- 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.