AUSTRALIA
The Advertiser
21apr06
THE Federal Court has ruled two Catholic clergymen should not be extradited from NSW to New Zealand to face child sex charges.
A Sydney local court magistrate last year ordered Brother Roger Maloney, 71, and priest Raymond Garchow, 58, be extradited to New Zealand, to face a combined total of 32 charges of abusing boys.
The allegations date back to the 1970s when the pair worked at Marylands, a school for boys with learning and intellectual disabilities, in Christchurch.
But Federal Court Justice Rodney Madgwick today ruled the differences in the two countries' legal systems and the length of time since the alleged crimes, would make it difficult for the men to have a fair trial.
"(There is) very likely to be a high degree of unfairness to the applicants," Justice Madgwick wrote in his judgment today.