fr Ron Pickering, told me that some seven years ago he met Paul in Adelaide and the company he was mixing with at that time was definitely questionable . . . I know that during his stay at Ballarat incidents occurred.” [But the letter did not mention that the Ryan incidents in Ballarat included offences against a teenager – Mrs M’s son Sid.]

Ryan went to the U.S. in February 1977 for 15 months (trip no. 1). When he returned to Australia in June 1978, the Ballarat Diocese considered appointing him to one of its parishes but a senior priest pointed out that Mrs M (the above-mentioned mother of Ryan’s victim “Sid” in 1975-6) might protest, thereby creating a public scandal for the church.

Ryan remained in Victoria, for the next 12 months and spent much of this time at Fr Ronald Pickering’s new parish -- St James's parish in Gardenvale, Melbourne. Ryan used to bring boys to the Gardenvale parish house -- and so did Pickering.

Ryan continued to visit the Melbourne seminary for several years, even in the 1980s, and acted as a mentor to younger seminarians. Through Pickering, he came into contact with prominent clerics – and this networking continued into the 1980s.

Offences in the U.S., 1979

From June 1979 to April 1980, Paul Ryan was again in the U.S. (trip no. 2) and did some theological studies there.

During these U.S. study trips, Ryan lived and ministered in parishes. One was the Star of the Sea parish in the city of Virginia Beach (Diocese of Richmond) in the state of Virginia. His role there included work as a counsellor with a local Catholic school, the Star of the Sea school. This was a primary (or “grade”) school, going up to Year 8. While he was still in this parish, it was discovered that Father Ryan was sexually abusing boys at the school in 1979.

As background for the September 2006 court case, Australian police obtained information from several ex-students of this school.

One boy (“B”) was in 7th and 8th Grade, aged 14, at the Star of the Sea Grade School when Ryan was there. B stated that Ryan plied him with alcohol and marijuana and took the boy to bed, where he sexually abused him.

Two other boys (“M” and “R”) stated that Ryan held “counselling” and “religious instruction” sessions with the two boys (when they were aged 14 to 15) and sexually abused them.

Victim “B” wrote in a letter to his local diocese in 1995: “Although the general population of the church [at Star of the Sea parish] was shielded from knowing the specific details for Fr Ryan’s removal, it was more or less common knowledge among certain known victims and their families.”

Ryan's Australian superiors exchanged letters with his U.S. supervisors throughout 1977-1980 and, presumably, his offences in the U.S. were reported back to Australia. (If not, why not?)

“Sex education” classes, 1980-5

In April 1980, Paul David Ryan returned to Australia, and, despite his record, the Ballarat Diocese appointed him as an assistant priest in St Joseph’s parish in Warrnambool, a substantial city on Victoria’s south-western coast. This included acting as a chaplain for Warrnambool Christian Brothers College and St Anne’s College (these two schools later merged as Emmanuel College). Ryan conducted “sex education” classes and took Confession from students. Hearing these Confessions enabled Ryan to identify boys to whom he would give special attention.

According to the prosecution documents, one such student, “Daryl” (then aged 17) divulged to Ryan in Confession that he felt he was attracted to males. Within a month of this, Daryl’s parents went away for a weekend and arranged for Father Ryan to mind Daryl and his younger brother at their home. On the first night, Ryan told Daryl to take a bath before he went to bed. Daryl told police (in 2006) that Ryan got into the bath with him and handled him indecently.

In 1985, after five years in the Warrnambool parish, Ryan applied for leave from the Ballarat Diocese to do a “Doctorate in Ministry” course in at the United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, USA. The diocese granted this leave and Ryan left for the U.S. (trip no. 3). Ryan told the Ballarat Diocese that he hoped to find a parish position while in the USA. During this trip, Ryan's address was: Church of the Holy Angels, 218 K Street, Dayton, Ohio.

In January 1986, Bishop Mulkearns appointed Ryan as an assistant priest at St Thomas’s parish in Terang, in south-western Victoria, under Monsignor Leo Fiscalini. Ryan then returned to Australia from Ohio to take up this post. A Terang man (“Paddy”) has told Victoria Police that, at age 16-17, he attended a youth group for which Father Ryan was the convenor. He said that Father Ryan gave him alcohol at the parish house and on several occasions performed sexual antics in front of him, such as walking around naked, with an erection, and masturbating in front of him.

In April 1988, Ryan went to the U.S. for a few months (trip no. 4) to complete his “doctorate in ministry”. He then returned to the Terang parish.

Promoted, 1989

Despite Ryan’s record, Bishop Mulkearns appointed Ryan to the rank of Parish Priest (i.e., in charge) at St Joseph’s parish, Penshurst, as from 14 January 1989. The Penshurst parish was a small rural one but this was a promotion to a higher status (previously, at Warrnambool, he had been merely an ASSISTANT priest). At Warrnambool and Terang, he had been under the supervision of other priests but at Penshurst he was on his own – unsupervised. The Penshurst parishioners were ignorant about Ryan’s past.

At Penshurst (according to the September 2006 prosecution file), Ryan used to coax one or other of the altar boys to the parish house to watch sexy videos and for an overnight stay.

One altar boy, “Drew”, told police in 2006 that he had several sleepovers at Ryan’s parish house in 1989-1990, aged 16. He said Ryan walked around the house naked (with an erection), made the boy take a bath with Ryan, took the boy to bed and groped the boy while the priest masturbated himself. Drew tried to evade Ryan’s unwelcome assaults. The prosecution’s summary of charges states that Drew “was in fear, out of respect for Father Ryan, as he was the parish priest and someone whom all the community looked up to.”

In a very similar manner, Ryan assaulted another Penshurst altar boy, “Anton”, aged 13-14, during sleepovers in 1990. When Ryan’s attacks on Anton became increasingly forceful and invasive, Anton escaped and ran home. Not wishing to tell his mother the full extent of the attacks, Anton merely told her that Father Ryan had wanted to have a bath with him. Several days later, the mother went to the bishop’s office in Ballarat and expressed her concern about Ryan.

In early 1991, Mulkearns decided to move Ryan from Penshurst but delayed the move until Easter time (a time when other changes are often made) so that this move would not seem extraordinary.

Despite the Penshurst complaint concerning Anton, the Ballarat Diocese then assigned Ryan as a relieving priest at the Immaculate Conception parish in Ararat, western Victoria. Again, Ryan proceeded to target boys at this parish. One witness, “Sam”, told police in 2006 that he went to Ryan’s parish house after being kicked out of home. Father Ryan told him that he could stay at the Presbytery for the night but that he would have to stay in Ryan’s bed.

Another boy who was invited to Ryan’s parish house at Ararat was Peter. Eventually, Peter died by suicide and his story is told towards the end of this article.

Overseas again, 1991

Early in 1991, Ryan's superiors and colleagues were wondering what to do with him. Someone in authority suggested sending Ryan “to work somewhere on the African mission for a while” but Fr Ron Pickering asserted that the Africa idea was unsuitable for Ryan, who really needed “a period of leave, say a year” to recuperate “spiritually”. [It is not clear what Pickering meant by “spiritually”.]

Later in 1991, Ryan went to the U.S. (trip no. 5), where he received some “advice” from a certain priest, and he then did a retreat in Rome with another priest. [But three years later, on 3 February 1994, while Ryan was being interviewed by the sexual-abuse committee of the Ballarat Diocese, Ryan had difficulty remembering the name of either of these two priests.]

In September 1991, while Ryan was overseas, Bishop Mulkearns received a complaint from a mother about Ryan sexually abusing her son [the above-mentioned matter of “Daryl”] at Warrnambool Christian Brothers College in the early 1980s. Daryl (aged 25 in 1991) was himself in trouble with the police in 1991 and was about to face charges in a Melbourne court for sexually assaulting a boy. Daryl was telling police that, at school, he himself had been sexually abused by Father Paul David Ryan. Bishop Mulkearns was concerned that Daryl's accusation against Ryan might cause scandal for the church.

Another parish, 1992

In December 1991, Paul Ryan returned to Victoria and stayed at Fr Ron Pickering's parish house in Gardenvale, Melbourne. Bishop Mulkearns appointed Ryan to an ongoing position at the Ararat parish as an assistant priest (instead of merely being a relieving priest) as from 18 January 1992. This was despite the fact that Ryan had not cleared his name regarding the various sex-abuse allegations, including the new allegation by “Daryl”.

Ryan moved into the Ararat parish house (under the supervision of the resident parish priest) but, immediately, his Ararat career was scuttled when the secret of his sexual abuse of “Daryl” started to leak out. In early January 1992, Daryl appeared in court charged with sexual assault of a boy and was jailed. Daryl’s barrister told the court, in defence of Daryl, that Daryl himself had been abused by a priest. Newspaper coverage of Daryl’s trial did not name the abusive priest but Ryan's superiors and fellow-priests knew that it was him.

In jail, Daryl was telling everybody that he had been sexually abused by Fr Paul David Ryan. It seemed possible that, in the future, Daryl might well lay criminal charges against Ryan. Bishop Mulkearns was concerned that it would be hard for Ryan to defend himself because Ryan sexually abused Daryl after hearing the boy’s Confession about same-sex leanings -- and the Catholic Church has always claimed that a priest was not supposed to reveal (or take advantage of) anything that he learns from a penitent during Confession.

Ryan continued living in the Ararat parish house as a guest, instead of having an official appointment there. He also continued making visits to Fr Ron Pickering’s parish at Gardenvale, Melbourne.

Early in 1992, Ryan began having “counselling” with a Ballarat priest-psychologist, Father Daniel Torpy. Following the publicity about the Daryl court case, Ryan realised that it would be impossible for him to minister in the Ballarat diocese. He decided that it would be "best" to work in the U.S., with which he had some familiarity.

Therefore, in late January 1992, the Ballarat Diocese contacted a religious order, called the Servants of the Paraclete, which runs a refuge in Jemez Springs, New Mexico, USA, for sexually abusive priests. Ballarat asked if Ryan could visit this refuge to discuss his options for “exercising his ministry” in the USA. It is unclear whether anything eventuated from this application. (Another sexually-abusive Ballarat Diocese priest, Fr Gerald Ridsdale, had already spent time at this refuge.)

More travels, 1993

Later, the Ballarat Diocese applied to admit Ryan to the St Luke Institute, Maryland USA (another refuge for priests with sexual problems). Ryan arrived at this institute in early 1993 (trip no. 6) and underwent an evaluation process but was unable to gain admission to the institute’s program. The St Luke Institute did a medical examination of him and advised him that he had an alcohol problem and that he should cut down his drinking. However, Ryan said he kept on with his normal drinking pattern.

Leaving the St Luke Institute, Ryan returned to Australia but did not contact Bishop Mulkearns. During 1993, he spent time in Western Australia, where his mother and brother were living.

Returning to Victoria from Western Australia, Ryan still did not contact Bishop Mulkearns but evidently stayed as a guest in the home of a Warrnambool family.

Meanwhile, Ryan's "spiritual advisor", Fr Ronald Pickering, was in trouble. Early in 1993 a Melbourne man alleged that, as a teenager in the 1960s, he had been sexually abused by Pickering. After learning about this complaint, Pickering suddenly left his Melbourne parish in May 1993 and went to England. Later in 1993 Paul David Ryan made a trip to England (without informing Bishop Mulkearns) to spend some time with Pickering, who was living near Margate.

In the 1994 Directory of Australian Catholic Clergy (and also in the 1995 edition), Father Paul David Ryan was still listed as a priest of the Ballarat Diocese ("on leave from the diocese”). On 3 February 1994, while Ryan was “house-sitting a friend’s house in Warrnambool”, he was called before the Ballarat Diocese Special Issues Committee (an in-house committee, responsible for dealing with complaints about clergy sex-abuse in the diocese). The committee questioned Ryan about the matter of “Daryl” at Warrnambool and also about Ryan’s plans for the future.

On 19 July 1994, the Ballarat Diocese vicar-general (chief administrator), Fr Brian Finnigan (who later became an auxiliary bishop in Brisbane), signed an “Employment Separation Certificate” on behalf of Ryan, making it possible for him to apply for Australian Government social security benefits. The certificate stated that Ryan’s church employment began on 28 May 1976 (his ordination) and ended on 31 December 1993. In ticking boxes to give the reason for the termination, the diocese ticked “unsuitability for this type of work”. It did not tick “unsatisfactory work performance”. Nor did it tick "misconduct".

[This Employment Separation Certificate is significant -- and not just for the Ryan case. The Catholic Church usually claims that its priests are not employees but self-employed freelancers. Thus, the church seeks to limit its legal liability when victims claim damages from the a diocese for its negligence in inflicting an abusive priest on to vulnerable parishioners. Ryan's Employment Separation Certificate describes Ryan as an "employee" and it describes the Ballarat Diocese as his employer. This document will be useful for any victim claiming compensation from the Ballarat diocese.]

Counselling for U.S. victims, 1995

Meanwhile, during the 1980s and '90s, Paul Ryan's victims at Virginia Beach (in the U.S. Diocese of Richmond) were still needing psychological counselling to try to repair the damage done to their lives by Ryan in 1979. In 1995, the U.S. victims sought payment from the Catholic Church for the cost of counselling. A Virginia Beach lawyer, J. Brian Donnelly, acted for these victims.

The Richmond Diocese insisted that these expenses should be paid by the Ballarat Diocese, because Rev. Paul D. Ryan had come to the United States with the permission of the Ballarat diocese.

The Ballarat Diocese accepted responsibility and made one modest lump-sum payment to each of the Virginia Beach victims. These payments were not compensation but merely a contribution towards the victims' on-going counselling expenses. By mid-2006, one Virginia Beach victim alone had already spent three times as much on psychiatrists' fees as the amount that he received from the Ballarat Diocese.

When the Ballarat diocese made these payments, it required the U.S. victims to sign a Deed of Release, certifying that the Ballarat Diocese had no further liability. However, the church concealed the fact that Ryan had also committed offences in Australia. The Virginia Beach victims were led to believe that they were Ryan's only victims. Therefore, these Deeds of Release were based on deception, which may undermine their validity.

More victims

How many other children did Reverend Paul D. Ryan target in the U.S.? According to U.S. documents, Virginia Beach was not the only parish in which Ryan lived while in the U.S. Father Paul T. Gaughan, who supervised Ryan at the Virginia Beach parish in 1979-80, has stated that Ryan was also involved in a parish in Dayton, Ohio, where he might have committed further offences. In a statement to U.S. church authorities, dated 26 September 1995, Father Paul Gaughan said: “Paul spent some time on more than one occasion in Ohio under the pretext of study. He was living in a parish. I am afraid that the same problem might very well have happened there but I guess you might as well let the dead dog lie.”

It is possible that the parish in Dayton, Ohio, was the Church of the Holy Angels.

At last, Ryan’s name was deleted from the 1996 edition of the Directory of Australian Catholic Clergy.

In early 1996, Ryan asked the Ballarat Diocese for financial help for a course of studies. The diocese agreed to continue quarterly payments to Ryan until the end of 1996 to help him re-skill himself in another field.

In 1997, Ryan was in the USA (U.S. trip no. 7).

A suicidal victim

On 22 May 1997, the Catholic Church’s newly-formed Professional Standards Resource Group for Victoria (also called "Towards Healing") received a complaint from Mrs Helen Watson who had discovered that her son (Peter) was abused (and badly damaged) by Father Paul David Ryan at Ararat in the early 1990s. Mrs Watson told the diocese that, by 1997, Peter had made at least two attempts to take his own life, the last time being when he tried to shoot himself. Mrs Watson said that Peter “is in this condition because he was abused by Paul David Ryan when he was relieving at Ararat for a few months for Father Brendan Davey."

At the end of May 1997, Ronald Mulkearns took early retirement from the position of Bishop of Ballarat and moved to a seaside house at Aireys Inlet, Victoria. In an open letter to fellow priests and parishioners on 30 May, he alluded to the pressures of the criminal investigations into sexual abuse by priests and religious brothers in the Ballarat diocese. He said: “My own emotional energy has been sapped by the pressures of leadership over 26 years and especially the draining effect of endeavouring to cope with the effects of the tragic events which have come to light in recent years” (Herald Sun, Melbourne, 31 May 1997).

Mulkearns was referring mainly to the scandal of Father Gerald Ridsdale, but also various other priests and religious Brothers in the Diocese of Ballarat.

Ryan moved to far north Queensland and worked for several years as a government-funded mental health officer for Aboriginal communities. In Queensland, he called himself “Dr” Paul-David Ryan, on account of his American “Doctorate in Ministry” degree. He also hyphenated his forenames – as Paul-David Ryan.

This priest is brought to justice

In 2003, yet another woman was telling the church’s Professional Standards Resource Group how Ryan’s sexual abuse had damaged her son. Understandably, her son had kept silent about the abuse for more than a decade – and this secrecy disrupted his personal development. This mother was wondering whether other boys had also been damaged by Ryan. However, this mother says that a representative of the PSRG told her, “on several occasions”, that “this particular priest's name [Ryan] had never been reported, or come up, before.”

Eventually, in late 2005, this woman’s son was ready to have a chat with the Victoria Police sexual offences and child abuse (SOCA) unit at Warrnambool, where he lodged a formal written statement about Ryan. The Warrnambool Criminal Investigation Unit then began making inquiries in the parishes where Ryan had ministered. Broken Rites gave the detectives several lines of inquiry.

The detectives learned that the Ballarat Diocese had been receiving complaints about Ryan since his ordination in 1976 and, furthermore, that the Catholic Church's Professional Standards Resource Group had indeed received a complaint about Ryan in 1997 (from Mrs Watson, about her suicidal son Peter).

The detectives soon located various victims of Ryan. In April 2006, aged 57, Ryan was arrested at his unit in Cairns, Queensland, and was charged with Victorian incidents of indecent assault. While on bail, awaiting a court hearing, he taught English in Cairns. Extradited to Victoria, he appeared at Warrnambool Magistrates Court on 8 September 2006.

Jailed in 2006

For procedural reasons, the Victorian state prosecutors confined the charges in 2006 to two Penshurst victims. The magistrate was not required to take into account that Ryan had abused other teenage boys and that he had been exposed as a child-abuser long before he went to Penshurst. Nor did the magistrate have to consider that after resigning as the parish priest at Penshurst, Ryan was moved to the Ararat parish and assaulted another boy (Peter) who later committed suicide. The matter of Peter was never prosecuted.

Similarly, the earlier incidents in the U.S. were not relevant to the Victorian court. The U.S. incidents were dealt with as civil matters, resulting in the Catholic Church making payments towards the victims' counselling expenses.

Referring to the two Penshurst victims, Magistrate Michael Stone said Ryan’s behaviour had been "classic grooming of young people for sexual pleasure". He told Ryan: "You were in a position of trust. You grossly abused that trust.

Mr Stone sentenced Ryan to 18 months jail, with possible release on parole after 12 months. He said Ryan would be a registered sex offender for the next 15 years.

Ryan was escorted from the court in custody – on his way to prison.

The court hearing was finished by 11.00am. Because Ryan had pleaded guilty, the victims were not required to give evidence in court. The prosecution merely had to submit a file of documentation to the magistrate.

Previously, on behalf of victims, Broken Rites had alerted all media outlets about the court hearing. As a result, the west Victorian TV network (WIN TV) had a camera crew at the court. Footage of Ryan (arriving at the court) was shown in that evening’s news bulletin. The conviction was reported in newspapers in Melbourne, Warrnambool and Ballarat. Thus, the Ryan case – and the church’s cover-up of sexual abuse – became a topic of conversation throughout Victoria. The cover-up was over.

One victim's story

One victim, Drew, was in court as an observer, together with his family. After the court hearing, Drew (now 32) said that, looking back, he had been an easy target for Ryan at the age of 15-16, being the eldest of a large family and living a fairly isolated existence on a farm.

Drew said: “His [Ryan’s] whole idea was that my interests were his common interests. I was happy, innocent, fresh. When everyone was going out to parties at 16 and 17, I was watching a video and drinking cola. That was my idea of having a good time.”

Drew’s mother told Broken Rites: “Ryan befriended our family, he made out that he shared common interests with my husband such as gardening, renovation etc. He certainly worked on gaining our trust, now that we look back. He shared many meals with us.

“At that time, another of our children had an adverse medical diagnosis. Fr Ryan was so supportive, as it was a difficult time for us. All the time, it was just part of his disgusting plan.

“My husband and I have been so sick with guilt for ever trusting Ryan. However, we have moved on from this emotion, now we are very angry and bitter towards the Catholic Church. All the pain and suffering endured by Ryan's victims and their families could have been prevented if the Catholic hierarchy had removed Ryan’s priestly status.

“My son is a wonderful man. He endured so much in those 15 years of silence. Our family is so open and up front, one would never imagine any one of them to be so afraid to speak out. I guess this is the case with most of the victims.

“We are appalled by what has unfolded about Paul David Ryan. We are also appalled by the covering up, deceit and lack of care for families in the church community who trusted this person with their sons.”

“The last 3 years have been an emotional roller coaster for our family, trying to come to terms with the devastating results of Ryan's abuse. Learning that the Catholic Church had full knowledge of his behaviour over the years and kept him circulating around devastates us beyond belief. “

“My son is a beautiful person There have been many hurdles in his personal life, but these hurdles that would have been non-existent if the Catholic Church had done the right thing by the community.”

The victim who ended up dying by suicide

Also present in the Warrnambool Court hearing was Mrs Helen Watson, whose son Peter bdied bysuicide in 1999 after his life had been damaged by Paul-David Ryan’s sexual abuse at Ararat. After the court case, Mrs W spoke to Broken Rites, telling the story of her son.

About 1991, Peter (then aged 15-16) was a student at Marian College, a Catholic secondary school (for Years 7 to 12) in Ararat – situated next door to Father Paul David Ryan’s parish house. Until then, Peter had been a normal boy with a quick wit and a love of sport.

One day, Ryan (smelling of alcohol) drove Peter home to the family’s farm after the boy had stayed overnight at the parish house. On arriving home, Peter immediately started acting in a disturbed manner and he “was never the same after that."

Peter did not tell his parents about Ryan's sexual abuse, and his parents were puzzled why Peter's personality suddenly changed. He became a disturbed teenager, with low self-esteem. He got into drugs and he abandoned sports. By age 18, he was leading a transient life, was unable to work and tried several times to kill himself.

In his late teens, a psychological report on Peter said he spoke about having been sexually abused "by a priest" (un-named). It was only at about age 20 that Mrs Watson realised that the abuser was Paul David Ryan. By then, Peter's life had been badly damaged. Like most church victims, Peter had remained silent about the priestly abuse because he thought it would upset his parents to know about the priest. Furthermore, like many church victims, he felt guilty himself for what the priest had done to him.

In 1997, when Peter was 22, Mrs Watson contacted the Catholic Church's newly-established Professional Standards Resource Group for Victoria (the "Towards Healing" process) and told them how Father Paul David Ryan had damaged her son's life. A member of the resource group interviewed Mrs Watson but all he did was to offer to arrange "counselling" for herself. Mrs Watson believes that it was the church hierarchy, not she, who needed "counselling".

A lonely death

Meanwhile, Peter was deteriorating. By age 24, he was in a psychiatric unit but in March 1999 he went missing and his mother never saw him alive again.

Six years later, police ascertained that Peter had taken his own life. It turned out that, in October 1999, a young man had been found hanged in a bathing box on a Melbourne beach but this body could not be identified at the time, so it was buried in a pauper’s grave. In late 2005 a check of fingerprints revealed that this body was Mrs Watson's son Peter.

Peter’s body was exhumed, so his mother could give him a proper funeral, which was held in December 2005.

In February 2006, two months after Peter's re-burial, Mrs Watson went to see the Bishop of Ballarat, Bishop Peter Connors (who had succeeded Mulkearns as bishop in 1997). She wanted to tell the church what it had done to her son. At that time, Mrs Watson did not know that the police were investigating Ryan. But the diocese knew -- and it realized that the Ryan cover-up was about to become public. Mrs Watson says Bishop Connors offered to arrange "counselling" for her. She says: "The church still does not get it."

Later, Mrs Watson received a letter from Bishop Connors, dated 20 March 2006, apologising on behalf of the Ballarat diocese for the harm done by Father Paul David Ryan.

But Mrs Watson can neither forgive nor forget. The church, she says, knew that Ryan was a danger when it ordained him in 1976.

Mrs Watson said she believed that her son was one of many unknown victims of sexual abuse by the clergy.

She said: "Hopefully, Peter's tragedy will encourage other victims of sexual abuse to find the courage to come forward and speak up against pedophile priests and cover-ups by the Catholic Church."

Two families meet

At the Warrnambool court hearing, Mrs Helen Watson met the family of one of the Penshurst victims (“Drew”) for the first time.

"It was overwhelming. I take my hat off to the whole family" Ms Watson said. "It was a hugely emotional experience. I realise now that victims are not alone. Here is a young lad who took a huge risk living in a small country community."

Ms Watson said she had drawn a lot of strength from Drew’s family.

"I'm in awe of how they handled it. Hopefully other people can come forward," she said. "It means there is some gratification in Peter's life, that people don't get away scot- free."

Final words from a grieving mother

At the courthouse, Mrs Watson hoped to make a statement to Paul David Ryan as he was being escorted to jail but this was not possible. Mrs Watson later showed Broken Rites a copy of what she wanted to tell Ryan:

“I do not want you to speak to me, as nothing you say will right the wrong you have done to my son Peter; nothing could ease the pain that I have endured; nothing could bring my son back to life; and, last but not least, nothing you say could change my opinion of you.

“You are an evil predator who used your position of power and trust in the Catholic Church to force young males into submission with your atrocious acts.

“You are a disgrace to yourself, you profession and your family, especially your mother.

“The one decent thing you can do now is to confess your crimes of sexual abuse against Peter to the authorities and serve the appropriate sentence. . .”

Mrs Watson later posted this statement to Ryan in prison.

[Broken Rites protects the privacy of victims — that is why we usually change the names of victims in the reports of our cases on this website. However, Mrs Helen Watson has already gone public about the church's abuse of her son Peter, and therefore Broken Rites is publishing Mrs Watson's name.]

Ryan pleading guilty in 2019

On 19 March 2019, Paul David Ryan appeared again in the Melbourne County Court, following an investigation conducted by Detective Senior Constable Jason Rowles, of the Sano Taskforce, which is a part of the sex-crimes investigation unit of the Victoria Police in Spencer Street, Docklands, Melbourne.

Ryan pleaded guilty regarding three additional victims: the indecent assault of a child under the age of 16 in Warrnambool in 1981; the oral sexual penetration of a teenager at a school camp in 1985; and an indecent act with a child under the age of 16 in Ararat in 1992.

Judge Mark Dean remanded Ryan in custody. Ryan is scheduled to have a plea-hearing on 13 May 2019 (this hearing is for the prosecutor and the defence to make submissions regarding the kind of sentence that should be imposed and it is also possible for any victim to submit a victim-impact statement telling the judge how Ryan's crimes have affected this victim's life).

FOOTNOTE: Broken Rites has also researched Father Ronald Pickering who helped to recruit Paul David Ryan to the priesthood. Pickering's victims, also, became suicidal. To see a Broken Rites article about Pickering, click HERE.

• By a Broken Rites researcher

If a victim of clergy sexual abuse wishes to sue the Catholic Church for damages, the victim’s chances of success are much greater if he/she can demonstrate that the church knew previously that the offender was a sexual abuser. It is usually difficult for the victim to prove this. This article is an example of a case in which the church could not evade its liability. In early 2007, a 23-year-old woman ("Emily") won a victory over the Catholic Church’s lawyers. Emily forced the church to pay her a substantial civil settlement for having had her life damaged by a Catholic priest, Father Kevin Howarth, in Victoria.

Emily had complained that Fr Kevin Howarth, a priest of the Sandhurst diocese in north-eastern Victoria, committed multiple indecent assaults against her in the early 1990s when she was about six years old.

The Sandhurst diocese extends across north-eastern Victoria from the city of Bendigo (the diocese's headquarters) to the city of Wodonga.

How Broken Rites helped

Emily was not Howarth's first victim. Broken Rites informed Emily that in 1984 Howarth had admitted molesting two sisters in another family in the Sandhurst diocese. However, the diocese successfully covered up the 1984 complaint and allowed Howarth to continue ministering. Thus, the diocese knowingly inflicted Howarth on other potential victims — including Emily in the early 1990s.

Therefore, when Emily eventually launched civil action against the Sandhurst diocese, her lawyers knew that she had a powerful case, because of the church's prior knowledge about Howarth.

Usually, acting on legal advice, the Catholic Church claims that it "did not know" that Father So-and-So was a danger to children. In the Howarth case, however, the church was caught with its pants down.

The 1980s background

According to Broken Rites records, Father Howarth was ministering in the Corryong parish (in north-eastern Victoria) when (according to his own admissions) he sexually abused two young sisters there during 17 months in 1982-83. The offences began when the girls were aged 11 and 8. Later, the parents learned about the abuse and they complained to the Sandhurst diocese in 1984. More than a decade after this, one of the girls (then aged in her twenties) notified the police. In early 1996, the police charged Howarth with indecent assault.

In Wangaratta Magistrates Court on 17 October 1996, Father Kevin Howarth (then aged 59) pleaded guilty to the indecent assault charges. There were numerous incidents but he was charged with three counts of indecent assault on the elder sister and two on the younger sister. The girls were not required to attend court.

The court was told that, before the assaults, the family had taken Howarth into their home, their lives and their trust.

In one of the offences, Howarth made one of the girls masturbate him in the back seat of a car while Howarth spoke to the girls' unsuspecting parents in the front seat.

Howarth touched one of the girls indecently while baby-sitting her in the Corryong presbytery.

Other offences occurred in the family home and in a swimming pool.

Prosecutor Senior Constable Tim Edgeworth told the court that the parents complained to the church about the elder daughter in 1984. Howarth's bishop, Bishop Noel Daly of the Sandhurst diocese, was made aware of the complaint.

However, the church persuaded the family to keep quiet to "help Father Howarth". The parents were told that the girl "would get over it as she is only young."

Howarth was allowed to continue in the ministry. His later parishes were not warned that he was a risk to children.

For the two Corryong sisters, the trauma never went away. By 1995, when the two girls were in their twenties, church sex-abuse had become a public issue — largely due to extensive media publicity generated by Broken Rites from 1993 onwards.

The prosecution told the court that one of the girls finally reported the crimes to the Victoria Police in September 1995 during "Operation Paradox", an annual phone-in for victims of sexual abuse. The diocese did not remove Howarth from his parish until April 1996 when police charges were imminent. Clearly, without the police charges, the church would have allowed Howarth to continue ministering in the Sandhurst diocese forever.

Howarth's lawyer, requesting a lenient sentence, said that the Catholic Church was the only adult life that Howarth had known.

Magistrate Ian McGrane told Howarth: "The offences are so horrendous that one finds it hard to deal with them because of the position in society that you had and the trust people installed in you."

The court sentenced Howarth to three months' imprisonment. The court allowed this to be served as an intensive correction order in the community. Howarth was ordered to attend the community corrections office for 12 hours a week, including eight hours of community work and four hours of counselling. Howarth was also fined $2,000.

After the 1996 conviction

Just before Howarth appeared in court, Broken Rites had alerted the media. Therefore, the court case was reported on WIN regional television news and on the front page of both the Albury Border Mail and the Wangaratta Chronicle.

The girls' parent told the media: "We invited 'God's man' into our house but all he did was bring grief and so much unhappiness over so many years. We cannot believe how he was ever allowed to locate in another parish even though his superiors at the Sandhurst diocese admitted that he had a problem."

Father Gerry Callagher, Sandhurst diocese spokesman on professional standards, told the media that any further victims should ring the church's psychologist in Melbourne for counselling. (The statement did not mention contacting the police.)

The Albury Border Mail reported: "When asked why Howarth was allowed to continue serving in parishes around the district despite a complaint in 1984, Fr Gallagher was not prepared to comment."

It is not known where Howarth went after his conviction. His lawyer told the court that Howarth hoped the church would give him administrative duties after the conviction. The Sandhurst diocese continued to list him as one of its priests in the annual Australian Catholic Directory in 1997, 1998 and 1999. It said Howarth was "on leave" from the ministry, care of the Bendigo diocesan office — indicating that the church was not prepared to remove this child-sex offender from the priesthood altogether.

The priest's background

Researching Father Howarth's whole career, Broken Rites checked some (but not all) of the annual editions of the Australian Catholic Directory, and we found that, in various years, Father Kevin Howarth was listed as being based in Sandhurst Diocese parishes such as Euroa, Wangaratta, Bright, Corryong, Wodonga, Beechworth and Chiltern. The Sandhurst diocese covers a total of three dozen parishes in north-eastern Victoria, and it is possible that Howarth did some ministering also in other Sandhurst Diocese parishes such as Numurkah, Cohuna and Rushworth.

A Euroa parishioner told Broken Rites: "Howarth worked in the Euroa parish about 1969-70. At some time, he also ministered in an Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory, which raises some alarming possibilities."

The case of Emily

"Emily" lived with her family in north eastern Victoria. (To protect Emily's privacy, Broken Rites is not revealing the name of the town.) Emily's parents and siblings were all involved in Catholic Church affairs, including fund-raising.

Emily encountered Fr Kevin Howarth in the early 1990s when she was a pupil in the infant grades at Fr Howarth's parish primary school. During the next year or so, Howarth began molesting Emily. The offences occurred inside the church. Howarth used to take Emily into the sacristy (the priest's room adjacent to the altar) ostensibly to "prepare" her for her First Holy Communion. This "preparation" took the form of sexual abuse.

About 2000, Emily was still disturbed by Howarth's abuse and his breach of trust. She learned that the Catholic Church in Australia was inviting church sex-abuse victims to contact the church's Professional Standards office (also known as "Towards Healing"). Emily did this but (like most victims) she found that Towards Healing was evasive and defensive.

In 2003, Emily phoned Broken Rites. We informed her about Howarth's 1996 court conviction. Realising that Emily had a powerful case, Broken Rites sent her our printed information about Howarth's 1996 conviction and we advised her to consult lawyers instead of bothering any longer with Towards Healing.

The legal firm that Emily consulted was delighted to receive the Broken Rites information and they prepared a civil claim against the Catholic Church. The claim was aimed at:

• the trustees of the Sandhurst diocese;
   
• the former bishop of Sandhurst (Bishop Noel Daly, but he died in January 2004);
   
• the next bishop of Sandhurst (Bishop Joseph Grech);
   
• the Catholic Education Office in the Sandhurst diocese;
   
• a religious order of nuns who operated Fr Howarth's parish primary school; and
   
• a nun (Sister G, the school principal) who had been been responsible for allowing Emily and other children to attend private sessions with Father Howarth).

Emily also would have included Fr Kevin Howarth as a defendant, but the church's lawyers said that Howarth had died (and was buried in the Wangaratta cemetery)

The church lawyers fought Emily's lawyers fiercely. Finally, in 2007, realising the strength of Emily's case, the church agreed to a substantial out-of-court settlement as the church did not wish to have its negligence publicly aired in court.

It had taken Emily seven years to achieve this settlement from when she first approached Towards Healing. Thus, the evasiveness by Towards Healing ended up in a very expensive lesson for the church.

And the big payout also taught the church that it is unwise to harbour and protect any clergy who are a danger to children.

Because of the information provided by Broken Rites about Howarth's record, Emily's case was unusually powerful. Other victims might not be so fortunate and, in many cases, the only outcome is a discounted settlement through Towards Healing.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 26 July 2019

For 25 years, Father Peter Maurice Waters ministered in a series of parishes of the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese. In 1999, when he was aged in his fifties, he ceased having any more parish postings. Since 1999, according to church law, Peter Waters has retained his priestly qualification — but without a parish (and without any other official role in the church). In 2017, when Waters was aged 72, police charged him with child-sex offences relating to his time in parishes. In early 2018, Waters underwent a four-day committal (i.e., preliminary) hearing in the Melbourne Magistrates Court. After hearing the evidence, the magistrate ordered Waters to undergo a trial with a judge in a higher court, the Victorian County Court, to be held in 2019.

In court documents in 2018, Peter Maurice Waters was listed as being located at his private residence on Phillip Island (140 km south-east of Melbourne).

When the Peter Waters case had its first mention in the Melbourne Magistrates Court in 2017, police charged him with child sexual abuse offences committed between 1974 and 1987.

The charges were laid by detectives from the Sano Taskforce of the Victoria Police sexual crimes squad, located in Spencer Street, Docklands, Melbourne.

At the committal hearing in the same court in January 2018, Waters pleaded not guilty.

Until the County Court trial, he is on bail.

The County Court's case number for Peter Maurice Waters is CR-18-00056.

Foootnote

The Melbourne archdiocese (in the state of Victoria) covers the Melbourne metropolitan area and some nearby towns such as Kyneton, plus the city of Geelong. The remainder of the state of Victoria is divided into three other dioceses.

According to research by Broken Rites, Father Peter Maurice Waters was first listed (as "newly ordained") in the annual Australian Catholic Directories in 1973. He then ministered in various parishes of the Melbourne archdiocese including Croydon, Strathmore, Dandenong, Oakleigh, East Malvern, Camberwell, Aspendale, Blackburn, Bell Park (a suburb of Geelong) and (finally, until 1999) Kyneton. Interspersed among these parishes he had several periods of being listed as "on leave", plus a year or so as a hospital chaplain. After 1999, Father Peter Maurice Waters did not take on any more parish work.

By a Broken Rites researcher

In 1993, Broken Rites Australia began researching sexually-abusive Catholic priests, including Fr Ronald Pickering and Fr John Stockdale. Eighteen years later, in September 2011, another clergyman (Archbishop John Hepworth) revealed in the media that Pickering and Stockdale were among three priests who sexually abused him, beginning in 1960 when he was aged 15.

For many years now, Fr Pickering and Fr Stockdale have been featured in articles on the Broken Rites website (see links at the end of this article).

In his September 2011 statements, Archbishop Hepworth alleged that he was also sexually abused in the 1960s by a third Catholic priest, who (he said) is still a clergyman in the Adelaide archdiocese in South Australia.

Archbishop Hepworth (born in 1944) says he encountered these three priests in South Australia when he was studying in the 1960s to join the Catholic priesthood. But, he says, when he complained about this abuse in the 1960s and early '70s, the Catholic authorities threatened to make like difficult for him if he revealed the matter to anyone. That is, it was a cover-up.

John Hepworth left the Catholic priesthood in the 1970s. He later joined the Anglican Church and, eventually, became Archbishop Hepworth in a new Anglican breakaway group, the Traditional Anglican Communion.

How it all began

John Anthony Hepworth grew up in Adelaide, with the ambition of becoming a Catholic priest.

In 1960 when he was 15, he entered a minor seminary, doing a qualifying course (which included completing his secondary schooling Years 11 and 12) as an aspirant for the priesthood. He says the sexual abuse began a month after he entered this minor seminary.

After finally completing the whole seminary course, he was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1968 for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide.

Abuser #1: John Stockdale

Archbishop Hepworth says that at the Adelaide minor-seminary, aged 15, he was sexually abused by an older seminary student, John Stockdale. He says this included Stockdale committing buggery on Hepworth.

John Hepworth says he was later warned by a prefect at the seminary that he would be expelled if he revealed the matter.

Hepworth says that Stockdale abused him again on a number of occasions for about two years.

Father John Peregrine Stockdale later worked as a priest in the Sandhurst Catholic diocese, which has its headquarters at Bendigo in northern Victoria. Broken Rites has ascertained that, in Victorian parishes, Stockdale became a habitual sexual-abuser of boys.

The Broken Rites website has reported how, on 31 December 1995, Stockdale died while celebrating New Year's Eve in a sex-cubicle at a males-only club in Melbourne.

Broken Rites has interviewed victims who were sexually abused by Father Stockdale when they were boys in northern Victoria.

There is a full article about Father John Peregrine Stockdale on the Broken Rites website.

Abuser #2: Ronald Pickering

Archbishop Hepworth says that, as a seminary student, he was also sexually abused by a Melbourne priest, Father Ronald Dennis Pickering, who was visiting Adelaide.. Hepworth says Pickering coerced him into sexual activity. The Pickering incidents continued on later occasions, including in Melbourne.

In 1993, Broken Rites learned that Father Pickering had suddenly fled from Australia to England, where he hoped to be out of reach of the Australian police. Research by Broken Rites has demonstrated that, both before and after his escape, Father Pickering was protected by the Melbourne Catholic hierarchy.

The Melbourne Catholic Archdiocese, which had long known about Pickering's liking for boys, has admitted that Pickering was an offender and it has made civil settlements with some of his victims, so as to limit the church's financial liability.

Broken Rites has interviewed Melbourne victims who were abused by Father Pickering when they were schoolboys.

It has been reported that Pickering is dead, although Broken Rites has been unable to find any trace of a death notice or funeral notice.

There is a full article about Father Ronald Pickering on the Broken Rites website.

Abuser #3: Another priest

Archbishop Hepworth said that, after being ordained at age 24, he began working as a priest in Adelaide. He alleges that he was then sexually abused by an Adelaide priest who (he alleged) is still located in the Adelaide archdiocese.

However, this Broken Rites article is confined to the two earlier priests — Fr Stockdale and Fr Pickering.

Cover-up

Hepworth says that, on several occasions, he tried to report the three priests to the church authorities.

• Firstly, while in the seminary, he spoke to the seminary administration but he was warned that any mention of sexual experiences could disqualify him from ordination.
• Later, he spoke to senior clergy in the Adelaide Catholic archdiocese, including Most Reverend Philip Kennedy, who became an auxiliary bishop. He says Kennedy warned him about speaking out about the abuse.
• Father Hepworth also spoke to Most Reverend James Gleeson, who became the archbishop of Adelaide. Gleeson, also, warned Hepworth about speaking out.

That is, according to Hepworth, the culture of cover-up was flourishing in the Catholic Church in Adelaide.

In the early 1970s, Father Hepworth spent a year being in charge of the Glenelg parish in Adelaide. After this, Hepworth and the Adelaide Catholic archdiocese parted company. The reasons for his departure are not fully clear. He says now that he left because he was upset by the Catholic Church's cover-up of his sexual abuse.

Anglicans and Catholics

Later in the 1970s, John Hepworth was accepted as a minister for the Anglican Church in the Ballarat diocese (in western Victoria). From 1977 to 1978 he was the assistant priest in the Colac parish and, from 1978 to 1980, was in charge of a parish at Sebastopol. After that, he evidently quit the Ballarat Anglican diocese, in which he was accused of mismanagement of the Sebastopol parish funds.

In 1992, John Hepworth joined a body called the "Anglican Catholic Church" in Australia. In the late 1990s he became an assistant bishop — and then a full bishop — in this splinter group. In 2002 he became the worldwide primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion — this communion has become involved in discussions with the Vatican with view to becoming associated with the Roman Catholic Church.

The Roman Catholic authorities are now considering ways of accepting the former Anglicans into an "Anglican Catholic Ordinariate" within the Roman Catholic Church (this could be a kind of special diocese in Australia, similar to Australia's Lebanese Maronite Catholic diocese).

It is not clear whether Archbishop Hepworth's revelations in September 2011, about church sex-abuse, will help or hinder his re-admittance into the Roman Catholic clergy.

Slow response in Adelaide

Archbishop Hepworth says that his reason for going public in September 2011 about church sex-abuse is that he wants the Catholic Church authorities (in Rome and Australia) to be aware of why he fled from Catholicism in the 1960s. He hoped that the recognition of his 1960s pain might help the mainstream Catholic Church to accept him and his Traditional Anglican Communion back into the Catholic Church in the future.

Archbishop Hepworth says that, between 2007 and 2011, he contacted the Adelaide Catholic archdiocese leadership several times, giving them information about how he was sexually abused, by three older churchmen, beginning at the age of 15 when he was a minor-seminary student in the full-time care of the Adelaide archdiocese.

At this stage, Hepworth says, he was assuming that all the abuse (from the age of 15 onwards) was the responsibility of the Adelaide archdiocese.

However, he says, Adelaide seemed to be slow to begin acting on this matter and, furthermore (he says), Adelaide seemed reluctant to accept responsibility for the totality of the abuse — by all three priests — even though all three of them abused Hepworth in Adelaide while he was training and ministering in the Adelaide archdiocese.

Melbourne Catholic Archdiocese

Archbishop Hepworth says that, in mid-2010, he contacted Peter O'Callaghan, QC, who is retained by the Melbourne archdiocese to receive (and adjudicate on) complaints about Melbourne priests. Within a couple of hours, Hepworth says, O'Callaghan had phoned back.

Hepworth gave O'Callaghan all the documents that he had previously given to Adelaide. O'Callaghan then investigated what Hepworth calls "the totality" of Hepworth's youthful abuse. In mid-2011, acting on behalf of the Melbourne archdiocese, O'Callaghan returned a decision, declaring that John Hepworth had indeed suffered church-related sexual abuse.

Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart (who became the archbishop of Melbourne in 2001) then gave Archbishop Hepworth a written apology regarding Fr Pickering (the Melbourne priest). Hart wrote:

• "We cannot change what has happened . . . You may never be rid of the memories or the hurt . . . On behalf of the Catholic Church and personally, I apologise to you and to those around you for the wrongs and hurt you have suffered at the hands of Father Ronald Pickering."

(Fr John Stockdale, however, did not come under the jurisdiction of the Melbourne process. After being trained at the Adelaide seminary, he ministered in the Sandhurst diocese in northern Victoria.)

More background

In September 2011, Archbishop Hepworth evidently allowed the story of his abuse to be told in The Australian newspaper on 10 September 2010 — in an article by Tess Livingstone and an article by Christopher Pearson.

Pearson, a former Anglican from Adelaide who has converted to Catholicism, knows Hepworth personally. Person describes a culture that existed among some seminarians and priests in Adelaide (including Fr Ronald Pickering, who used to visit Adelaide from Melbourne). Pearson writes:

• "...I had occupied one of the flats in the large North Adelaide house where he [Hepworth] had been periodically abused all those years ago. The house belonged to James Govenlock, the [Catholic] cathedral organist, who entertained a coterie of guests, some of whom were predatory homosexuals. Govenlock had tested the waters to see if I could be recruited in my first year out from university and he introduced me to some of his regular guests. They included bishop Philip Kennedy and paedophile priest Ronald Pickering, both deceased, and other clergy.

  "At the time I was a regular communicant at Christ Church [Anglican], North Adelaide. My father had just been ordained as an Anglican priest. I had spent enough time in the company of seminarians not to be flummoxed by the phenomenon of same-sex-attracted clergy and was trying to come to terms with my own sexuality.

  "That homosexual clergy should prefer one another's company was generally seen as perfectly understandable, but even in the mid-1970s we expected that they'd do their best to live up to their vows of celibacy. By the time I moved out of the flat I had stopped going to church and — to Govenlock's dismay — become politicised as a gay activist. I've followed his and his guests' subsequent careers closely enough via newspaper reports..."

A journalist from Fairfax media, Martin Daly, obtained further information from Hepworth about these priests and seminarians (published in The Age newspaper, Melbourne, on September 17, 2011).

• "... In evidence already accepted as fact by the Catholic archdiocese of Melbourne, Hepworth has previously described a separate priests' sex ring that indulged in fine foods and drank wine from crystal glasses as they listened to the great symphonies in the Dandenongs [a mountain range in Victoria], Melbourne and Adelaide, and then raped him...

  "He met the notorious paedophile Father Ronald Pickering at the Adelaide home of a member of the gay circle to which the priests belonged. Pickering quickly became Hepworth's abuser at various locations, including his presbytery at Warburton [in the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese], as well as raping him violently in a hotel...

  "Throughout the abuse, says Hepworth, he felt violated, fearful and confused. He liked the circle in which his abusers moved. There was money, and talk of music, the arts and culture. So he went along with it, but not, he says, by choice. He had been only 15 when it all started in Stockdale's rooms at the Adelaide seminary where he had been given alcohol and then violently raped.

  "In some way, he says, he knew no other life. And he was afraid of their threats that if he revealed what went on within the circle he would be expelled from the seminary. His parents would find out. There would be shame and ruination..."

Broken Rites research

Here are articles by Broken Rites about two of the priests who are the subject of Archbishop John Hepworth's complaint:

• Fr Ronald Dennis Pickering.
• Fr John Peregrine Stockdale.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 28 July 2019

Broken Rites has researched the cover-up of one of Australia's most notorious Catholic priests, Father John Sidney Denham. Father Denham's superiors and colleagues knew about his child-sex crimes but this information was concealed from the police. Finally, some of his victims gradually began to contact the police. As a result, Denham has been convicted in court several times since 2000, He has been in jail since 2008, and his jail time has been increased as more of his victims gradually contacted the police. On 30 May 2019, Denham (aged 76) was sentenced to additional jail time for his 59th victim.

The case of Victim #59 is reported towards the end of this article but, first, we start with our research about Denham's background.

Some background

Broken Rites began hearing about Father John Denham in the late 1990s when we were contacted by one of his victims ("Tim") and later by other victims. Therefore, Broken Rites began researching Denham in church publications. We ascertained that Denham (born on 8 September 1942) was recruited in the 1960s as a trainee priest for the Newcastle-Maitland Diocese, north of Sydney. As a trainee and later as a priest, he officially belonged to this diocese, and it is usual for diocesan priests to spend their whole career in one diocese. (The Catholic Church in the state of New South Wales is divided into eleven dioceses.)

As a trainee priest, Denham was a danger to children from Day One. According to statements that were eventually made in court, some of Denham's child-sex crimes were committed during his period of training.

Broken Rites searched through the annual printed editions of the Australian Catholic Directory to trace Denham's movements. For example, we ascertained that, in the final stage of his training, he was a deacon (an assistant to other priests) in the Mayfield parish in 1972. After being ordained, he moved to the Singleton parish (St Patrick's) in 1973.

According to Denham's victims, his superiors knew in the 1970s about the offences he was committing against children but this information did not reach the police. The church allowed Denham to continue as a priest and merely transferred him to new districts, thereby putting more children at risk.

The school building with bedrooms for six priests

Broken Rites ascertained that in 1973 Father Denham joined the staff of St Pius X College (also known as St Pius X Catholic High School) at Adamstown, Newcastle. This was then a boys-only school. Many of the victims in the Denham court charges in 2009 were students at this school.

In the 1979 Directory of Australian Catholic Clergy, six priests (including Father Denham) were listed as teaching — and living — on this school's premises.

Yes, not just one priest . . . but SIX of them. A bedroom for even just one priest should have raised some eyebrows.

The priests had bedrooms in the same building as the classrooms, as we will explain later in this article.

The story of Tim

At St Pius X Catholic High School, Father Denham became well known for his habit of touching boys indecently. Broken Rites has interviewed one such pupil — "Tim" (not his real name) — who was at this school in 1978-9. By chance, in October 1979, Tim's mother overheard 14-year-old Tim telling another boy that it was "not safe to be with Father Denham".

After quizzing Tim, the mother went to see the school administration, who promised to "deal with" Denham. However, Denham continued working at the school that year. Therefore, Tim's mother decided to remove her son from the school after the end of 1979. In 1980 Tim transferred to a government high school, which he found to be educationally excellent. Meanwhile, the church culture prevented Denham's offences from being reported to the police.

Denham in parishes in the 1980s

In 1980, following the 1979 complaint by Tim's mother, the diocese transferred Denham away from St Pius X Catholic High School to work as an assistant priest in parishes. First, he worked at the Charlestown parish (in the Newcastle urban area). In 1981 he was transferred to a parish ("Our Lady of the Rosary") in Taree (a coastal town, north of Newcastle), where he stayed for four years.

In these parishes, Denham worked with altar boys as well as school boys. The church authorities kept quiet about Denham's record at St Pius Catholic High School. Thus, the church was putting more children in danger.

During this parish work, he committed more offences and again, the church authorities (as usual) concealed these crimes from the police. Eventually, at least one Denham victim from this period reported Denham's crimes to the police (instead of merely to the church authorities). Thus, police were accumulating information about Denham, and some of Denham's offences from this period were were included in his court charges in 2009.

Denham at a Sydney school

In 1986, when Denham's crimes were still being hidden by the church, the Maitland-Newcastle diocese "solved" its Denham problem by arranging to transfer him to work as a "chaplain" at Waverley College (a Christian Brothers secondary school), in Waverley, in Sydney's east. Research by Broken Rites indicates that, throughout the next seven years, "Reverend John Denham" continued to be listed in the annual Australian Catholic directories as belonging to the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, although working at Waverley College.Thus, the church authorities were putting more children at risk.

One of Denham's victims at Waverley College eventually managed to get Denham convicted for abusing this boy at Waverley College.

Denham at a resource centre

In 1994 Denham was accepted for a role at the Chevalier Resource Centre, a theological library located in the grounds of the Sacred Heart Monastery (owned by a religious order, the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart) in the eastern Sydney suburb of Kensington. This role involved working on church archives.

Broken Rites found that, from 1995 onwards, after he joined the Chevalier Resource Centre, Denham was still listed in the annual Australian Catholic directories as "ReverendJohn Denham, on leave from the Maitland-Newcastle diocese". His forwarding address was care of the Maitland-Newcastle diocesan office.

Convicted in 2000

In 1997, "Tim" (the above-mentioned victim who had been a pupil St Pius X Catholic High School 18 years earlier) phoned Broken Rites. Tim (then aged 32) was now a father himself, and he was keen to protect all children from pedophiles.

After speaking with Broken Rites, Tim contacted an appropriate police unit, where he made a signed statement. Tim's complaint was investigated by a senior Newcastle detective, Mark Dixon.

Denham was charged regarding Tim's complaint and underwent committal proceedings in a magistrate's court in 1999. The magistrate ordered Denham to stand trial before a judge in the New South Wales District Court. Denham's solicitor was prominent Sydney lawyer John Marsden.

Eventually, in the District Court at Sydney's Downing Centre in 2000, a jury convicted Father Denham on two incidents of indecent assault against Tim (case number 99111180). Denham, then aged in his late fifties, was given a two-years jail sentence, which was suspended.

Still "reverend" after his conviction

Unfortunately, there was no media coverage of Denham's 2000 conviction. Therefore, the New South Wales Catholic community in general was not aware of the conviction.

A year later, despite this conviction, "Reverend John Denham" was still listed as a priest in the 2001 edition of the Directory of Australian Catholic Clergy. The directory said he was a priest "on leave from the Maitland diocese", with a Post Office box at Oatley in Sydney's south, but it did not say what his Sydney activities were.

Because of the lack of media exposure, it was possible for the church authorities to use Father Denham as a relieving priest in parishes at weekends - and no "alarm bells" would ring to warn parents and children about Denham's past.

In 2005, when Denham was aged about 62, Broken Rites ascertained that he was then working on week-days in the Sydney library of a religious order of priests. But what was he doing at weekends, when there was often a need for a relieving priest to do church services?

Despite the lack of media coverage, Broken Rites still received occasional phone calls or emails from former students or parishioners inquiring about Denham.

In November 2005, Tim (the victim from St Pius X Catholic High School) phoned Broken Rites again. He said he had learned that Denham was currently in Sydney's "supply" pool of priests who were available to do casual work as a relieving priest at weekends. Tim contacted the church's Professional Standards office in Sydney and its counterpart in Newcastle, and both these offices confirmed that Denham was working in the "supply pool". Tim told Broken Rites: "This is an alarming situation."

Broken Rites article

In early 2006 Broken Rites published an article on its website about Denham's 2000 conviction and about the school with bedrooms for six priests. A journalist from the Newcastle Herald, Joanne McCarthy, noticed the Broken Rites article and did some more research. On 10 June 2006 the Newcastle Herald published an article (by Joanne McCarthy) about Denham, thus becoming the first newspaper to mention his 2000 conviction. The Newcastle Herald article mentioned Broken Rites.

After the Newcastle Herald article, Tim told Broken Rites: "Maybe, after this exposure, through Broken Rites and the Newcastle Herald, the church will find it harder to use Denham as a relieving priest. They have been getting away with this for too long."

The NewcastleHerald article prompted some of Denham's victims to read about him on the Broken Rites website and/or to contact the police. Joanne McCarthy continued researching Denham (and other cases of church-cover-up) and she began receiving information from her readers, which resulted in further Newcastle Herald articles.

In 2006 another informant spoke to Broken Rites about Denham's behaviour at the Taree parish in the mid-1980s, alleging that Denham used to show "sexy" videos and literature to young altar boys in the Taree presbytery.

Another police investigation

Meanwhile, in 2005, another victim of Denham contacted the police. A Newcastle detective, who did not know about Denham's 2000 conviction, checked the archives but could not find any conviction involving Denham.

The detective began contacting some former students from the St Pius X Catholic High School rolls and he happened to phone "Tim". When Tim told him about the 2000 conviction, the detective was surprised but he eventually unearthed it in the archives. Police believe that someone had filed the record of the 2000 conviction where it would be difficult to find.

In 2008, police started another investigation of Denham and gathered written statements from victims. Later that year, he was charged with multiple offences. He pleaded guilty in court in July 2009.

More about the school with six bedrooms

Several former students of St Pius X Catholic High School contacted Broken Rites in 2006, telling us more about the layout of the school in Denham's time.

One former student ("Syd") told Broken Rites: "St Pius X College was fundamentally an old factory that had been converted into a secondary school. Some new buildings had been added.

"The main building was long and narrow, with classrooms down the western side and with a hall, science labs and offices down the eastern side. The northern end was mostly occupied by the priests' living quarters, comprising a series of bedrooms, with shared living areas at the furthest end.

"In other words, the priests' quarters and the classrooms were on the same floor. Hence, when a boy was sent to the priests' quarters, it was as simple as walking from one room to another room. When I was a student there in the 1970s, it was not unusual for a boy to be sent or taken to the priests' living quarters.

"As well as his bedroom in the old building, Denham also had an office in another building. Boys also had occasion to go — or to be sent to — to Denham's office.

"Other members of the clergy must have known that Denham was up to mischief at this school but they turned a blind eye to it and allowed him to continue doing it.

"One of Denham's friends in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese in the 1970s was a younger priest who has since gone on to become one of Australia's most prominent Catholic clerics. This cleric must have known something."

Another ex-pupil of Denham at St Pius X ("Jerry") told Broken Rites in March 2006 that he agreed with Syd's description of the school layout.

Jerry said: "In the main building, you could go from the classrooms area to the priests' living quarters by just going through a door. I never knew this door to be locked.

"A priest might simply say 'come with me' and you would be led through this door."

Jerry added: "Yes, Denham targeted me. I was frightened and disorientated. It's something that you think is only happening to you because of who you are and the trouble you are in. You feel, or are made to feel, that it's your doing and has to be done to avoid big trouble."

However, Jerry says that he has not reported Denham to the police and says he probably will not get around to doing so now because he is pre-occupied with his young family. Jerry said he felt slightly guilty about leaving it to people like Tim to bring Denham to justice.

[Tim, Syd and Jerry do not know each other because they were in different years.]

Jailed in 2010 and 2015

For details of John Denham's court cases (resulting in his jailing in 2010 and 2015), see another Broken Rites article HERE.

In court again in 2018 and 2019

On 11 October 2018, John Sidney Denham (aged 77) was found guilty of four offences against a young boy at Taree NSW in the late 1970s after a judge-alone trial (that is, no jury). The charges included one count of buggery and three counts of indecent assault.

A pre-sentence hearing for Denham's Taree crimes was held in Sydney in February 2019. Denham appeared by video-link from his jail. This pre-sentence hearing received final submissions from the prosecutor and the defence lawyer about the contents of the evidence and about what kind of sentence should be imposed.

The court heard details how Denham planned to sexually abuse the young boy from a very devout Catholic family by asking the child to stay behind after school "under the guise of an initiation process to be a new altar boy". The boy was raped on a later occasion after Denham called the child from the playground, "grabbed him by the arm and dragged him to the presbytery under the pretext the victim had been bad and had to be punished". Denham pushed the boy onto a desk, held him by the neck against the desktop and raped him, despite the boy screaming and begging him to stop because of the pain, the court.

The victim, who was not in court, prepared a victim impact statement that was read by Judge Phillip Mahony.

Sentenced again, May 2019

At a sentence hearing on 30 May 2019, Judge Mahony said Denham "has not recognised the pain and suffering caused to the victim of these offences at all".

Judge Mahony said Denham's sexual assault of the boy involved a level of planning against a vulnerable child where there was a significant age, size and power imbalance. Denham was 40 at the time of the attack and was in charge of a parish.

"The offender had isolated the victim in the playground, grabbed him and forcibly took him to the presbytery, under the pretence that the victim was in trouble," Judge Mahony said.

"It was clear from the victim's evidence that the victim was not consenting and that he was suffering intense pain, which the offender disregarded. It is clear that he suffered an injury to his anus and was bleeding as a result of the assault."

The impact on the victim's life was profound, the judge said. The victim's impact statement described "the real impact upon a happy childhood, occasioned by such a terrifying criminal event which affected every aspect of the victim's life thereafter," Judge Mahony said.

"Particularly relevant was the threats made to the victim that he would be taken away from his family, that he would go to hell, and that his family would be driven out of the church. The latter threat was particularly telling, given that the victim's mother was a devout Catholic.

"The [impact] statement outlines the changes undergone by the victim, his spiral into alcohol and drug abuse as a very young person, and the psychological impact it has had on all of his relationships throughout his adult life."

Judge Mahony sentenced John Sidney Denham to a maximum 13 years jail, with a non-parole period of seven years and six months. But because Denham was already in jail until at least January, 2028, and the crimes against his 59th victim occurred in the same period he committed other offences, Denham will spend at least another 18 months in jail for the latest convictions

With good behavior in jail, his earliest possible release date is July, 2029, with his full sentence not ending until January, 2035.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 29 July 2019

This Broken Rites article reveals how Catholic Church authorities covered up the child-sex crimes of an Australian priest, Father Paul David Ryan, during his career in the state of Victoria (and also during seven visits by Ryan to the United States). This enabled Ryan to endanger more children in more parishes in TWO countries. Eventually, helped by Broken Rites, some victims began reporting Ryan to Victoria Police detectives, resulting Ryan being jailed in 2006. Since then, the detectives have received further information about Ryan's priestly career in Victoria. On 29 July 2019, after Ryan (aged 70) pleaded guilty regarding three more of his victims, he was jailed again. (By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 29 July 2019.)

The court proceedings in 2019 are described towards the end of this article. But, first, here is some background.

Broken Rites research

During Ryan's court appearance in 2006, Broken Rites took copious notes from the evidence. This Broken Rites article is based on that research, plus numerous other sources.

With the permission of his Australian superiors, Father Ryan made seven trips to the United States — and he ministered in parishes there. In between these trips, his Australian superiors kept placing Father Ryan in various Victorian parishes,   giving him access to new victims. In Victoria, the church even promoted him to a higher rank in the priesthood.

Father Ryan’s movements were revealed in his 2006 court case. On 8 September 2006. Ryan appeared in the Warrnambool Magistrates Court in south-western Victoria, aged 57. He was jailed for at least a year after pleading guilty to indecently assaulting two altar boys in his parish house in rural Penshurst. Three incidents concerned one boy (“Drew”) and two incidents concerned the other boy (“Anton”).

These two were not Ryan’s only victims. These were merely the two who were chosen by the prosecutors for the purpose of this 2006 court case. It is impossible to estimate the number of boys who were targeted by Ryan in both Australia and the United States.

Another one of Ryan's victims in Victoria (Peter) ended up dying by suicide — and Peter's mother (Mrs Helen Watson) has finally forced the Catholic Church to apologise. The tragic story of Peter is told later in this article. Ryan was never prosecuted for the crimes he committed against Peter.

What Father Ryan did to victims

In Australian states, the crime of “indecent assault” involves an invasive touching of another person’s genitalia – that is, offences falling short of rape or buggery. Typically, Ryan used to invite a boy to his parish house, where he would show him videos containing sex scenes. He would offer alcohol (and, in the United States, marijuana) to the boy before undressing him and mauling him – in the lounge room or in bed or while the boy was having a bath.

Ryan’s offences were facilitated by the fact that his status as a “celibate” priest placed him above suspicion in the Catholic community. Unsuspecting parents would allow their son to have an overnight stay in Father Ryan’s parish house, thinking that their son was in safe hands, but the victims were reluctant to report the assaults because they felt embarrassed or because they did not want to upset their parents or because they thought their complaints might not be believed.

The cover-up disrupted the adolescent development of these victims, and some had to undertake years of psychological counselling to repair the damage.

The inside story of this priest

When Broken Rites began researching church-related sexual abuse in 1993, it soon began hearing mentions of Father Paul David Ryan in the Diocese of Ballarat. This diocese covers the western half of the state of Victoria.

Broken Rites kept contact with some of these people. Eventually, in 2005, detectives from Victoria Police began investigating Ryan. Broken Rites co-operated with that investigation, giving the detectives some possible lines of inquiry.

Broken Rites can reveal now the full story of Father Ryan and the church's handling of this case.

According to his passport application (of which Broken Rites possesses a copy), Paul David Carl Ryan was born 12 September 1948 in Melbourne. In his younger years, he evidently spent some time in Adelaide, South Australia. After working in his late teens, he began training for the priesthood at the Adelaide Catholic seminary (St Francis Xavier's seminary, conducted by the Vincentian Fathers) in 1969, aged 20. In June 1971, half-way through third year, the Adelaide seminary asked Ryan to leave.

Meanwhile, Ryan became a close friend of prominent priest of the Melbourne archdiocese, Father Ronald Dennis Pickering, who had already been a priest for 20 years. Ronald Pickering had contacts in the Catholic hierarchy. For example, Pickering knew the new Bishop of Ballarat, Bishop Ronald Mulkearns. Pickering and Mulkearns had both studied for the priesthood at the Melbourne seminary in the early 1950s. Pickering became Ryan’s main mentor and career adviser for the next 20 years.

Trainee priest, Melbourne 1972-6

In late 1971, Paul David Ryan moved to Victoria to take up a temporary teaching position in the Diocese of Ballarat. This position was at St Joseph’s College, Mildura, in the far north-west of this state. In October 1971, Ryan applied to Bishop Mulkearns to sponsor him as a Ballarat candidate for the priesthood at the Melbourne seminary (Corpus Christi College). Paul David Ryan’s Adelaide references were not good but Ballarat accepted him as a candidate and he spent the next five years at the Melbourne seminary.

According to seminary documents, Ryan’s seminary teachers reported that they found him abrasive and difficult to deal with. In mid-1975, as the end of Ryan’s training approached, the Ballarat Diocese and seminary authorities had to decide what to do about him. Before ordination, he was given a three-months probationary period in St Columba’s parish, Ballarat North, and he spent some of this time teaching at a Ballarat Catholic school.

On 28 May 1976, aged 27, Ryan was ordained in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Ballarat. In that very week, a Ballarat woman (Mrs M) contacted the diocese in distress, complaining that Ryan sexually abused her son (“Sid”) at the Ballarat North parish. After this abuse, she said, Sid had a breakdown and had to leave his university course. The mother blamed Ryan for this and she threatened to “go to the newspapers” about Ryan if he was allowed to minister in parishes. Despite Mrs M’s complaint, the church took a tolerant attitude towards Ryan, hoping that he might mend his ways.

Sex in the seminary, 1972-6

After his ordination, like all seminarians, Ryan remained at the Melbourne seminary until the end of 1976 to complete his studies. About October 1976, according to seminary correspondence, the seminary authorities learned that Father Ryan had been engaged in sexual relationships with about six trainee priests during his seminary course [more about this later].

At the end of 1976, having completed his seminary course, Paul Ryan was living with Fr Pickering, who was the parish priest at St Peter's parish at Clayton, in Melbourne. Ryan was to also to become a frequent visitor at a later parish of Pickering's, in Gardenvale, Melbourne. Ryan frequently carried out priestly duties in Pickering's parish, including conducting services.

At the end of 1976, church authorities were considering which parishes their newly-ordained priests would be assigned to for the coming year. But where could they put Ryan? According to seminary documents, the seminary arranged for him to see its consulting Catholic psychologist, Ronald Conway who, in turn referred Ryan to a Catholic psychiatrist, Dr Eric Seal. On 18 November 1976, Dr Seal wrote to the rector of the Melbourne seminary (Fr Kevin Mogg), saying that he had a comprehensive report from Ronald Conway – “and I have also spoken at length about him to Fr Pickering who is an old friend and confident of his [Ryan’s].” Seal supported a suggestion by Pickering that Ryan should have at least a year’s “spiritual formation” in a religious community overseas.

The American solution, 1977

The Melbourne seminary happened to know a Father John Harvey in the U.S. who specialized in “ministry to homosexuals”. Harvey (who was located at De Sales Hall school of theology in Hyattsville, Maryland, USA) later founded a Catholic group, called "Courage", for ministering to homosexuals.

In January 1977, Fr Harvey was asked where Paul David Ryan could undergo “spiritual formation” in the United States. The Ballarat diocese was keen to place Ryan in the U.S. quickly because Ballarat usually made its parish appointments at this time (January) and some awkward questions could be asked if Ryan was not assigned to a parish or to further study.

Father Harvey suggested that Ryan could stay at a certain Catholic “spiritual center” in the state of Maryland. Harvey's letter suggested that, as well as “spiritual formation”, Ryan should do “some form of work or study while here.” (This idea about Ryan working in the U.S. would eventually result in more sexual abuse – against U.S. victims.)

Fr Harvey requested details from Australia about Ryan’s kind of sexual activity. Did it involve adults or minors? The Melbourne seminary replied to Harvey (on 19 February 1977), stating that the sexual behaviour of Ryan and his fellow seminarians had included “mutual masturbation … but it seems certain that more serious acts occurred not infrequently”. The letter said that Ryan was sexually active “even on the night of his ordination.”

The Melbourne seminary’s letter added: “As to how long homosexual acts have been occurring, I do not know. A close friend of Paul’s, Fr Ron Pickering, told me that some seven years ago he met Paul in Adelaide and the company he was mixing with at that time was definitely questionable . . . I know that during his stay at Ballarat incidents occurred.” [But the letter did not mention that the Ryan incidents in Ballarat included offences against a teenager – Mrs M’s son Sid.]

Ryan went to the U.S. in February 1977 for 15 months (trip no. 1). When he returned to Australia in June 1978, the Ballarat Diocese considered appointing him to one of its parishes but a senior priest pointed out that Mrs M (the above-mentioned mother of Ryan’s victim “Sid” in 1975-6) might protest, thereby creating a public scandal for the church.

Ryan remained in Victoria, for the next 12 months and spent much of this time at Fr Ronald Pickering’s new parish -- St James's parish in Gardenvale, Melbourne. Ryan used to bring boys to the Gardenvale parish house -- and so did Pickering.

Ryan continued to visit the Melbourne seminary for several years, even in the 1980s, and acted as a mentor to younger seminarians. Through Pickering, he came into contact with prominent clerics – and this networking continued into the 1980s.

Offences in the U.S., 1979

From June 1979 to April 1980, Paul Ryan was again in the U.S. (trip no. 2) and did some theological studies there.

During these U.S. study trips, Ryan lived and ministered in parishes. One was the Star of the Sea parish in the city of Virginia Beach (Diocese of Richmond) in the state of Virginia. His role there included work as a counsellor with a local Catholic school, the Star of the Sea school. This was a primary (or “grade”) school, going up to Year 8. While he was still in this parish, it was discovered that Father Ryan was sexually abusing boys at the school in 1979.

As background for the September 2006 court case, Australian police obtained information from several ex-students of this school.

One boy (“B”) was in 7th and 8th Grade, aged 14, at the Star of the Sea Grade School when Ryan was there. B stated that Ryan plied him with alcohol and marijuana and took the boy to bed, where he sexually abused him.

Two other boys (“M” and “R”) stated that Ryan held “counselling” and “religious instruction” sessions with the two boys (when they were aged 14 to 15) and sexually abused them.

Victim “B” wrote in a letter to his local diocese in 1995: “Although the general population of the church [at Star of the Sea parish] was shielded from knowing the specific details for Fr Ryan’s removal, it was more or less common knowledge among certain known victims and their families.”

Ryan's Australian superiors exchanged letters with his U.S. supervisors throughout 1977-1980 and, presumably, his offences in the U.S. were reported back to Australia. (If not, why not?)

“Sex education” classes, 1980-5

In April 1980, Paul David Ryan returned to Australia, and, despite his record, the Ballarat Diocese appointed him as an assistant priest in St Joseph’s parish in Warrnambool, a substantial city on Victoria’s south-western coast. This included acting as a chaplain for Warrnambool Christian Brothers College and St Anne’s College (these two schools later merged as Emmanuel College). Ryan conducted “sex education” classes and took Confession from students. Hearing these Confessions enabled Ryan to identify boys to whom he would give special attention.

According to the prosecution documents, one such student, “Daryl” (then aged 17) divulged to Ryan in Confession that he felt he was attracted to males. Within a month of this, Daryl’s parents went away for a weekend and arranged for Father Ryan to mind Daryl and his younger brother at their home. On the first night, Ryan told Daryl to take a bath before he went to bed. Daryl told police (in 2006) that Ryan got into the bath with him and handled him indecently.

In 1985, after five years in the Warrnambool parish, Ryan applied for leave from the Ballarat Diocese to do a “Doctorate in Ministry” course in at the United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, USA. The diocese granted this leave and Ryan left for the U.S. (trip no. 3). Ryan told the Ballarat Diocese that he hoped to find a parish position while in the USA. During this trip, Ryan's address was: Church of the Holy Angels, 218 K Street, Dayton, Ohio.

In January 1986, Bishop Mulkearns appointed Ryan as an assistant priest at St Thomas’s parish in Terang, in south-western Victoria, under Monsignor Leo Fiscalini. Ryan then returned to Australia from Ohio to take up this post. A Terang man (“Paddy”) has told Victoria Police that, at age 16-17, he attended a youth group for which Father Ryan was the convenor. He said that Father Ryan gave him alcohol at the parish house and on several occasions performed sexual antics in front of him, such as walking around naked, with an erection, and masturbating in front of him.

In April 1988, Ryan went to the U.S. for a few months (trip no. 4) to complete his “doctorate in ministry”. He then returned to the Terang parish.

Promoted, 1989

Despite Ryan’s record, Bishop Mulkearns appointed Ryan to the rank of Parish Priest (i.e., in charge) at St Joseph’s parish, Penshurst, as from 14 January 1989. The Penshurst parish was a small rural one but this was a promotion to a higher status (previously, at Warrnambool, he had been merely an ASSISTANT priest). At Warrnambool and Terang, he had been under the supervision of other priests but at Penshurst he was on his own – unsupervised. The Penshurst parishioners were ignorant about Ryan’s past.

At Penshurst (according to the September 2006 prosecution file), Ryan used to coax one or other of the altar boys to the parish house to watch sexy videos and for an overnight stay.

One altar boy, “Drew”, told police in 2006 that he had several sleepovers at Ryan’s parish house in 1989-1990, aged 16. He said Ryan walked around the house naked (with an erection), made the boy take a bath with Ryan, took the boy to bed and groped the boy while the priest masturbated himself. Drew tried to evade Ryan’s unwelcome assaults. The prosecution’s summary of charges states that Drew “was in fear, out of respect for Father Ryan, as he was the parish priest and someone whom all the community looked up to.”

In a very similar manner, Ryan assaulted another Penshurst altar boy, “Anton”, aged 13-14, during sleepovers in 1990. When Ryan’s attacks on Anton became increasingly forceful and invasive, Anton escaped and ran home. Not wishing to tell his mother the full extent of the attacks, Anton merely told her that Father Ryan had wanted to have a bath with him. Several days later, the mother went to the bishop’s office in Ballarat and expressed her concern about Ryan.

In early 1991, Mulkearns decided to move Ryan from Penshurst but delayed the move until Easter time (a time when other changes are often made) so that this move would not seem extraordinary.

Despite the Penshurst complaint concerning Anton, the Ballarat Diocese then assigned Ryan as a relieving priest at the Immaculate Conception parish in Ararat, western Victoria. Again, Ryan proceeded to target boys at this parish. One witness, “Sam”, told police in 2006 that he went to Ryan’s parish house after being kicked out of home. Father Ryan told him that he could stay at the Presbytery for the night but that he would have to stay in Ryan’s bed.

Another boy who was invited to Ryan’s parish house at Ararat was Peter. Eventually, Peter died by suicide and his story is told towards the end of this article.

Overseas again, 1991

Early in 1991, Ryan's superiors and colleagues were wondering what to do with him. Someone in authority suggested sending Ryan “to work somewhere on the African mission for a while” but Fr Ron Pickering asserted that the Africa idea was unsuitable for Ryan, who really needed “a period of leave, say a year” to recuperate “spiritually”. [It is not clear what Pickering meant by “spiritually”.]

Later in 1991, Ryan went to the U.S. (trip no. 5), where he received some “advice” from a certain priest, and he then did a retreat in Rome with another priest. [But three years later, on 3 February 1994, while Ryan was being interviewed by the sexual-abuse committee of the Ballarat Diocese, Ryan had difficulty remembering the name of either of these two priests.]

In September 1991, while Ryan was overseas, Bishop Mulkearns received a complaint from a mother about Ryan sexually abusing her son [the above-mentioned matter of “Daryl”] at Warrnambool Christian Brothers College in the early 1980s. Daryl (aged 25 in 1991) was himself in trouble with the police in 1991 and was about to face charges in a Melbourne court for sexually assaulting a boy. Daryl was telling police that, at school, he himself had been sexually abused by Father Paul David Ryan. Bishop Mulkearns was concerned that Daryl's accusation against Ryan might cause scandal for the church.

Another parish, 1992

In December 1991, Paul Ryan returned to Victoria and stayed at Fr Ron Pickering's parish house in Gardenvale, Melbourne. Bishop Mulkearns appointed Ryan to an ongoing position at the Ararat parish as an assistant priest (instead of merely being a relieving priest) as from 18 January 1992. This was despite the fact that Ryan had not cleared his name regarding the various sex-abuse allegations, including the new allegation by “Daryl”.

Ryan moved into the Ararat parish house (under the supervision of the resident parish priest) but, immediately, his Ararat career was scuttled when the secret of his sexual abuse of “Daryl” started to leak out. In early January 1992, Daryl appeared in court charged with sexual assault of a boy and was jailed. Daryl’s barrister told the court, in defence of Daryl, that Daryl himself had been abused by a priest. Newspaper coverage of Daryl’s trial did not name the abusive priest but Ryan's superiors and fellow-priests knew that it was him.

In jail, Daryl was telling everybody that he had been sexually abused by Fr Paul David Ryan. It seemed possible that, in the future, Daryl might well lay criminal charges against Ryan. Bishop Mulkearns was concerned that it would be hard for Ryan to defend himself because Ryan sexually abused Daryl after hearing the boy’s Confession about same-sex leanings -- and the Catholic Church has always claimed that a priest was not supposed to reveal (or take advantage of) anything that he learns from a penitent during Confession.

Ryan continued living in the Ararat parish house as a guest, instead of having an official appointment there. He also continued making visits to Fr Ron Pickering’s parish at Gardenvale, Melbourne.

Early in 1992, Ryan began having “counselling” with a Ballarat priest-psychologist, Father Daniel Torpy. Following the publicity about the Daryl court case, Ryan realised that it would be impossible for him to minister in the Ballarat diocese. He decided that it would be "best" to work in the U.S., with which he had some familiarity.

Therefore, in late January 1992, the Ballarat Diocese contacted a religious order, called the Servants of the Paraclete, which runs a refuge in Jemez Springs, New Mexico, USA, for sexually abusive priests. Ballarat asked if Ryan could visit this refuge to discuss his options for “exercising his ministry” in the USA. It is unclear whether anything eventuated from this application. (Another sexually-abusive Ballarat Diocese priest, Fr Gerald Ridsdale, had already spent time at this refuge.)

More travels, 1993

Later, the Ballarat Diocese applied to admit Ryan to the St Luke Institute, Maryland USA (another refuge for priests with sexual problems). Ryan arrived at this institute in early 1993 (trip no. 6) and underwent an evaluation process but was unable to gain admission to the institute’s program. The St Luke Institute did a medical examination of him and advised him that he had an alcohol problem and that he should cut down his drinking. However, Ryan said he kept on with his normal drinking pattern.

Leaving the St Luke Institute, Ryan returned to Australia but did not contact Bishop Mulkearns. During 1993, he spent time in Western Australia, where his mother and brother were living.

Returning to Victoria from Western Australia, Ryan still did not contact Bishop Mulkearns but evidently stayed as a guest in the home of a Warrnambool family.

Meanwhile, Ryan's "spiritual advisor", Fr Ronald Pickering, was in trouble. Early in 1993 a Melbourne man alleged that, as a teenager in the 1960s, he had been sexually abused by Pickering. After learning about this complaint, Pickering suddenly left his Melbourne parish in May 1993 and went to England. Later in 1993 Paul David Ryan made a trip to England (without informing Bishop Mulkearns) to spend some time with Pickering, who was living near Margate.

In the 1994 Directory of Australian Catholic Clergy (and also in the 1995 edition), Father Paul David Ryan was still listed as a priest of the Ballarat Diocese ("on leave from the diocese”). On 3 February 1994, while Ryan was “house-sitting a friend’s house in Warrnambool”, he was called before the Ballarat Diocese Special Issues Committee (an in-house committee, responsible for dealing with complaints about clergy sex-abuse in the diocese). The committee questioned Ryan about the matter of “Daryl” at Warrnambool and also about Ryan’s plans for the future.

On 19 July 1994, the Ballarat Diocese vicar-general (chief administrator), Fr Brian Finnigan (who later became an auxiliary bishop in Brisbane), signed an “Employment Separation Certificate” on behalf of Ryan, making it possible for him to apply for Australian Government social security benefits. The certificate stated that Ryan’s church employment began on 28 May 1976 (his ordination) and ended on 31 December 1993. In ticking boxes to give the reason for the termination, the diocese ticked “unsuitability for this type of work”. It did not tick “unsatisfactory work performance”. Nor did it tick "misconduct".

[This Employment Separation Certificate is significant -- and not just for the Ryan case. The Catholic Church usually claims that its priests are not employees but self-employed freelancers. Thus, the church seeks to limit its legal liability when victims claim damages from the a diocese for its negligence in inflicting an abusive priest on to vulnerable parishioners. Ryan's Employment Separation Certificate describes Ryan as an "employee" and it describes the Ballarat Diocese as his employer. This document will be useful for any victim claiming compensation from the Ballarat diocese.]

Counselling for U.S. victims, 1995

Meanwhile, during the 1980s and '90s, Paul Ryan's victims at Virginia Beach (in the U.S. Diocese of Richmond) were still needing psychological counselling to try to repair the damage done to their lives by Ryan in 1979. In 1995, the U.S. victims sought payment from the Catholic Church for the cost of counselling. A Virginia Beach lawyer, J. Brian Donnelly, acted for these victims.

The Richmond Diocese insisted that these expenses should be paid by the Ballarat Diocese, because Rev. Paul D. Ryan had come to the United States with the permission of the Ballarat diocese.

The Ballarat Diocese accepted responsibility and made one modest lump-sum payment to each of the Virginia Beach victims. These payments were not compensation but merely a contribution towards the victims' on-going counselling expenses. By mid-2006, one Virginia Beach victim alone had already spent three times as much on psychiatrists' fees as the amount that he received from the Ballarat Diocese.

When the Ballarat diocese made these payments, it required the U.S. victims to sign a Deed of Release, certifying that the Ballarat Diocese had no further liability. However, the church concealed the fact that Ryan had also committed offences in Australia. The Virginia Beach victims were led to believe that they were Ryan's only victims. Therefore, these Deeds of Release were based on deception, which may undermine their validity.

More victims

How many other children did Reverend Paul D. Ryan target in the U.S.? According to U.S. documents, Virginia Beach was not the only parish in which Ryan lived while in the U.S. Father Paul T. Gaughan, who supervised Ryan at the Virginia Beach parish in 1979-80, has stated that Ryan was also involved in a parish in Dayton, Ohio, where he might have committed further offences. In a statement to U.S. church authorities, dated 26 September 1995, Father Paul Gaughan said: “Paul spent some time on more than one occasion in Ohio under the pretext of study. He was living in a parish. I am afraid that the same problem might very well have happened there but I guess you might as well let the dead dog lie.”

It is possible that the parish in Dayton, Ohio, was the Church of the Holy Angels.

At last, Ryan’s name was deleted from the 1996 edition of the Directory of Australian Catholic Clergy.

In early 1996, Ryan asked the Ballarat Diocese for financial help for a course of studies. The diocese agreed to continue quarterly payments to Ryan until the end of 1996 to help him re-skill himself in another field.

In 1997, Ryan was in the USA (U.S. trip no. 7).

A suicidal victim

On 22 May 1997, the Catholic Church’s newly-formed Professional Standards Resource Group for Victoria (also called "Towards Healing") received a complaint from Mrs Helen Watson who had discovered that her son (Peter) was abused (and badly damaged) by Father Paul David Ryan at Ararat in the early 1990s. Mrs Watson told the diocese that, by 1997, Peter had made at least two attempts to take his own life, the last time being when he tried to shoot himself. Mrs Watson said that Peter “is in this condition because he was abused by Paul David Ryan when he was relieving at Ararat for a few months for Father Brendan Davey."

At the end of May 1997, Ronald Mulkearns took early retirement from the position of Bishop of Ballarat and moved to a seaside house at Aireys Inlet, Victoria. In an open letter to fellow priests and parishioners on 30 May, he alluded to the pressures of the criminal investigations into sexual abuse by priests and religious brothers in the Ballarat diocese. He said: “My own emotional energy has been sapped by the pressures of leadership over 26 years and especially the draining effect of endeavouring to cope with the effects of the tragic events which have come to light in recent years” (Herald Sun, Melbourne, 31 May 1997).

Mulkearns was referring mainly to the scandal of Father Gerald Ridsdale, but also various other priests and religious Brothers in the Diocese of Ballarat.

Ryan moved to far north Queensland and worked for several years as a government-funded mental health officer for Aboriginal communities. In Queensland, he called himself “Dr” Paul-David Ryan, on account of his American “Doctorate in Ministry” degree. He also hyphenated his forenames – as Paul-David Ryan.

This priest is brought to justice

In 2003, yet another woman was telling the church’s Professional Standards Resource Group how Ryan’s sexual abuse had damaged her son. Understandably, her son had kept silent about the abuse for more than a decade – and this secrecy disrupted his personal development. This mother was wondering whether other boys had also been damaged by Ryan. However, this mother says that a representative of the PSRG told her, “on several occasions”, that “this particular priest's name [Ryan] had never been reported, or come up, before.”

Eventually, in late 2005, this woman’s son was ready to have a chat with the Victoria Police sexual offences and child abuse (SOCA) unit at Warrnambool, where he lodged a formal written statement about Ryan. The Warrnambool Criminal Investigation Unit then began making inquiries in the parishes where Ryan had ministered. Broken Rites gave the detectives several lines of inquiry.

The detectives learned that the Ballarat Diocese had been receiving complaints about Ryan since his ordination in 1976 and, furthermore, that the Catholic Church's Professional Standards Resource Group had indeed received a complaint about Ryan in 1997 (from Mrs Watson, about her suicidal son Peter).

The detectives soon located various victims of Ryan. In April 2006, aged 57, Ryan was arrested at his unit in Cairns, Queensland, and was charged with Victorian incidents of indecent assault. While on bail, awaiting a court hearing, he taught English in Cairns. Extradited to Victoria, he appeared at Warrnambool Magistrates Court on 8 September 2006.

Jailed in 2006

For procedural reasons, the Victorian state prosecutors confined the charges in 2006 to two Penshurst victims. The magistrate was not required to take into account that Ryan had abused other teenage boys and that he had been exposed as a child-abuser long before he went to Penshurst. Nor did the magistrate have to consider that after resigning as the parish priest at Penshurst, Ryan was moved to the Ararat parish and assaulted another boy (Peter) who later committed suicide. The matter of Peter was never prosecuted.

Similarly, the earlier incidents in the U.S. were not relevant to the Victorian court. The U.S. incidents were dealt with as civil matters, resulting in the Catholic Church making payments towards the victims' counselling expenses.

Referring to the two Penshurst victims, Magistrate Michael Stone said Ryan’s behaviour had been "classic grooming of young people for sexual pleasure". He told Ryan: "You were in a position of trust. You grossly abused that trust.

Mr Stone sentenced Ryan to 18 months jail, with possible release on parole after 12 months. He said Ryan would be a registered sex offender for the next 15 years.

Ryan was escorted from the court in custody – on his way to prison.

The court hearing was finished by 11.00am. Because Ryan had pleaded guilty, the victims were not required to give evidence in court. The prosecution merely had to submit a file of documentation to the magistrate.

Previously, on behalf of victims, Broken Rites had alerted all media outlets about the court hearing. As a result, the west Victorian TV network (WIN TV) had a camera crew at the court. Footage of Ryan (arriving at the court) was shown in that evening’s news bulletin. The conviction was reported in newspapers in Melbourne, Warrnambool and Ballarat. Thus, the Ryan case – and the church’s cover-up of sexual abuse – became a topic of conversation throughout Victoria. The cover-up was over.

One victim's story

One victim, Drew, was in court as an observer, together with his family. After the court hearing, Drew (now 32) said that, looking back, he had been an easy target for Ryan at the age of 15-16, being the eldest of a large family and living a fairly isolated existence on a farm.

Drew said: “His [Ryan’s] whole idea was that my interests were his common interests. I was happy, innocent, fresh. When everyone was going out to parties at 16 and 17, I was watching a video and drinking cola. That was my idea of having a good time.”

Drew’s mother told Broken Rites: “Ryan befriended our family, he made out that he shared common interests with my husband such as gardening, renovation etc. He certainly worked on gaining our trust, now that we look back. He shared many meals with us.

“At that time, another of our children had an adverse medical diagnosis. Fr Ryan was so supportive, as it was a difficult time for us. All the time, it was just part of his disgusting plan.

“My husband and I have been so sick with guilt for ever trusting Ryan. However, we have moved on from this emotion, now we are very angry and bitter towards the Catholic Church. All the pain and suffering endured by Ryan's victims and their families could have been prevented if the Catholic hierarchy had removed Ryan’s priestly status.

“My son is a wonderful man. He endured so much in those 15 years of silence. Our family is so open and up front, one would never imagine any one of them to be so afraid to speak out. I guess this is the case with most of the victims.

“We are appalled by what has unfolded about Paul David Ryan. We are also appalled by the covering up, deceit and lack of care for families in the church community who trusted this person with their sons.”

“The last 3 years have been an emotional roller coaster for our family, trying to come to terms with the devastating results of Ryan's abuse. Learning that the Catholic Church had full knowledge of his behaviour over the years and kept him circulating around devastates us beyond belief. “

“My son is a beautiful person There have been many hurdles in his personal life, but these hurdles that would have been non-existent if the Catholic Church had done the right thing by the community.”

The victim who ended up dying by suicide

Also present in the Warrnambool Court hearing was Mrs Helen Watson, whose son Peter died by suicide in 1999 after his life had been damaged by Paul-David Ryan’s sexual abuse at Ararat. After the court case, Mrs Watson spoke to Broken Rites, telling the story of her son.

About 1991, Peter (then aged 15-16) was a student at Marian College, a Catholic secondary school (for Years 7 to 12) in Ararat – situated next door to Father Paul David Ryan’s parish house. Until then, Peter had been a normal boy with a quick wit and a love of sport.

One day, Ryan (smelling of alcohol) drove Peter home to the family’s farm after the boy had stayed overnight at the parish house. On arriving home, Peter immediately started acting in a disturbed manner and he “was never the same after that."

Peter did not tell his parents about Ryan's sexual abuse, and his parents were puzzled why Peter's personality suddenly changed. He became a disturbed teenager, with low self-esteem. He got into drugs and he abandoned sports. By age 18, he was leading a transient life, was unable to work and tried several times to kill himself.

In his late teens, a psychological report on Peter said he spoke about having been sexually abused "by a priest" (un-named). It was only at about age 20 that Mrs Watson realised that the abuser was Paul David Ryan. By then, Peter's life had been badly damaged. Like most church victims, Peter had remained silent about the priestly abuse because he thought it would upset his parents to know about the priest. Furthermore, like many church victims, he felt guilty himself for what the priest had done to him.

In 1997, when Peter was 22, Mrs Watson contacted the Catholic Church's newly-established Professional Standards Resource Group for Victoria (the "Towards Healing" process) and told them how Father Paul David Ryan had damaged her son's life. A member of the resource group interviewed Mrs Watson but all he did was to offer to arrange "counselling" for herself. Mrs Watson believes that it was the church hierarchy, not she, who needed "counselling".

A lonely death

Meanwhile, Peter was deteriorating. By age 24, he was in a psychiatric unit but in March 1999 he went missing and his mother never saw him alive again.

Six years later, police ascertained that Peter had taken his own life. It turned out that, in October 1999, a young man had been found hanged in a bathing box on a Melbourne beach but this body could not be identified at the time, so it was buried in a pauper’s grave. In late 2005 a check of fingerprints revealed that this body was Mrs Watson's son Peter.

Peter’s body was exhumed, so his mother could give him a proper funeral, which was held in December 2005.

In February 2006, two months after Peter's re-burial, Mrs Watson went to see the Bishop of Ballarat, Bishop Peter Connors (who had succeeded Mulkearns as bishop in 1997). She wanted to tell the church what it had done to her son. At that time, Mrs Watson did not know that the police were investigating Ryan. But the diocese knew -- and it realized that the Ryan cover-up was about to become public. Mrs Watson says Bishop Connors offered to arrange "counselling" for her. She says: "The church still does not get it."

Later, Mrs Watson received a letter from Bishop Connors, dated 20 March 2006, apologising on behalf of the Ballarat diocese for the harm done by Father Paul David Ryan.

But Mrs Watson can neither forgive nor forget. The church, she says, knew that Ryan was a danger when it ordained him in 1976.

Mrs Watson said she believed that her son was one of many unknown victims of sexual abuse by the clergy.

She said: "Hopefully, Peter's tragedy will encourage other victims of sexual abuse to find the courage to come forward and speak up against pedophile priests and cover-ups by the Catholic Church."

Two families meet

At the Warrnambool court hearing, Mrs Helen Watson met the family of one of the Penshurst victims (“Drew”) for the first time.

"It was overwhelming. I take my hat off to the whole family" Ms Watson said. "It was a hugely emotional experience. I realise now that victims are not alone. Here is a young lad who took a huge risk living in a small country community."

Ms Watson said she had drawn a lot of strength from Drew’s family.

"I'm in awe of how they handled it. Hopefully other people can come forward," she said. "It means there is some gratification in Peter's life, that people don't get away scot- free."

Final words from a grieving mother

At the courthouse, Mrs Watson hoped to make a statement to Paul David Ryan as he was being escorted to jail but this was not possible. Mrs Watson later showed Broken Rites a copy of what she wanted to tell Ryan:

“I do not want you to speak to me, as nothing you say will right the wrong you have done to my son Peter; nothing could ease the pain that I have endured; nothing could bring my son back to life; and, last but not least, nothing you say could change my opinion of you.

“You are an evil predator who used your position of power and trust in the Catholic Church to force young males into submission with your atrocious acts.

“You are a disgrace to yourself, you profession and your family, especially your mother.

“The one decent thing you can do now is to confess your crimes of sexual abuse against Peter to the authorities and serve the appropriate sentence. . .”

Mrs Watson later posted this statement to Ryan in prison.

[Broken Rites protects the privacy of victims — that is why we usually change the names of victims in the reports of our cases on this website. However, Mrs Helen Watson has already gone public about the church's abuse of her son Peter, and therefore Broken Rites is publishing Mrs Watson's name.]

Ryan jailed again in 2019

On 19 March 2019, Paul David Ryan appeared again in the Melbourne County Court, following an investigation conducted by the Sano Taskforce, which is a part of the sex-crimes investigation unit of the Victoria Police in Spencer Street, Docklands, Melbourne.

Ryan pleaded guilty regarding three additional victims: the indecent assault of a child under the age of 16 in Warrnambool in 1981; the oral sexual penetration of a teenager at a school camp in 1985; and an indecent act with a child under the age of 16 in Ararat in 1992.

At a pre-sentence-hearing on 19 July 2019, the Warrnambool victim submitted a victim-impact statement telling the judge how Ryan's crimes have affected this victim's life.

The victim said he was raised a Catholic and trusted members of the clergy, but that trust was abused by Ryan.

The victim said that, when he considered joining the priesthood, he told Bishop Ronald Mulkearns about being abused by Ryan but evidenly (the victim said) the bishop did nothing about it.

The victim stated: "It has been well documented that a boy from Ararat (a Ryan abuse victim) killed himself after this. If I had gone to the police, instead of Bishop Mulkearns, that boy may still be alive. I apologise to him and to his family. I let you down and I will carry that anguish forever."

The judge remanded Ryan in custody to await the sentencing.

On 29 July 2019, the judge sentenced Ryan to 26 months jail. With time already served, Ryan would be eligible for release after 13 months.

FOOTNOTE: Broken Rites has also researched Father Ronald Pickering who helped to recruit Paul David Ryan to the priesthood. Pickering's victims, also, became suicidal. To see a Broken Rites article about Pickering, click HERE.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 28 July 2019

Broken Rites has researched the cover-up of one of Australia's most notorious Catholic priests, Father John Sidney Denham. Father Denham's superiors and colleagues knew about his child-sex crimes but this information was concealed from the police. Finally, some of his victims gradually began to contact the police. As a result, Denham has been convicted in court several times since 2000, He has been in jail since 2008, and his jail time has been increased as more of his victims gradually contacted the police. On 30 May 2019, Denham (aged 76) was sentenced to additional jail time for his 59th victim.

The case of Victim #59 is reported towards the end of this article but, first, we start with our research about Denham's background.

Some background

Broken Rites began hearing about Father John Denham in the late 1990s when we were contacted by one of his victims ("Tim") and later by other victims. Therefore, Broken Rites began researching Denham in church publications. We ascertained that Denham (born on 8 September 1942) was recruited in the 1960s as a trainee priest for the Newcastle-Maitland Diocese, north of Sydney. As a trainee and later as a priest, he officially belonged to this diocese, and it is usual for diocesan priests to spend their whole career in one diocese. (The Catholic Church in the state of New South Wales is divided into eleven dioceses.)

As a trainee priest, Denham was a danger to children from Day One. According to statements that were eventually made in court, some of Denham's child-sex crimes were committed during his period of training.

Broken Rites searched through the annual printed editions of the Australian Catholic Directory to trace Denham's movements. For example, we ascertained that, in the final stage of his training, he was a deacon (an assistant to other priests) in the Mayfield parish in 1972. After being ordained, he moved to the Singleton parish (St Patrick's) in 1973.

According to Denham's victims, his superiors knew in the 1970s about the offences he was committing against children but this information did not reach the police. The church allowed Denham to continue as a priest and merely transferred him to new districts, thereby putting more children at risk.

The school building with bedrooms for six priests

Broken Rites ascertained that in 1973 Father Denham joined the staff of St Pius X College (also known as St Pius X Catholic High School) at Adamstown, Newcastle. This was then a boys-only school. Many of the victims in the Denham court charges in 2009 were students at this school.

In the 1979 Directory of Australian Catholic Clergy, six priests (including Father Denham) were listed as teaching — and living — on this school's premises.

Yes, not just one priest . . . but SIX of them. A bedroom for even just one priest should have raised some eyebrows.

The priests had bedrooms in the same building as the classrooms, as we will explain later in this article.

The story of Tim

At St Pius X Catholic High School, Father Denham became well known for his habit of touching boys indecently. Broken Rites has interviewed one such pupil — "Tim" (not his real name) — who was at this school in 1978-9. By chance, in October 1979, Tim's mother overheard 14-year-old Tim telling another boy that it was "not safe to be with Father Denham".

After quizzing Tim, the mother went to see the school administration, who promised to "deal with" Denham. However, Denham continued working at the school that year. Therefore, Tim's mother decided to remove her son from the school after the end of 1979. In 1980 Tim transferred to a government high school, which he found to be educationally excellent. Meanwhile, the church culture prevented Denham's offences from being reported to the police.

Denham in parishes in the 1980s

In 1980, following the 1979 complaint by Tim's mother, the diocese transferred Denham away from St Pius X Catholic High School to work as an assistant priest in parishes. First, he worked at the Charlestown parish (in the Newcastle urban area). In 1981 he was transferred to a parish ("Our Lady of the Rosary") in Taree (a coastal town, north of Newcastle), where he stayed for four years.

In these parishes, Denham worked with altar boys as well as school boys. The church authorities kept quiet about Denham's record at St Pius Catholic High School. Thus, the church was putting more children in danger.

During this parish work, he committed more offences and again, the church authorities (as usual) concealed these crimes from the police. Eventually, at least one Denham victim from this period reported Denham's crimes to the police (instead of merely to the church authorities). Thus, police were accumulating information about Denham, and some of Denham's offences from this period were were included in his court charges in 2009.

Denham at a Sydney school

In 1986, when Denham's crimes were still being hidden by the church, the Maitland-Newcastle diocese "solved" its Denham problem by arranging to transfer him to work as a "chaplain" at Waverley College (a Christian Brothers secondary school), in Waverley, in Sydney's east. Research by Broken Rites indicates that, throughout the next seven years, "Reverend John Denham" continued to be listed in the annual Australian Catholic directories as belonging to the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, although working at Waverley College.Thus, the church authorities were putting more children at risk.

One of Denham's victims at Waverley College eventually managed to get Denham convicted for abusing this boy at Waverley College.

Denham at a resource centre

In 1994 Denham was accepted for a role at the Chevalier Resource Centre, a theological library located in the grounds of the Sacred Heart Monastery (owned by a religious order, the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart) in the eastern Sydney suburb of Kensington. This role involved working on church archives.

Broken Rites found that, from 1995 onwards, after he joined the Chevalier Resource Centre, Denham was still listed in the annual Australian Catholic directories as "ReverendJohn Denham, on leave from the Maitland-Newcastle diocese". His forwarding address was care of the Maitland-Newcastle diocesan office.

Convicted in 2000

In 1997, "Tim" (the above-mentioned victim who had been a pupil St Pius X Catholic High School 18 years earlier) phoned Broken Rites. Tim (then aged 32) was now a father himself, and he was keen to protect all children from pedophiles.

After speaking with Broken Rites, Tim contacted an appropriate police unit, where he made a signed statement. Tim's complaint was investigated by a senior Newcastle detective, Mark Dixon.

Denham was charged regarding Tim's complaint and underwent committal proceedings in a magistrate's court in 1999. The magistrate ordered Denham to stand trial before a judge in the New South Wales District Court. Denham's solicitor was prominent Sydney lawyer John Marsden.

Eventually, in the District Court at Sydney's Downing Centre in 2000, a jury convicted Father Denham on two incidents of indecent assault against Tim (case number 99111180). Denham, then aged in his late fifties, was given a two-years jail sentence, which was suspended.

Still "reverend" after his conviction

Unfortunately, there was no media coverage of Denham's 2000 conviction. Therefore, the New South Wales Catholic community in general was not aware of the conviction.

A year later, despite this conviction, "Reverend John Denham" was still listed as a priest in the 2001 edition of the Directory of Australian Catholic Clergy. The directory said he was a priest "on leave from the Maitland diocese", with a Post Office box at Oatley in Sydney's south, but it did not say what his Sydney activities were.

Because of the lack of media exposure, it was possible for the church authorities to use Father Denham as a relieving priest in parishes at weekends - and no "alarm bells" would ring to warn parents and children about Denham's past.

In 2005, when Denham was aged about 62, Broken Rites ascertained that he was then working on week-days in the Sydney library of a religious order of priests. But what was he doing at weekends, when there was often a need for a relieving priest to do church services?

Despite the lack of media coverage, Broken Rites still received occasional phone calls or emails from former students or parishioners inquiring about Denham.

In November 2005, Tim (the victim from St Pius X Catholic High School) phoned Broken Rites again. He said he had learned that Denham was currently in Sydney's "supply" pool of priests who were available to do casual work as a relieving priest at weekends. Tim contacted the church's Professional Standards office in Sydney and its counterpart in Newcastle, and both these offices confirmed that Denham was working in the "supply pool". Tim told Broken Rites: "This is an alarming situation."

Broken Rites article

In early 2006 Broken Rites published an article on its website about Denham's 2000 conviction and about the school with bedrooms for six priests. A journalist from the Newcastle Herald, Joanne McCarthy, noticed the Broken Rites article and did some more research. On 10 June 2006 the Newcastle Herald published an article (by Joanne McCarthy) about Denham, thus becoming the first newspaper to mention his 2000 conviction. The Newcastle Herald article mentioned Broken Rites.

After the Newcastle Herald article, Tim told Broken Rites: "Maybe, after this exposure, through Broken Rites and the Newcastle Herald, the church will find it harder to use Denham as a relieving priest. They have been getting away with this for too long."

The NewcastleHerald article prompted some of Denham's victims to read about him on the Broken Rites website and/or to contact the police. Joanne McCarthy continued researching Denham (and other cases of church-cover-up) and she began receiving information from her readers, which resulted in further Newcastle Herald articles.

In 2006 another informant spoke to Broken Rites about Denham's behaviour at the Taree parish in the mid-1980s, alleging that Denham used to show "sexy" videos and literature to young altar boys in the Taree presbytery.

Another police investigation

Meanwhile, in 2005, another victim of Denham contacted the police. A Newcastle detective, who did not know about Denham's 2000 conviction, checked the archives but could not find any conviction involving Denham.

The detective began contacting some former students from the St Pius X Catholic High School rolls and he happened to phone "Tim". When Tim told him about the 2000 conviction, the detective was surprised but he eventually unearthed it in the archives. Police believe that someone had filed the record of the 2000 conviction where it would be difficult to find.

In 2008, police started another investigation of Denham and gathered written statements from victims. Later that year, he was charged with multiple offences. He pleaded guilty in court in July 2009.

More about the school with six bedrooms

Several former students of St Pius X Catholic High School contacted Broken Rites in 2006, telling us more about the layout of the school in Denham's time.

One former student ("Syd") told Broken Rites: "St Pius X College was fundamentally an old factory that had been converted into a secondary school. Some new buildings had been added.

"The main building was long and narrow, with classrooms down the western side and with a hall, science labs and offices down the eastern side. The northern end was mostly occupied by the priests' living quarters, comprising a series of bedrooms, with shared living areas at the furthest end.

"In other words, the priests' quarters and the classrooms were on the same floor. Hence, when a boy was sent to the priests' quarters, it was as simple as walking from one room to another room. When I was a student there in the 1970s, it was not unusual for a boy to be sent or taken to the priests' living quarters.

"As well as his bedroom in the old building, Denham also had an office in another building. Boys also had occasion to go — or to be sent to — to Denham's office.

"Other members of the clergy must have known that Denham was up to mischief at this school but they turned a blind eye to it and allowed him to continue doing it.

"One of Denham's friends in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese in the 1970s was a younger priest who has since gone on to become one of Australia's most prominent Catholic clerics. This cleric must have known something."

Another ex-pupil of Denham at St Pius X ("Jerry") told Broken Rites in March 2006 that he agreed with Syd's description of the school layout.

Jerry said: "In the main building, you could go from the classrooms area to the priests' living quarters by just going through a door. I never knew this door to be locked.

"A priest might simply say 'come with me' and you would be led through this door."

Jerry added: "Yes, Denham targeted me. I was frightened and disorientated. It's something that you think is only happening to you because of who you are and the trouble you are in. You feel, or are made to feel, that it's your doing and has to be done to avoid big trouble."

However, Jerry says that he has not reported Denham to the police and says he probably will not get around to doing so now because he is pre-occupied with his young family. Jerry said he felt slightly guilty about leaving it to people like Tim to bring Denham to justice.

[Tim, Syd and Jerry do not know each other because they were in different years.]

Jailed in 2010 and 2015

For details of John Denham's court cases (resulting in his jailing in 2010 and 2015), see another Broken Rites article HERE.

In court again in 2018 and 2019

On 11 October 2018, John Sidney Denham (aged 77) was found guilty of four offences against a young boy at Taree NSW in the late 1970s after a judge-alone trial (that is, no jury). The charges included one count of buggery and three counts of indecent assault.

A pre-sentence hearing for Denham's Taree crimes was held in Sydney in February 2019. Denham appeared by video-link from his jail. This pre-sentence hearing received final submissions from the prosecutor and the defence lawyer about the contents of the evidence and about what kind of sentence should be imposed.

The court heard details how Denham planned to sexually abuse the young boy from a very devout Catholic family by asking the child to stay behind after school "under the guise of an initiation process to be a new altar boy". The boy was raped on a later occasion after Denham called the child from the playground, "grabbed him by the arm and dragged him to the presbytery under the pretext the victim had been bad and had to be punished". Denham pushed the boy onto a desk, held him by the neck against the desktop and raped him, despite the boy screaming and begging him to stop because of the pain, the court.

The victim, who was not in court, prepared a victim impact statement that was read by Judge Phillip Mahony.

Sentenced again, May 2019

At a sentence hearing on 30 May 2019, Judge Mahony said Denham "has not recognised the pain and suffering caused to the victim of these offences at all".

Judge Mahony said Denham's sexual assault of the boy involved a level of planning against a vulnerable child where there was a significant age, size and power imbalance. Denham was 40 at the time of the attack and was in charge of a parish.

"The offender had isolated the victim in the playground, grabbed him and forcibly took him to the presbytery, under the pretence that the victim was in trouble," Judge Mahony said.

"It was clear from the victim's evidence that the victim was not consenting and that he was suffering intense pain, which the offender disregarded. It is clear that he suffered an injury to his anus and was bleeding as a result of the assault."

The impact on the victim's life was profound, the judge said. The victim's impact statement described "the real impact upon a happy childhood, occasioned by such a terrifying criminal event which affected every aspect of the victim's life thereafter," Judge Mahony said.

"Particularly relevant was the threats made to the victim that he would be taken away from his family, that he would go to hell, and that his family would be driven out of the church. The latter threat was particularly telling, given that the victim's mother was a devout Catholic.

"The [impact] statement outlines the changes undergone by the victim, his spiral into alcohol and drug abuse as a very young person, and the psychological impact it has had on all of his relationships throughout his adult life."

Judge Mahony sentenced John Sidney Denham to a maximum 13 years jail, with a non-parole period of seven years and six months. But because Denham was already in jail until at least January, 2028, and the crimes against his 59th victim occurred in the same period he committed other offences, Denham will spend at least another 18 months in jail for the latest convictions

With good behavior in jail, his earliest possible release date is July, 2029, with his full sentence not ending until January, 2035.

• Article updated 1 August 2019

A Catholic priest has appeared in court in New South Wales in 2019, facing charges of sex-abuse allegedly committed against multiple children at a New South Wales country boarding school during the 1980s. Police allege that Father Anthony Caruana (now 77) indecently assaulted five boys, aged 12 to 15, who were under his care when he was a dormitory manager, rugby coach and band teacher at Chevalier College, a Catholic high school at Bowral, in the NSW Southern Highlands.

The charges include:

• seven charges of sexual assault (category four) - assault and act of indecency person under 16 ; and
• two charges of gross indecency by male with male under 18 years.

The incidents allegedly occurred between 1982 and 1988.

Detectives (in the Hume Police District) launched Strike Force Caber in July 2018 to investigate reports of sexual and indecent assaults at this boarding school during the 1980s.

The police inquiries led them to arrest Father Caruana at an address in Kensington in Sydney's eastern suburbs on 12 April 2019, and he was granted bail, pending his court appearance.

The case had its first mention in Sydney's Waverley Local Court on 22 May 2019. This was a preliminary procedure, for the case to be officially filed in court, with further proceedings to follow on a later date.

The court's case number is 2019/00114636.

The court list gives the defendant's full name as Anthony William Peter CARUANA. In private life, he is known as Father Tony Caruana.

The next step in Father Caruana's case has been listed for Moss Vale Local Court on 6 August 2019.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 2 August 2019

A Catholic priest (Father Carl Stafford, born in 1939) is listed for proceedings in the Sydney District Court in 2019, charged with child-sex abuse allegedly committed earlier in his career. Bishop Peter A Comensoli (formerly of the Broken Bay diocese, in Sydney's north) stated publicly in 2017: "Originally a Marist Brother, Fr Stafford left this Order [the Marists] and took up a lay teaching position with St Gregory’s College Campbelltown before entering the seminary in 1989. Ordained as a priest for the Diocese of Broken Bay in 1994, Fr Stafford held appointments in Mona Vale, Gosford, Toukley/Lake Munmorah and Kincumber parishes." (According to church sources, Father Carl Stafford is still a priest and he is merely retired from parish appointments.)

An official document in the Marist Brothers head-office archive confirms that "Carl STAFFORD (born 8 July 1939)" was originally a Marist Brother but this document does not indicate what year he left the Marist Order.

On 16 October 2017, following an investigation by detectives, police arrested Carl Stafford who was living in retirement at a town in north-west NSW. The police charged him with child-sex offences allegedly committed some years ago.

Stafford was granted conditional bail pending his court proceedings. On the court schedule, the defendant's full name is given as Carl Edward Stafford. The case had preliminary procedures with a magistrate in the Gosford Local Court in late 2017 and during 2018. Stafford is pleading Not Guilty.

Now the case is scheduled for a trial, with a judge, in the Sydney District Court in 2019. The court's case number for Carl Stafford is 2017/00314987.

FOOTNOTE: After Father Carl Stafford retired from parish work in 2010, the Broken Bay Diocese section in the annual printed edition of the Australian Catholic Directory continued to include "Rev. Carl Stafford" among the Broken Bay Diocese's list of "Retired Clergy".

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 6 August 2019

For three decades until 1995, Father David Joseph Perrett was a Catholic priest in New South Wales. In 2019 (aged 81) he is in a court process, charged with committing sexual crimes against 37 children throughout his priestly career. That is, his alleged 30-year crime spree occurred under the noses of the church authorities. The charges against Perrett include buggery, carnal knowledge of a child under 10, aggravated sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. The prosecutors have stated that some of Perrett's charges are so serious that he could perhaps spend the rest of his life in jail if convicted. Perrett's case came up in for a mention in the NSW District Court in mid-2019 but, claiming health problems, he has obtained an adjournment until later in 2019.

Perrett (born 13 July 1937) has spent his priestly career in the Armidale Catholic diocese. This is the same diocese which remained silent for three decades about the crimes of another priest, Father John Joseph Farrell, who now is serving a long jail sentence).

The Armidale Catholic diocese is one of eleven regional dioceses covering New South Wales. The Armidale diocese (comprising two dozen towns in the north-west of New South Wales) extends up the New England Highway to the Queensland border. The bishop resides in the city of Armidale.

According to statements made in court, Perrett was ordained as a priest in 1961 and spent time in the towns of Walcha and Moree before being transferred to Armidale for 11 years in 1969. He was then appointed to positions in the church in Guyra, Walgett and Boggabri. He is now retired from parish work.

The case against David Perrett has been prepared by detectives in the Criminal Investigation Unit at Armidale Police. The detectives are continuing their inquiries.

Arrested in Queensland

Until 2017, Perrett had been living in retirement (apparently in a Catholic Church convent) in Wallangarra (on the Queensland-NSW border, near Tenterfield). In May 2017, NSW detectives extradited him back to NSW, where he was charged regarding several of the alleged victims. While awaiting his next court appearance, he was required to reside with a relative of his at a house in Armidale and was required to report to police four times a week.

Speaking on behalf of NSW police, Detective Inspector Ann Joy said in a media statement in May 2017: "We would encourage anyone with knowledge of any related incident, whether it is a witness or a complainant, to make contact with police. We will investigate those matters thoroughly and as a matter of priority.”

Locked up in custody

During 2017 and 2018, more members of the public contacted the Armidale Detectives Office about David Perrett.

In Armidale Local Court on 22 August 2018, the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions charged Perrett regarding additional boys and also some girls. So far, this made a total of 30 alleged victims, involving a total of 92 charges. The alleged offences occurred from the 1960s to the 1990s.

[These were not necessarily Perrett's only alleged victims. These were thirty alleged victims who each had a private interview with the detectives. In late 2018, police were still prepared to interview any more complainants.]

At the August 2018 hearing, the prosecutor lodged a detention application to prevent Perrett from being released on bail while he awaits his next court appearance. The prosecutor said eleven of the charges required Perrett to produce evidence as to why his detention was not justified, because these charges all involved sexual intercourse with children under the age of 16.

Two of the charges involved sexual intercourse with a very young child and are punishable by life imprisonment, the prosecutor said.

At the August 2018 hearing, Perrett was denied bail by magistrate Michael Holmes. Perrett then left the courtroom in the custody of Corrective Services NSW officers.

Meanwhile, the detectives continued their investigations.

Committed for trial

On 3 April 2019, David Joseph Perrett appeared via video link in Armidale Local Court from prison. In court, prosecutors laid eight new counts of adult maintaining unlawful relationship with a child - a charge that carries life imprisonment, if the person is convicted.

Magistrate Michael Holmes formally committed Perrett for trial (to be held in the New South Wales District Court district court) on 130 separate charges. Perrett faces 90 charges of indecent assault on a male; 10 counts of sexual assault category four; eight counts of adult maintain unlawful relationship with a child; three counts of buggery; and 19 other aggravated sexual or indecent assault, or assault-related charges. Almost 20 charges including an anomaly in the charging process were withdrawn by prosecutors during the proceedings.

Perrett was formally refused bail by Mr Holmes who ordered that he remain in custody until his next court appearance. A week later, however, a NSW Supreme Court judge released Perrett on bail until his charges would come up in a higher court, the NSW District Court.

Adjournment

In mid-2019, Perrett's case was due to come up in the Armidale District Court at an arraignment hearing (that is, the preliminary to a criminal trial) but the court was told that more time is needed for specialist medical evidence to be prepared and served. Judge Jeffery McLennan granted an adjournment until late 2019. Perrett would remain on conditional bail.

Perrett has not yet been required to indicate whether he intends to plead guilty or not guilty to the charges.

Some background (Broken Rites research)

Born 13 July 1937, David Joseph Perrett was baptised at the Warialda Catholic Church which was then a part of the Bingara parish (both these places are within the Armidale diocese). Eventually he was recruited to become a priest in the Armidale diocese.

In the 1970s, Father Dave Perrett was located at the Armidale Cathedral and in 1979 his postal address was the bishop’s house.

In the 1980s he was “chaplain” to the diocese’s “John XXIII Centre for Aborigines”. He was later in charge of rural parishes at Guyra and then Walgett, both of which included Aboriginal families.

In 1996, while he was working as a priest, Father David Joseph Perrett appeared in court in New South Wales, where he pleaded guilty to sexually abusing young boys in north-western NSW. The charges comprised indecent assault of two boys at one parish (Walgett) and sexual assault of one boy at another parish (Guyra). At the sentencing, in Orange District Court on 1 November 1996, Judge Shillington sentenced Perrett to a three-year good-behaviour bond. The annual Australian Catholic Directories continued to list Father Perrett as a priest of the Armidale diocese (“on leave”) until his name was removed in 2001.

Another complaint against David Joseph Perrett was aired on ABC-TV’s “Four Corner” on 11 November 2002. The program featured a written statement by a young Aboriginal, Edward Russell, who said he was sexually assaulted by Father Perrett as a boy at Walgett. However, this complaint never reached a court. Edward Russell (born in 1973) had an intellectual disability and was partially deaf. He had a traumatic adolescence. He went on to be convicted himself of crimes and he eventually committed suicide in jail.

• To see more about the silence of church leaders in the Armidale diocese in New South Wales (regarding another priest, Father John Joseph Farrell), click HERE.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated on 15 August 2019

Broken Rites is doing further research about a Queensland Catholic priest, Fr Michael Joseph McKeaten, who was charged by police in court in May 2017 regarding a sexual offence that allegedly occurred earlier in his priestly career. Court documents alleged that, in 1991-1992, a male altar-server had asked Father McKeaten for counselling regarding a personal matter. During this "counseling", Fr McKeaten allegedly persuaded the victim to engage in a naked wrestle with the priest, in order (the priest said) to "relieve stress". Fr McKeaten was charged with procuring a sexual act by false pretext. The May 2017 hearing was a brief one in which the magistrate ordered Fr McKeaten to appear in court later in 2017 for the next step in the court process. However, Fr McKeaten died before the next hearing could be held. The Brisbane archdiocese then honoured Fr McKeaten with a priestly funeral.

Father Michael McKeaten had ministered at several parishes in the Brisbane diocese, most recently Beaudesert. He was about to move from Beaudesert to take charge of four parishes in Ipswich but, during May 2017, police interviewed him (at a police station) and laid the charge against him.

On 23 May 2017 the Brisbane Catholic Archdiocese announced that "a priest" had withdrawn from active ministry after notifying the archdiocese about the police charge. The May 23 statement did not give the name of the priest.

According to daily listings on the Brisbane Magistrates Court's website, Michael McKeaten's case had its introductory hearing in court on 31 May 2017, when prosecutors officially filed the charge, with next court date to be scheduled for later in 2017.

According to police documents mentioned in court, the police charge concerned Father McKeaten's time at the Stafford parish in Brisbane's north, between July 1991 and December 1992.

Police alleged that an altar-server at the church approached Fr McKeaten for counselling about issues with his home life. During this "counselling", Father McKeaten persuaded the altar-server that the best way to relieve stress would be to have a naked wrestle with the priest. During this naked wrestle, the pair mauled each other's genitals.

On 31 May 2017, after the case's first mention in court, the Brisbane Catholic archdiocese issued a statement, saying:

"Michael McKeaten – a priest in the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane – today appeared in Brisbane Magistrate’s Court charged with a sexual offence alleged to have occurred more than two decades ago... Michael McKeaten withdrew from ministry when he was charged earlier this month. The Archdiocese issued a public statement at the time to confirm the charge and the priest’s removal from ministry."

The archdiocese's May 31 statement gave the phone number of the church's professional standards office which could "assist" any complainant in going to police concerning any church-related abuse matter. However, the archdiocese's statement failed to publish any phone number for the police.

Soon after being charged, Fr McKeaten became ill. He died on 22 October 2017, a funeral notice was published (on 26 October 2017) saying:

"Archbishop Mark Coleridge invites the Clergy, Religious and people of the Archdiocese of Brisbane and all Relatives and Friends to participate in the Funeral Mass, for Father Michael Joseph McKeaten, to be celebrated at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, 312 Cavendish Road, Coorparoo, on Thursday 26th October 2017 at 11.30a.m. Following Mass, the Funeral will proceed to Nudgee Cemetery for the right of Christian Burial."

At the cemetery, the archdiocese honoured Fr McKeaten by providing a grave for him in the cemetery's special section reserved for priests.

Fr McKeaten's long career in the Brisbane diocese included parishes at Annerley, Bulimba, St Stephen's Cathedral, Surfers Paradise, Sunnybank, Stafford, Indooroopilly, Booval and most recently Beaudesert.

By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated on 18 August 2019

Jesuit priests and brothers operate some of Australia's most prominent schools, with famous ex-students such as former prime minister Tony Abbott. After Brother Victor Higgs committed sexual offences against boys at one of these schools (St Ignatius College, Adelaide), the Jesuits kept Brother Higgs as a member of the Jesuit Order and moved him to their famous Sydney school (St Ignatius College Riverview), thus putting Sydney boys in danger. One of the Adelaide victims finally reported Brother Higgs to the South Australian police and, in 2016, Higgs was jailed for some of his Adelaide offences. In November 2018 a Sydney court jailed Higgs (aged 81) for seven and a half years for sexual offences at the Sydney school. Since then, Broken Rites has learned that Brother Higgs later worked at the Jesuits' elite Melbourne school, Xavier College, where the Jesuits used him as a "spiritual director" (wink-wink) of young boys and as a boarding-house supervisor.

Sydney's St Ignatius Riverview has a long list of well-known ex-students who have gone on to carve out distinguished careers in politics, law and professional sport. Apart from former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, other Riverview students include federal minister for agriculture Barnaby Joyce and former NSW Premier Nick Greiner. Others include Chief Justice Tom Bathurst of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and Australian Test fast bowler Jackson Bird.

Likewise, St Ignatius College Adelaide has some famous ex-students, including former federal Coalition leader Brendan Nelson and federal Coalition minister Christopher Pyne.

Former students of Xavier College Melbourne include federal politician Bill Shorten.

Brother Victor Higgs

According to statements made in the Adelaide District Court in 2016, Victor Thomas James Higgs was born in the late 1930s, the youngest of nine children. After a period of training with the Jesuits, he became a Brother in the Australia-wide Jesuit religious order in 1963, aged in his twenties. He later spent three years working at St Ignatius College in Athelstone, Adelaide (1968 to 1970, inclusive, when he was aged around 30). He mostly did administrative duties for the school, although he taught some classes (for example, in religious education and in commerce).

After a complaint by a parent in Adelaide, the Jesuits transferred Brother Higgs to St Ignatius College Riverview in Lane Cove, Sydney, where he committed sexual offences against boys between 1971 and 1981.

Xavier College, Melbourne

Broken Rites has been told that, in the late 1980s, the Jesuits had Higgs at their Melbourne school, Xavier College. A former Xavier student (let's call him "Rupert") has told Broken Rites:

"I was a boarder at Xavier College, Melbourne in 1987-1989. Brother Higgs was at Xavier College in these years. Higgsy was one of the boarding school staff for the Year Nine and Ten boarding house. He was the night-time supervisor two nights a week. So, well done, Jesuits — they took a paedophile with a history of abusing kids in Adelaide and Sydney and put him into a boarding house in Melbourne as a supervisor."

Broken Rites asked Rupert to find further information about Br Higgs at Xavier. Later, Rupert emailed Broken Rites thus:

"I have found a copy of the Xavier College year book ('The Xaverian') for 1988 at my parents' house. The year book demonstrates that Brother Victor Higgs was indeed at Xavier at that time. The staff list on page 94 has 'Br. V. Higgs' as a member of 'The Jesuit Community'. He is also listed (under the heading 'Spiritual Directors') as the spiritual director for Year 7. I presume this means he was giving spiritual counselling to boys aged 12 to 13. The idea that a convicted paedofile was given this role after his activities in Adelaide and Sydney is repellant."

St Aloysius College, Sydney

A former student at another Jesuit school in Sydney (St Aloysius College in Milson's Point) has told Broken Rites that Brother Victor Higgs was at St Aloysius College in the early 1990s. This student says that Higgs accompanied some senior boys from St Aloysius on a trip to the Jesuits' beach house at Gerroa on the New South Wales south coast. Broken Rites has found church documents which listed Br Victor Higgs as being at St Aloysius College until 2000.

Protecting the image

Broken Rites has learned that, by about 2001, the Jesuits were finding it wise to pay compensation to victims of Higgs. Each victim was given the impression that the payment would require the victim to keep the matter confidential. These settlements were expected to protect the public image (and the assets) of the Jesuits. Each settlement was a modest amount of money — much less than a victim would achieve if he sued the Jesuits but an agreed settlement was much easier than suing.

In 2001, when Brother Higgs was in his mid-sixties, the Jesuits arranged for him to retire from his Jesuit duties. This retirement would help to protect the image and assets of the Jesuits.

However, eventually an Adelaide victim spoke to the South Australian Police (instead of merely speaking to Higgs's colleagues in the Jesuit Order) about Higgs's crimes. And Sydney victims began speaking to the New South Wales Police. Thus, the public finally learned about Higgs' career of crime and about the church's culture of cover-up.

Offences in Adelaide

Higgs was interviewed by South Australian police in early 2013 regarding boys from St Ignatius, Adelaide. When charged, Higgs indicated that he would plead not guilty, meaning that he would fight the charges in court. Eventually, nearly three years later, he changed his plea to guilty, which meant that no trial would be needed (a judge would merely have to impose a sentence).

On 29 January 2016, Higgs (then aged 78) was sentenced in the Adelaide District Court for indecent assault of two boys at St Ignatius Adelaide (one charge for each boy). These were not the only allegations that police had made against Higgs in Adelaide. These two charges were those to which he finally agreed to plead guilty.

Judge Gordon Barrett sentenced Higgs to a maximum jail sentence of two years and three months jail. He said that Higgs would be able to apply for parole after serving one year behind bars.

Broken Rites has obtained a transcript of Judge Barrett's sentencing remarks. Judge Barrett told Higgs:

"The first [charge] involved a boy who would have been about 12 at the time. You took him into your room, made him take down his pants and there fondled his genitals. You did so on the pretext of giving him sexual counselling and assessing his development. You touched him on only that one occasion.

"In relation to the other boy, he was about the same age. He had misbehaved in class. You made him turn up at the canteen where you got him to take his pants down and bend over. He was expecting to be caned for his misdemeanour. Instead you touched his buttocks with a feather duster. The boy asked you what you were doing. You told him to get out. He reported the matter to his parents who raised it with the school. Whether as a result of that report or for some quite other reason, I am not sure, but you left the college in Adelaide and moved to a brother school in Sydney.

"While the two offences consist of a single episode of touching each boy in the ways that I have described, and it is not alleged that you touched other boys, your behaviour has to be seen in a context. That context is that you used to get boys into a private room, make them take down their pants and look at their genitals. You engaged them in sexual talk. All of this, the charged and the uncharged acts, were on the pretext of checking the boys’ development or counselling them, but it is quite plain that you were doing nothing of the sort. You were engaging the boys in this way for your own sexual gratification.

"The reaction of the two boys to your offending is instructive. The first boy appears to have suffered sexual abuse at the hands of another teacher at the school and so it is hard to separate the effects of your offending from the effects of the other teacher’s offending. However, his account of what happened after he came out of your room where you had indecently assaulted him is indicative of the consequences of your offending. Other students noticed the boy come out of the room. They asked him if he had let you touch him. Whatever his response, the other students assumed he had. He was taunted, suggesting he [the boy] was a homosexual. It appears your proclivities were widely known among the students. That boy’s trust in teachers and trust in that school has been damaged forever. It has caused frictions in his own family. When he disclosed what had happened to them, they either did not want to know about it or they told him to get over it. He has continuing anger. In addition, although this may have more to do with the offending by the other teacher, he has had some sensitivities in his personal life.

"The other boy’s reaction was different. He stood up to you. He immediately told his parents. His parents did something about it. He has not provided a victim impact statement. I do not know, but it is possible that he has not been affected in the same way as the first boy. However, that is just chance..."

Judge Barrett said that originally Higgs claimed to the police that, in his encounters with the boys, he had merely been  "counselling" them about sexual matters.

In sentencing, Judge Barrett told Higgs:

"You did tell the police that you had counselled boys about sexual matters, but in that interview there is a surprising lack of insight into your own motivations and the likely harm that you were causing the students. You really conceded no more than that you went about a legitimate task in the wrong way.

"You have entered your guilty pleas at a very late stage...

"I will give you the credit that the law entitles you to for your guilty pleas. It is up to 10%. A more timely guilty plea would have reduced the anxiety of the victims and the witnesses further, and would have entitled you to a greater leniency...

"This is serious offending. It was a breach of trust for you to behave as you did to these boys. If you did not know before, you know now of the consequences that your offending can have, and has had. You are to be sentenced only for two charges to which you have pleaded. Each is a single act of indecent touching but the acts do have to be understood in their context.

"The maximum penalty for indecent assault at the time was seven years imprisonment. I must sentence you on the law as it was then. I will impose one prison sentence for both offences but take both into account. If it were not for your guilty pleas, I would have sentenced you to two-and-a-half years imprisonment. I reduce that by about 10% to two years and three months. I fix a non-parole period of one year.

"The question of suspension [that is, postponing the jail term] is a difficult one. You are elderly and in ill health. You have no other court appearances. In many ways, you have led a productive life. On the other hand, your behaviour was a gross breach of trust. The students and their parents were entitled to your protection, not your abuse.

"I think the offending is too serious for me to be able to suspend the sentence. I have shown what leniency I can in fixing the non-parole period which is lower than I would otherwise have fixed. You will have to serve the sentence. It will begin to run from today."

Convicted in Sydney

By the time of Higgs' jailing in South Australia, some of Higgs' Sydney victims had each decided to report him to the New South Wales police (that is, instead of merely speaking to the Jesuits). The New South Wales police investigation was conducted by detectives (including Detective Sergeant Eugene Stek) from the NSW State Crime Command's Sex Crimes Squad (based at the NSW Police headquarters in Parramatta).

In a Sydney local court in early-2017, NSW Police filed charges against Victor Higgs (then aged 79) for indecently assaulting a number of children during his time at Sydney's St Ignatius College Riverview in the 1970s. This first court-mention was a brief preliminary procedure, with a magistrate, to enable the charges to go on the waiting-list for the next steps in the judicial procedure.

Eventually, in Sydney's Downing Centre District Court in 2018, Higgs faced 16 charges of indecent assault committed against six teenage students at St Ignatius Riverview. Higgs pleaded not guilty, thus necessitating a jury trial.

The court was told that Higgs would summon boys into his office, or a bedroom, or other private locations at the school and at a beach house at Gerroa on the New South Wales south coast. At those locations he would make them strip and perform sexual acts.

On 9 October 2018, the jury returned a verdict of guilty on all the charges.

Jailed again

On 23 November 2018, Higgs appeared in the New South Wales District Court for sentencing. The hearing began with impact statements being submitted by the victims. Each victim described how the abuse (and the church's culture of cover-up) damaged the victim's later life. Problems included: problems in relationships; intimacy issues, anxiety, substance abuse, shame and distrust.

One victim said that, because of Higgs, he lived for more than 30 years without any self-esteem. His trust in people had been shattered and his marriage had fallen apart. His parents were also "broken" and "destroyed" as they had entrusted him to Higgs' care.

Crown prosecutor Sean Grant said Higgs had abused his position of trust and power, destroying and breaking his victims' lives so they were "mere empty shells of men". It was "not Christian behaviour but rather the complete antithesis of Christian behaviour. It was truly evil," Mr Grant said.

District Court Judge Christopher Robison jailed Victor Higgs for a minimum of seven-and-a-half years over more than a dozen indecent assaults on six boys in the Saint Ignatius' College Riverview boarding house and a NSW beach house between 1972 and 1980.

Australia's Catholic Church hierarchy received a complaint in 2002 that a trainee priest (George Pell) had sexually abused a twelve-year-old altar boy (named Phil) in 1961-1962 at a holiday camp for boys on Phillip Island, south-east of Melbourne. According to a church document, Phil has alleged that, on several occasions, the trainee priest George Pell (then aged about 20) thrust his hand down the inside of Phil's pants and got "a good handful" of the boy's penis and testicles; and, on other occasions, George Pell allegedly tried to guide the boy's hand into the front of Pell's pants. By the year 2000, when Phil was aged 50, he realised that the trainee priest George Pell had risen to become an Archbishop. Phil was shocked — "he did not think it right that someone who had behaved indecently towards children should lead the church," the church document says. So, beginning in 2000, Phil tried to alert the church authorities. Phil emphasised that he was not seeking compensation. And he was not reporting this matter to the police (therefore there is no police investigation into Phil's complaint). Rather, Phil was concerned about the safety of children in the church's care; and he merely wanted the church authorities to be aware of the offences that were allegedly committed upon him (Phil) at the altar boys' camp. In 2002, the hierarchy paid a senior barrister, Mr Alec Southwell QC, to examine (and report on) Phil's complaint. Archbishop George Pell (who was indeed at the altar boys' camp) denied committing any abuse. Mr Southwell's report concluded that the former altar boy "appeared to speak honestly from an actual recollection". Mr Southwell said he was not persuaded that the former altar boy was a liar as alleged by Pell. [The incident in 1960-1961 is not included in the criminal charges that Pell faced in court in 2018 because the former altar boy Phil has not reported this matter to the police — and Phil says he does not want to re-open his 1960-1961 matter now because he is still feeling hurt by the manner in which he says Pell's defence team brutalised him when he tried to report it to the church authorities in 2002.]

The following information is taken from Mr Southwell's report, which appeared for a while (in 2002) on the church's official website.

Mr Southwell's report says that, each January in the early 1960s, this camp on Phillip Island was attended by more than 40 boys from Melbourne's Braybrook parish. [This parish, nowadays known as the Maidstone-Braybrook parish, was in a low socio-economic area in Melbourne's west.] In the early 1960s, George Pell (then aged about 20) was among a group of trainee priests from the church's Melbourne seminary who attended the camp each year to spend time with the boys.

Here is Mr Southwell's summary of the allegations by the former altar boy:

'At the camp, during some form of activity in a tent (such as pillow fighting or wrestling), the respondent [George Pell], while facing the complainant, put his hand down the inside of the complainant's pants and got "a good handful" of his penis and testicles. There were other altar boys in the tent at the time, who were participating in the other playful activities. The complainant was shocked, since before that incident he had regarded the respondent as "a fun person, a gentle person, a kind person, he was a terrific bloke". On each of the few occasions this occurred, the complainant pulled the respondent's hand away.

'On two occasions, in a tent, the respondent [George Pell] took the complainant's hand, and guided it down the front of and inside the respondent's pants; the complainant pulled his hand away without having touched the respondent's genitals.

'In another incident, which "is not as clear as the other episodes", they were in the water, jumping the waves, when from one side the respondent [George Pell] put his hand down and inside the complainant's bathers and touched his genitals.

'On another occasion, during a walk away from the camp at night, they were walking in Indian file when the respondent [George Pell] grabbed the complainant from behind and put his hand down and inside of the complainant's pants.'

The complainant [who is referred to as "C" in Mr Southwell's report] alleged that he was not the only boy at the camp who was abused by George Pell. C alleged that he witnessed a friend of his (referred to as "A") being molested by "big George". C told George to "fuck off". A and C later protested by lighting a glass fire near the camp. A died in 1985, and therefore he could not be questioned by the Southwell inquiry.

Another former altar boy (labelled as "H") told Mr Southwell that, at the Phillip Island camp, he was warned by both C and A to stay away from Big George.

Beginning in his teens, C's life was disrupted. He developed a problem with alcohol and gambling. In his early twenties he got into trouble with the law, serving time in jail for alcohol-related offences. He eventually overcame those problems and became a respectable citizen, acting as a volunteer in community groups to help vulnerable people who are in need.

In about 1975 (aged about 25), C told his then wife about having been molested by the trainee priest George. Mrs C gave evidence to the Southwell inquiry confirming this. Eventually C also told his children about the abuse.

In 2000, when C recognised Archbishop George Pell as the former trainee priest, C decided that the church should be informed about this. So, in 2000 he told his local parish priest [Father Bob Maguire ] about the alleged sexual abuse. Two years later, C decided to submit his complaint to the church's National Committee for Professional Standards. At first, the NCPS procrastinated in handling this complaint but eventually, fearing adverse publicity, the NCPS took the precaution of paying Mr Alec Southwell QC to examine, and report on, the allegation. The church designed its proposed process to require a very high standard of proof (much higher than the church usually requires when assessing a complaint about clergy sex abuse).

It is not known how much the Catholic Church authorities paid Mr Southwell, in total, for doing this job for them but members of the legal profession know how much a QC would be paid per day.

In his final report, Mr Southwell noted that "I must bear in mind that serious allegations are involved, and that an adverse finding [against Archbishop Pell] would in all probability have grave, indeed devastating, consequences for the respondent [Archbishop Pell]."

Mr Southwell said that criticisms of the complainant by Archbishop Pell's lawyer "do not persuade me that he [the complainant] is a liar."

"I did not form a positively adverse view of him [the complainant] as a witness."

Mr Southwell returned a balanced finding. Evidently, it was one man's word against another man's word. The Southwell report contains no mention of George Pell being exonerated.

Mr Southwell's report did not reveal the name of the former altar boy but a book by Australian author David Marr (entitled The Prince: Faith, Abuse and George Pell) gives the altar boy's name as Phil.

Southwell Report: Main points

On 30 September 2002, Mr Alex Southwell Q.C. began holding an inquiry, on behalf of the Catholic Church authorities, behind closed doors, in a conference room in Melbourne. Members of the public and the media were excluded.

Here are main points of the Southwell report, taken from the church website in October 2002 while the document was (temporarily) on that website:-

REPORT OF AN INQUIRY INTO AN ALLEGATION OF SEXUAL ABUSE AGAINST ARCHBISHOP GEORGE PELL

Commissioner: The Honourable A.J. Southwell Q.C.

INTRODUCTION

The National Committee for Professional Standards (N.C.P.S.) is a body set up by the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference to receive inter alia, complaints of sexual abuse by Catholic priests. I have been appointed as Commissioner by Archbishop Phillip Wilson and Brother Michael Hill (Chairpersons of N.C.P.S. - "the appointors") to inquire into an allegation by "C" ("the complainant") that at Phillip Island, in 1961, he was on several occasions sexually abused by George Pell, now the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney ("the respondent").

It is as well to set out part of para 2 of the Terms of Reference which requires me to "enquire into and report upon the Complaint in accordance with the following Terms of Reference: The Commissioner shall make such enquiries and hold such hearings as he considers are necessary and appropriate in order for him to be satisfied as to whether or not the complaint has been established ...

In the event a hearing was conducted on 30 September, 1, 2, 3 and 4 October 2002. . .

Mr. Sher Q.C. appeared for the respondent ... and Mr. M. Tovey Q.C. for the complainant...

Early in the hearing it became apparent that there was considerable doubt whether the alleged molestation of the complainant took place at a camp in 1961 or 1962. As will be seen, the complainant, who stated his belief that he went to only one camp (and that belief was much in issue) fixed the date by reason of the fact that a fire occurred nearby during the camp in question, and enquiries of the Country Fire Authority ("C.F.A.") showed that they had attended a fire in the vicinity on 13th January 1961 (during the 1961 camp); accordingly, the complainant fixed that as the date of the relevant camp. However, extraordinarily enough, there was also a fire nearby at the camp of 1962; this information was gleaned from Christus Rex, the monthly newsletter of Braybrook parish; included in the article is the information that both the complainant and the respondent were at that camp. To ensure that the merits of the complaint could be properly investigated, I sought, and in due course obtained, an amendment to the Terms of Reference so that after the expression "in 1961" was added "or 1962".

BACKGROUND OF THE COMPLAINT

The complainant was born on *** 1949. His second primary school was Christ the King in Braybrook. His mother was a strict and devout Catholic and was keen for the complainant to follow that path. He became an altar boy at the church.

At that time an agency of the Catholic Church conducted a holiday camp during the summer at Phillip Island. In January 1961 and 1962, altar boys from the Braybrook church attended, probably 42 of them in 1961, and somewhat more in 1962. The camps were supervised by Father Donovan, assisted in 1961 by 4 seminarians from Corpus Christi College, Werribee, and about 6 in 1962. The respondent was present on each occasion, although probably not for the whole of the week in 1961. There was a bunkhouse in which some of the younger boys and some seminarians slept, the remainder sleeping in army style tents, which are depicted in photographs…

The complainant went to Grade 6 at the primary school, and then went to *** Technical School, he thinks in 1961…

THE COMPLAINT

The details of the complaint are as follows: at the camp, during some form of activity in a tent (such as pillow fighting or wrestling), the respondent, while facing the complainant, put his hand down the inside of the complainant's pants and got "a good handful" of his penis and testicles. There were other altar boys in the tent at the time, who were participating in the other playful activities. The complainant was shocked, since before that incident he had regarded the respondent as "a fun person, a gentle person, a kind person, he was a terrific bloke". On each of the few occasions this occurred, the complainant pulled the respondent's hand away. On two occasions, in a tent, the respondent took the complainant's hand, and guided it down the front of and inside the respondent's pants; the complainant pulled his hand away without having touched the respondent's genitals. In another incident, which "is not as clear as the other episodes", they were in the water, jumping the waves, when from one side the respondent put his hand down and inside the complainant's bathers and touched his genitals.

On another occasion, during a walk away from the camp at night, they were walking in Indian file when the respondent grabbed the complainant from behind and put his hand down and inside of the complainant's pants.

The complainant said that on each occasion in the tent, other boys were present, but the respondent so positioned himself that they may well have not been in a position to have seen it.

I should interpolate that other evidence showed that it would occasion no surprise that a seminarian would be in a tent occupied by the boys - it could be in fun, or perhaps to restore order or otherwise settle the boys down.

The complainant agreed that he then made no complaint to any person other than his friend "A" (who died in 1985).

The complainant said that on one occasion he saw the respondent similarly molest "A", who turned away and told the respondent to "fuck off".

The complainant said that apart from the physical opposition, he did not remonstrate with the respondent; indeed he said that the only conversation with the respondent that he could actually recall was of the respondent telling him (and, I gather, possibly others) that he had played football in the ruck with Richmond reserves. The respondent denied having said that; he had indeed signed to play with Richmond in his final school year, but had not in fact trained or played with Richmond. V.F.L. (now A.F.L.) records have no trace of the respondent having so played.

The complainant (and other witnesses, including adults) said that among the boys the respondent was known as "big George", understandably enough. The respondent was not so addressed to his face, and said he was unaware of the nickname.

The respondent was born on 8 June 1941; he ended schooling as captain of St. Patrick's College in 1959; he studied for the priesthood and was ordained in 1966; after various positions, he was in 1987, at the age of about 46, appointed Auxiliary Bishop of the Melbourne Archdiocese; among other posts he was a member of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 1990 to 2000; in 1996 he was appointed Archbishop of Melbourne; on 26 March 2001 his appointment as Archbishop of Sydney was announced and he was installed as Archbishop on 10 May 2001…

The respondent wholly denied every allegation of having touched the complainant or "A”…

The complainant said that he used to discuss the molestation with "A"; that one day "A" ran away from the camp; the complainant found him, and "A" said he could not stand any further molestation; "A" had a box of matches, and said he was "going to burn the place down"; they lit a fire which became a grass fire out of control but which was brought under control by the C.F.A. At the hearing it was proven that in fact the C.F.A. extinguished a grass fire in that area on 13th January 1961.

The complainant said that in about 1975 he had told his then wife (from whom he has been separated for some years) and much later his children, of the molestation; and that one night in about May 2000 he was watching television, when news came on concerning the respondent; that he immediately recognised his molester - "the same face and the same loping walk"; he was shocked - he did not think it right that someone who had acted as the respondent had should lead the Church…

In about 2000, after attending with a friend, "D", a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous, at which sexual abuse was discussed, he told "D" of the molestation, and was advised by him to consult his parish priest.

In May this year [2002] he decided to make a formal complaint; he discussed it with his friend, Father "F", the parish priest at *** and he thereafter was referred to the N.C.P.S., where he was interviewed by "G", the executive director…

THE NATURE OF THE PROCEEDINGS

In his final address, although not specifically abandoning his earlier concession that the inquiry was "not bound by the rules of evidence," Mr. Sher submitted that the question of admissibility should be considered as if the inquiry was a proceeding "analogous to a criminal trial". He underlined the obvious fact that "an adverse finding would be nothing short of disastrous for (the respondent) and the Church". . .

THE STANDARD OF PROOF

Although this is not a criminal proceeding requiring proof beyond reasonable doubt, I must bear in mind that serious allegations are involved, and that an adverse finding would in all probability have grave, indeed devastating, consequences for the respondent. . .

EVIDENCE PUT IN SUPPORT OF COMPLAINT

. . ."H", a patently honest witness, said that he left Christ the King school at the end of 1960, and the 1961 camp was the last he attended. "A", the complainant and the respondent were among those present. He remembers various frolicking activities, and a night walk where the boys were spread out.

However, no-one at the inquiry suggested that the references in the Christus Rex parish newsletter of February 1962 were other than accurate, and the lengthy note of the 1962 camp included "H"'s name among the altar boys present. It follows that his honest recollection as to the date of his last camp is in all probability mistaken, a fact which underlines the great difficulty of fact finding in relation to incidents occurring 40 years ago.

He said he had a clear recollection of "A", who, although about seven months younger, "always tended to look after me a bit and he came up to me and he said to me one day, "just watch out for Big George", and thereafter "I didn't get too close to him". . .

DELAY IN COMPLAINING

As has been stated, the complainant first complained to anybody in the Church when he spoke to Father "F"; the latter arranged the meeting with "G", which took place on 11 June 2002. Accordingly the first formal complaint was made more than 40 years after the event, and it follows that the respondent thereafter first heard of it.

Common sense and high legal authority tell us of the unfairness which may arise from long delay, because of the difficulty in defending such a stale complaint. . .

Accordingly I accept as correct (as do the other counsel in this inquiry) the submission of Mr. Sher that I should give myself a warning along the lines of what would be required in a criminal trial. To say that is not to change my view that the strict rules of a criminal trial do not apply, but to acknowledge that common fairness demands that to keep such a warning in mind.

THE EVIDENCE OF COMPLAINT

The first complaint was said to have been made to Mrs. "C", the wife of the complainant, in about 1975, that is, some 14 years after the incident. She separated from the complainant about 10 years ago; they see each other occasionally (she has lived in *** for some time) in relation principally to visits by or matters concerning their off-spring.

Mrs. "C" said that in about 1975 or 1976 the complainant told her that when he was an altar boy at a camp at Phillip Island he had been interfered with by a "big bastard called George". He said that "A" was involved in it".

She had a clear recollection of the conversation; she was shocked by it; she could not recall how the subject first arose, or the conversation immediately preceding the statement. After that, the matter was "swept under the carpet" and was not further discussed until much more recent times.

Although Mr. Sher offered a number of criticisms of her evidence as to interest and recollection ("how could she remember a common name like "George" after all those years"), as I indicated during the final address of Mr. Sher, I regarded her as impressive witness, who had a clear recollection of a startling statement.

As stated, Mr. Sher objected to the evidence; the principal thrust of the submission was that upon the authorities, evidence of a complaint could not be admitted unless it was made at the first opportunity - R. v. Freeman [1980] V.R.I.

It is perhaps a moot point whether the evidence would have been admissible upon a criminal trial to rebut a suggestion of recent invention. It was the complainant's version that, although he always knew his molester as "big George", it was not until he saw the respondent on television in the year 2000 that he identified the respondent as "big George". (There can be no doubt that "big George" was the respondent). . .

As to motive, it should be noted that extensive enquiries made on behalf of the respondent have unearthed no evidence of any other matter or incident which might have aroused spite or malice on the part of the complainant towards either the respondent or the Church. On the other hand, the respondent has had a strong motive to push memory (if there ever was memory) of these fleeting incidents by a 19 year old into the recesses of the mind, from which there could be no recall.

CREDIBILITY OF THE COMPLAINANT

The complainant's credibility was subjected to a forceful attack. By the age of about 20 years, the complainant had an alcohol problem; at some later stage, he had become an alcoholic; in 1984 his wife took him to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, but he had not been drinking then for about 18 months. He has attended such meetings intermittently ever since; it appears that he has not had any problem with alcohol since 1979.

The complainant has been before the court on many occasions, resulting in 39 convictions from about 20 court appearances. Most of the convictions involved drink-driving or assaults, between 1969 (when he was aged 20 years) and 1975…

Mrs. "C" said that in about July 2000 the complainant rang her expressing astonishment that he had just recognised his molester as "George Pell". She did not know who that was so she asked, and was told by the complainant that "he is an Archbishop".

She fixed the date, first, by believing it was more than two years ago and secondly, by the fact that she had then just started a new job, and that was in July 2000, a job about which she was "bit agitated". I have earlier said that I accept Mrs. "C" as an honest witness, and I believe that she is probably correct in fixing the date of the relevant conversation.

"D" has been a friend of the complainant for over 20 years; they met at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting; they meet every few months, perhaps at a meeting, perhaps for dinner or coffee. In June or July 2000, after an A.A. meeting, they went to Williamstown cafe for coffee, where the complainant told him that at a camp years ago George Pell had molested him (he described the act complained of); "D" suggested the complainant should seek counselling from his parish priest...

The other criticisms of the complainant's credit made by Mr. Sher do not persuade me that he is a liar…

I did not form a positively adverse view of him as a witness

I accept as correct the submission of Mr. Tovey that the complainant, when giving evidence of molesting, gave the impression that he was speaking honestly from an actual recollection.

However, the respondent, also, gave me the impression that he was speaking the truth.

CONCLUSION

In the end, and notwithstanding that impression of the complainant, bearing in mind the forensic difficulties of the defence occasioned by the very long delay, some valid criticism of the complainant's credibility, the lack of corroborative evidence and the sworn denial of the respondent, I find I am not "satisfied that the complaint has been established", to quote the words of the principal term of reference.

I so advise the appointors.

Hon. A.J. Southwell Q.C.

The above main points from Mr Southwell’s report were downloaded in October 2002 from the website of the Catholic Church at:http://www.catholic.org.au/statements/pell_judgement.htm

Later comments

• Following is a transcript from the ABC Radio National, “Religion Report”, 18 December 2002, presented by Stephen Crittenden, summarising some of the events of 2002:-

Stephen Crittenden:…As this is the last episode in the Religion Report for 2002, we’re looking back over what has been a very busy year in the world of religious current affairs – tying up some loose ends, returning to some major stories, and even following up on a few stories that we haven’t previously had time for …

Stephen Crittenden: It was also an annus horribilis for Sydney’s Archbishop George Pell. First, ambushed by 60 Minutes over allegations that he attempted to bribe a victim of clerical sexual abuse to keep quiet; then the subject of a complaint of a sexual advance at an altar boy camp forty years ago. Those allegations led to Dr Pell standing aside while an inquiry was conducted by a retired Victorian Supreme Court judge, Alex Southwell QC. Well as we know, following the release of Mr Southwell’s report, Archbishop Pell returned to office, but he declined to be interviewed on this program. As a result, we were unable to ask how he could claim to have been exonerated, when the leading newspaper in the city where he’s the Archbishop says he has not been. Here’s the conclusion of the Sydney Morning Herald editorial of Wednesday, October 16.

Reader:Mr Southwell’s conclusion is exquisitely balanced. He accepts “that the complainant, when giving evidence of molesting, gave the impression that he was speaking honestly from an actual recollection”. However, he says Dr Pell “also gave me the impression he was speaking the truth”. A significant part of Mr Southwell’s report concerns the standard of proof; because he considered what was alleged against Dr Pell as serious, he was inclined to apply a strict burden, akin to the “beyond reasonable doubt” of criminal proceedings. That helped Dr Pell. It also made Mr Southwell’s careful conclusion – that he could not be “satisfied that the complaint has been established” – rather less than a complete exoneration.

Stephen Crittenden: In other words, Mr Southwell’s verdict seems to have an affinity with the Scottish verdict of “case not proven”…

• The Southwell report is discussed in a book by David Marr (The Prince: Faith, Abuse and George Pell), published by Black Inc (an imprint of Schwarz Publishing Pty Ltd), Melbourne, in 2013 and in an enlarged second edition in 2014. This discussion is on pages 11-12 and 70-72 in the 2013 edition and on pages 23-24 and 125-130 in the 2014 edition.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 19 August 2019

During George Pell's rise from being a priest to a cardinal, one of his supporters has been Melbourne priest John Walshe. The Melbourne Catholic archdiocese has confirmed that it paid a $75,000 settlement (the maximum amount available) to a former student (John Roach) who has alleged that, when he was 18, he was sexually targeted by Father Walshe. The archdiocese gave a written apology to John Roach for the "wrongs and hurt" he suffered at the hands of Father Walshe. By January 2017, a number of Father Walshe's parishioners (at Mentone-Parkdale in Melbourne's south-east) succeeded in getting Fr Walshe to resign from their parish. This Broken Rites article is based partly on evidence given by Father Walshe to Australia's national child-abuse Royal Commission, including a claim by Father Walshe that he supports the policy of priestly "celibacy".

In his role as the Parish Priest at Mentone-Parkdale, Fr Walshe was officially the proprietor of the parish's two primary schools. A number of Mentone-Parkdale parents objected to the church's hypocrisy in having an alleged sex-offender in charge of their child's school.

Fr Walshe's resignation from the Mentone-Parkdale parish is evidently the result of a deal between him and the Melbourne archdiocese. For example, in persuading Fr Walshe to resign from his parish, the Melbourne archdiocese would arrange for Fr Walshe to move away from Mentone-Parkdale, with Fr Walshe retaining his rights to the Melbourne priests' superannuation benefits.

In 2017, Fr John Walshe was living in a residence, which the church provided for him, in Melbourne's Brighton East parish. He might not still be in East Brighton now.

Background research by Broken Rites

For many years, Father John Walshe was the priest in charge of the Mentone-Parkdale parish in Melbourne's south-east. Bishop George Pell lived in this parish (in a house beside the Mentone church) in the early 1990s before becoming the archbishop of Melbourne in 1996.

Father John Walshe is one of a number of conservative (as distinct from moderate-minded) priests in Melbourne who supported George Pell during Pell's rise to power.

At a public hearing of the child-abuse Royal Commission in December 2015, Father John Walshe gave evidence on behalf of Cardinal George Pell's lawyers.

• This Broken Rites article begins with some background about George Pell and John Walshe, including an analysis of Walshe's evidence at the Royal Commission.
• The matter of the 18-year-old student John Roach is reported in the second half of this article, under the sub-heading "An allegation against Fr John Walshe concerning an 18-year-old student".

George Pell

Cardinal George Pell received several mentions in Father Walshe's evidence at the Royal Commission. Originally a priest in the Ballarat diocese (which covered the western half of Victoria), George Pell moved to Melbourne in 1985 to become the head of the Melbourne seminary (Corpus Christi College, then based at Melbourne's Clayton), which trained priests for Victoria and Tasmania. In 1987 he was appointed as one of Melbourne's four regional auxiliary bishops under the authority of Archbishop Frank Little (Bishop Pell's region was Melbourne's south-eastern suburbs). This is when he became associated with allies such as Father John Walshe.

At this stage, Pell was no more famous nationally than any of Australia's forty or so other Catholic bishops. But he was working on it.

Father John Walshe

In December 2015, the Royal Commission held a public hearing (in Melbourne) in its Case Study 35 (about sexual-abuse in the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese, which covers the metropolitan area) and also in Case Study 28 (about the Ballarat diocese which covers western Victoria). Father John Thomas Walshe offered to give evidence relating to George Pell.

Broken Rites has studied the official transcript of Fr Walshe's evidence.

Fr Walsh (born in Melbourne in 1958) gave the Royal Commission a copy of his curriculum vitae, indicating that he grew up in Melbourne's parish of St James in Gardenvale/Brighton. During his school years, he played an active role in this parish, helping the parish priest.

After completing his schooling at Christian Brothers College St Kilda in 1975, John Walshe began studying for the priesthood at Melbourne's Corpus Christi seminary (he turned 18 during his first year at the seminary).

[Broken Rites has been told that, during his seminary training, John Walshe continued to be active in the Gardenvale/Brighton parish, where he assisted the paedophile priest Ronald Pickering, who was in charge of this parish from 1978 to 1993. For the full story of Father Ronald Pickering's life of crime, see a Broken Rites article HERE.]

John Walshe was ordained as a priest in Melbourne by Archbishop Frank Little on 14 August 1982 (the year in which he was turning 24). Father George Pell then was still based in Ballarat.

Father Walshe's curriculum vitae says his early appointments as an assistant priest in the Melbourne archdiocese included:

• Parish of St Mary of the Angels, GEELONG (1982-1983);
• Parish of St Thomas the Apostle, BLACKBURN (1983-1986);
• St Jude's, SCORESBY (1986-1988); and
• St Gerard's, NORTH DANDENONG (1988-1992).

Walshe told the Royal Commission that, while in his early parishes in the mid-1980s, he probably met Father George Pell socially, perhaps while re-visiting the seminary where Pell was the new rector. By 1988, he had became better acquainted with Pell as the new regional bishop for Walshe's area.

In answer to a question, Walshe told the Commission:

"When I was in the Parish of St Gerard in North Dandenong, Bishop Pell was our Regional Bishop...  He had the practice of inviting priests of his zone, his area, to dinners, so to get to know them because he wasn't a priest of Melbourne and he sort of took every opportunity to get to know the clergy, so I came to know him better through then."

Father Walshe, who is interested in church history, helped Cardinal Pell's research concerning some worldwide church matters, the Commission was told.

As an auxiliary bishop, George Pell was based at the Mentone-Parkdale parish (in Melbourne's outer south-east). In 1992, Walshe was appointed as an assistant priest at Bishop Pell's parish. Bishop Pell evidently played a role in making this appointment, Walshe told the Commission.

At Mentone, Walshe lived in the bishop's house with Pell, while two other priests lived in Mentone's normal presbytery (both houses are located at 10 Rogers Street, Mentone, with the bishop's house situated behind the presbytery). In 1995, Walshe was promoted to the rank of Dean of the Mentone parish, and he has remained in charge of that parish since then. This parish includes two churches: St Patrick's in Mentone and St John Vianney's in Parkdale.

In 1996, Pell managed to get himself appointed by the Vatican as the archbishop of Melbourne, replacing Archbishop Frank Little. Pell then left Mentone and became based at St Patrick's Cathedral, near central Melbourne. He was the archbishop of Melbourne until 2001.

[Broken Rites has been told that, after becoming the Archbishop of Melbourne, Pell continued to visit the Mentone parish, where he held meetings and social occasions in his former residence. These get-togethers at Mentone were attended by some of the priests in the pro-Pell wing of the Melbourne clergy. Some of these supporters also assisted Archbishop Pell at Masses and ceremonies in Pell's Melbourne cathedral.]

When Pell left Melbourne to become the archbishop of Sydney in 2001, Fr John Walshe attended the Sydney ceremony, according to Walshe's evidence at the Royal Commission.

Although he never rose above the rank of Parish Priest, John Walshe continued to be active in church affairs. For example, at the Royal Commission, he was questioned about some of his other activities in church circles.  He agreed that he is an office bearer in the Australian Confraternity of Catholic Clergy, presently the national chairman. [This is a group of conservative priests, whereas progressively-minded priests tend to be in a different national organisation.]

In response to another question, Walshe agreed that he has been associated with a Catholic organisation called "Courage", which minsters to homosexual people. Walshe said he has "helped" some of the people who come to the "Courage" organisation. It is not clear what sort of "help" this was.

[According to church websites, Fr John Walshe was among a number of priests who assisted Archbishop Pell and later Archbishop Denis Hart, in ceremonies and services at Melbourne's St Patrick's Cathedral. According to the church websites, others who assisted in cathedral ceremonies included Fr Charles Portelli and Fr Shane Hoctor. In 1999, Fr Walshe and others assisted Pell in conducting a traditional Latin Mass.]

Why Walshe contacted the Royal Commission

Fr Walshe told the Royal Commission that he visited Cardinal Pell in Rome on 17 November 2015. (This was seven days before the beginning of the Royal Commission's four-weeks public hearing public in Melbourne.) He had dinner with Cardinal Pell and Pell's private secretary (Father Mark Withoos, a Melbourne priest who was ordained by Archbishop Pell in 2000).

According to Fr Walshe, Cardinal Pell was obviously worried about his forthcoming appearance at the Royal Commission where he was to be asked questions about the church's handling of child sexual abuse allegations in Ballarat and Melbourne. Pell was expected to be asked about his time as an adviser to former Ballarat bishop Ronald Mulkearns regarding the movements of priests in the diocese, such as paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale.

One of Gerald Ridsdale's victims was his nephew David Ridsdale who told Pell in a phone call in February 1993 that Father Ridsdale had sexually abused him. According to David Ridsdale's sworn evidence, Pell ignored David's complaint and (according to David) Pell allegedly wished to silence David. In statements to the media, Cardinal Pell has denied trying to silence David; and in 2015 Pell sought to have his denial accepted by the Royal Commission.

Thus, in late November (a couple of days after Walshe returned to Melbourne from Rome), Walshe received a phone call from Michael Casey (a personal assistant to Pell), who asked if Walshe would submit a written statement to the Royal Commission supporting Pell's version of David Ridsdale's 1993 phone call and thus undermining David's evidence about being silenced. Walshe agreed to participate in this strategy.

About December 2 or 3 in 2015 (during the second week of the Royal Commission's four-weeks public hearing) Walshe was contacted by a member of Pell's legal team. After phone discussions and an exchange of emails between Walshe and this lawyer, the lawyer drafted the final version of Father Walshe's written statement.

The final statement was delivered to Father Walshe by courier and he signed it on 5 December 2015. Walshe told the Commission: "It was all formatted for me and then I signed it and had it witnessed."

This was half way through the Royal Commission's four-weeks Melbourne hearing (and 11 days before Pell was due to give evidence in person in Melbourne).

Fr Walshe's submission reached the Commission on Sunday 6 December, a day before the Commission was due to focus on Ballarat (rather than Melbourne) matters (including survivor David Ridsdale's claim that Cardinal Pell wanted to silence him in 1993).

After Father Walshe's letter reached the Royal Commission, the chairman (Justice Peter McClellan) immediately issued a summons for all the notes and emails which Pell's lawyers possessed regarding Father Walshe's submission.

The Royal Commission scheduled Fr Walshe to appear in the witness box on December 15, the day before Pell's scheduled appearance.

Problems in Walshe's statement

Walshe's version of the 1993 David Ridsdale phone call failed to impress the Royal Commission.

The counsel assisting the commission, Angus Stewart, SC, said that Cardinal Pell's legal team had inserted a number of details into Father Walshe's written statement. These additions, Mr Stewart said, included:

• the time of day when the phone call occurred;
• Father Walshe's subsequent conversation with Bishop Pell about the phone call, and
• which part of the bishop's house they were in when Pell returned from taking the call.

When questioned, Walshe admitted to the Commission that some of his knowledge of the events of 1993 came from watching a television program, "60 Minutes", on the Nine Network in 2002.

Walshe said he discussed the "60 Minutes" program with some of his colleagues who, he said, would have included Father Charles Portelli and Father Anthony Girolami.

Father Walshe and "celibacy"

Towards the end of his evidence, Fr Walshe was questioned about the Catholic Church's policy of advertising its priests as "celibate".

He said he strongly supports "celibacy" and his remarks about it included the following:

"I believe that it's something that is a gift if people live it properly, and I believe that it's something that we've received from the Lord, and there's a long tradition of it...

"Ultimately the purpose of celibacy is supernatural and it will never be understood in human terms."

George Pell absent

When Fr John Walshe entered the Royal Commission witness box (on 15 December 2015), he intended helping Cardinal George Pell who was originally scheduled to step into the same witness box on the next day, December 16. But, in mid-December, Pell's lawyer informed the Royal Commission that Pell did not want to visit Australia.

An allegation against Fr John Walshe
concerning an 18-year-old student

On 23 December 2015 (seven days after Father John Walshe's evidence to the Royal Commission), the Australian Broadcasting Corporation revealed that Fr John Walshe was himself the subject of a sexual complaint. In 2012, the complainant, John Roach, received a written apology after the Melbourne Catholic Archdiocese accepted that Mr Roach had been sexually targeted by Father John Walshe in 1982 when John Roach was a student, aged 18.

John Roach told the ABC that he felt compelled to speak publicly after seeing video coverage of Father Walshe, giving evidence on 15-16 December 2015 at the Royal Commission

In 1982 John Roach was an 18-year-old first-year student at Melbourne's Catholic seminary, beginning his studies for the priesthood, when the incident took place. John Walshe, who was then in his mid-twenties (born in 1958), was at the end of his seminary studies and was facing his future career as a priest. Father Walshe was ordained as a priest in Melbourne by Archbishop Frank Little on 14 August 1982.

John Roach said: "One night he [Father Walshe] invited me up to his room, which was not uncommon.
We had a fair bit of port to drink — I was very unfamiliar with drinking — and I woke up in his bed and he was abusing me.

"I left as quickly as I could, I was very confused, I didn't know what to do, what to think."

Roach said there were two further encounters the following year (while Fr Walshe was an assistant priest in a parish at Blackburn in Melbourne's east). These later encounters, says Mr Roach, included an element of consent.

Mr Roach left the seminary in 1983, but two years later decided to return and had a meeting with the new rector, Dr George Pell.

Mr Roach told the ABC:

"In the course of the interview, he [Dr George Pell] asked me why did I leave in the first place and I told him one of the principal reasons I left in the first place was that I had been abused by a priest." .

"He said, 'I have got to ask you this, can you name the priest?' and I said 'sure, he is Father John Walshe', and he went, 'OK'."

Despite receiving this information, Pell accepted Fr John Walshe's appointment as Pell's assistant priest at the Mentone parish in 1992, where Pell was then residing as one of Melbourne's auxiliary bishops.

John Roach was eventually ordained as a priest, working in some parishes in Tasmania. But he left the priesthood and went to live in the United States. He took no further part in Australian affairs until he noticed the evidence which Father John Walshe gave to Australia's child-abuse Royal Commission in December 2015.

Then the Australian public learned that, in 2012, the Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, Denis Hart, gave a written apology to Mr Roach for the "wrongs and hurt" he suffered at the hands of Father Walshe. Mr Roach was offered the maximum payment allowed under the church's Melbourne compensation system. Father Walshe was allowed to continue running the Mentone-Parkdale parish.

In his final report on the complaint, the Melbourne archdiocese's complaints officer (Peter O'Callaghan QC) defined sexual abuse as "conduct of a sexual nature that is inconsistent with the public vows, integrity of the ministerial relationship, duties or professional responsibilities of church personnel."

Although Mr O'Callaghan made no finding about which man's version of events should be believed, the final report said, "there is no doubt that sexual abuse occurred" because "a reasonable inference to be drawn is that [Fr John Walshe] had a degree of influence and control over the Seminarian". The finding was not based on any legal interpretation of sexual abuse.

In December 2015, the ABC contacted Father Walshe, seeking a comment. On 22 December 2015, Father Walshe issued the following written statement to the ABC regarding his dealings with John Roach:

"In 1982 I was a sexually naïve and emotionally vulnerable young man. For a short time, as a young adult, I formed an emotional attachment to another young adult, and engaged in consensual conduct with that person.

"My conduct was contrary to my religious beliefs. However, it by no means constituted any form of abuse.

"I must emphasis that we were both adults and our conduct, was completely consensual.

"Following those events, I underwent extensive counselling to deal with the internal conflicts I faced. My conduct since that time has been exemplary.

"I have worked tirelessly as parish priest and have enjoyed the complete confidence of three Archbishops over the past three decades.

"I have devoted my life to the Church and I have worked tirelessly within my Parish to improve the lives of my Community. I look forward to continuing that work in the future.
- Fr John Walshe, 22 December 2015"

On 24 December 2015 (the day after the ABC's story about Mr John Roach), Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart issued a statement through his vicar-general, Monsignor Greg Bennet.

Monsignor Bennet said:

"Father Walshe has admitted that he engaged in consensual conduct contrary to his religious beliefs and acknowledged that he then undertook extensive counselling.

"Mr O'Callaghan strongly recommended to Archbishop Hart that Father Walshe not be withdrawn from public ministry and this recommendation was accepted by Archbishop Hart.

"Later Mr Roach applied for and was awarded compensation through the Melbourne Response's Compensation Panel."

Monsignor Bennet also stated:

"Father Walshe has spoken to his parishioners and apologised for any hurt or disappointment his behaviour has caused.

"We are aware that these revelations are upsetting for all concerned."

Parishioners of Mentone-Parkdale held a meeting on 6 January 2016, attended by 130 people at short notice, to discuss getting Fr John Walshe replaced as the parish priest.

On Tuesday morning 2 February 2016, a group of about 20 parents from Fr Walshe's parish withdrew their children from the parish's weekly Mass at the Mentone church - as a sign of protest against Fr Walshe being their parish priest (and thereby being the owner of their school). These parents then delivered their children to school later in the morning.

Victoria's Catholic Education executive director Stephen Elder told The Age newspaper that parents (and presumably parishioners) could not influence the position of a parish priest. He said:

"The parish priest has ownership of Catholic schools in Victoria and he delegates the operation of that school to the principal."

Regarding Mr Elder's statement about Fr Walshe being the "owner" of the parish schools, a former seminary student (from the same era as Walshe) has emailed Broken Rites, saying:

"If Walshe 'owns' the school, should he have to pass a 'fit-and-proper-person' test for his school to receive government funding or for the government to be satisfied that he meets the standards required to run a registered school?"

Angela Sdrinis, a lawyer acting on behalf of the parents group, told the ABC in mid-2016:

"There's been a lot going on behind the scenes. The parents have been making representations to the Australian Conference of Bishops.

"I understand that a letter has been, or will be, sent to the Pope.

"There is currently a complaint before the regulatory authority — the Department of Education — and the parents have been talking to members of Parliament about a private members' bill which will be aimed at codifying and clarifying a separation of responsibilities in Catholic schools as between the parish priest and the principal.

"So what's been happening at the Parkdale school, in terms of the influence Walsh has at the school and the power of parish priests in Catholic schools, is an issue that has I believe raised wider concerns about how Catholic schools are run and managed."

On 3 June 2016, Broken Rites received an email from one of its Melbourne informants, stating: "A Melbourne priest told me today that John Walshe is going to Ireland 'to study'."

A spokesman for the Catholic Archdiocese confirmed on 8 June 2016 that Fr Walshe would be taking a scheduled break. Fr Walshe would return to his position in about three months' time, the spokesman said.

On 29 September 2016, a group of parents in the Mentone-Parkdale parish circulated an email among their members, stating:

"The Archdiocese of Melbourne today confirmed that Walshe is due back at the end of the month [September] and has been called to an urgent meeting with the Archbishop as soon as he returns.

"We are aware that people are hearing rumours that a decision regarding Walshe’s future has been made. We are assured by the Archdiocese that this is not the case and that a conversation will only take place between Archbishop Hart and Father Walshe when he returns from sabbatical."

When Fr Walshe resumed work in the Mentone-Parkdale parish in October 2015, many of his parishioners continued to demand his removal.

Finally, on 25 November 2016, Fr Washe announced in his parish bulletin that he is resigning from this parish as from 18 January 2017.

A local newspaper in the Mentone-Parkdale area (the Mordialloc-Chelsea Leader) reported on 7 December 2016:

"Yesterday the Archbishop of Melbourne, Denis Hart, confirmed the priest [Fr Walshe] would receive another appointment...

“He has resigned from this parish and will receive another appointment in due course.”

In February 2017, it was revealed that Fr Walshe was currently residing in a church house adjoining St Finbar's parish church (and parish school) in Melbourne's Brighton . Some parishioners were objecting to this placement.

Death of John Roach

After completing his seminary studies, John James Roach was ordained in 1991 as a priest for the Hobart archdiocese, where he ministered until 2001. His work included being in charge of Tasmania's West Coast parish, serving the communities of Queenstown, Rosebery, Zeehan and Strahan.

After leaving the priesthood, John married and lived in the United States.

After Fr John Walshe's evidence in Australia's child-abuse Royal Commission, Broken Rites contacted John Roach in Boston USA and exchanged several emails with him.

However, John Roach died on 10 April 2016, after a short illness, aged 51. A death notice appeared in a Burnie (Tasmania) newspaper.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 26 July 2019

For 25 years, Father Peter Maurice Waters ministered in a series of parishes of the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese. In 1999, when he was aged in his fifties, he ceased having any more parish postings. Since 1999, according to church law, Peter Waters has retained his priestly qualification — but without a parish (and without any other official role in the church). In 2017, when Waters was aged 72, police charged him with child-sex offences relating to his time in parishes. In early 2018, Waters underwent a four-day committal (i.e., preliminary) hearing in the Melbourne Magistrates Court. After hearing the evidence, the magistrate ordered Waters to undergo a trial with a judge in a higher court, the Victorian County Court, to be held in 2019.

In court documents in 2018, Peter Maurice Waters was listed as being located at his private residence on Phillip Island (140 km south-east of Melbourne).

When the Peter Waters case had its first mention in the Melbourne Magistrates Court in 2017, police charged him with child sexual abuse offences committed between 1974 and 1987.

The charges were laid by detectives from the Sano Taskforce of the Victoria Police sexual crimes squad, located in Spencer Street, Docklands, Melbourne.

At the committal hearing in the same court in January 2018, Waters pleaded not guilty.

Until the County Court trial, he is on bail.

The County Court's case number for Peter Maurice Waters is CR-18-00056.

Foootnote

The Melbourne archdiocese (in the state of Victoria) covers the Melbourne metropolitan area and some nearby towns such as Kyneton, plus the city of Geelong. The remainder of the state of Victoria is divided into three other dioceses.

According to research by Broken Rites, Father Peter Maurice Waters was first listed (as "newly ordained") in the annual Australian Catholic Directories in 1973. He then ministered in various parishes of the Melbourne archdiocese including Croydon, Strathmore, Dandenong, Oakleigh, East Malvern, Camberwell, Aspendale, Blackburn, Bell Park (a suburb of Geelong) and (finally, until 1999) Kyneton. Interspersed among these parishes he had several periods of being listed as "on leave", plus a year or so as a hospital chaplain. After 1999, Father Peter Maurice Waters did not take on any more parish work.