- By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 7 October 2019
A former Catholic priest, James Joseph Cunneen, aged 59, is facing a court trial in New South Wales in 2019, charged with sexual offences which were allegedly committed thirty years ago against a number of young males who were associated with the "Holy Name of Mary" Parish in Rydalmere in Sydney's north-west.
James Cunneen was born in New Zealand. In 1979, he joined a Catholic religious order. This order has priests working in a number of parishes and dioceses in Australia and New Zealand. After working with this religious order in Australia, Cunneen returned to New Zealand. By then, he had left the priesthood. Cunneen's defence solicitor told the NSW court that, after returning to New Zealand, Cunneen worked for the NZ Department of Education for the next three years. Since then, he has been running betting agencies across the North Island, the defence solicitor said.
Cunneen came to the attention of New South Wales police as a result of information given to Australia's child-abuse Royal Commission.
A police investigation was conducted by detectives from Rosehill Local Area Command of the NSW Police.
In November 2017, NSW Police extradited Cunneen back to Australia in custody. In Sydney's Central Local Court, police filed charges against Cunneen regarding some offences which he allegedly committed against some young males in Sydney's Rydalmere when Cunneen was a priest there in 1987-1989.
Some of the alleged victims had previously been pupils at a Marist Brothers high school (now named St Patrick's Marist College) at Dundas in the same region of Sydney, the court has been told.
At the November 2017 procedure, Cunneen was granted bail pending the subsequent court proceedings. During 2018, a committal hearing (with a magistrate) was held in a Local Court. After the committal hearing, Cunneen was ordered to undergo a trial with a District Court judge. This trial is scheduled to be held in Sydney's Parramatta District Court in 2019.
The District Court's case number for Cunneen is 2015/00347275.
FOOTNOTE: The 1994 edition of the directory of Australia's National Council of priests had a "Father James Cunneen, OFM" listed as a member of the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor (OFM). Fr Cunneen was listed under the heading of "on leave", care of the Franciscans' Australian head office in Waverley, Sydney. (The Franciscans provide priests to work in several suburban parishes in the Sydney archdiocese, including in Waverley.)