AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
By Natasha Wallace
April 12, 2005
Two former Sydney-based members of St John of God should not be extradited to New Zealand to face serious child sex abuse charges because they would not get a fair trial, their barrister told a court yesterday.
The Catholic Church has fought for more than a year to stop Raymond John Garchow, 57, and Rodger Maloney, 69, being sent to New Zealand to face charges in relation to alleged systemic abuse of boys by several members of the religious order at a Christchurch school for orphans and intellectually disabled children, Marylands, between 1955 and 1980.
In ordering the men's extradition in February, Magistrate Hugh Dillon likened the New Zealand case to a "war crimes' proceeding", saying the doubt lay not in proving the abuse had happened at the Marylands school, but who was involved and to what extent.
Maloney, a former brother at the school, and Garchow, a former priest, had argued that they were too old and sick to be surrendered.
Maloney faces 28 charges, including sodomy, of allegedly assaulting 12 boys as young as eight between 1971 and 1977 at Marylands.
Garchow faces four charges of an indecent act on two pupils, aged between eight and 11, between 1971 and 1980.
Posted by kshaw at April 11, 2005 05:29 PM