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	Priest Accused of Abusing Teen in 1970s Sydney Morning Herald [Australia] October 31, 2006 http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Priest-accused-of-abusing-teen-in-1970s/ 2006/10/31/1162278136100.html A passion for music evolved into a relationship involving hundreds of sexual encounters between an Anglican priest and a teenage boy more than 30 years ago, a court has heard. Robert Francis Sharwood, 62, of Brisbane, faced the Brisbane District Court on 12 sexual assault charges alleged to have occurred between January, 1974, and March, 1976, while he was an assistant curate at a parish in Brisbane's south-west. Sharwood has pleaded guilty to seven of the charges but a jury is set to determine whether he is guilty of the remaining five, including one count of carnal knowledge and two counts of indecent assault. The court was told the complainant, now 46 and who cannot be named, was only 13 and a young parishioner who played the organ at the parish when the inappropriate relationship started. Sharwood also was the complainant's religious education teacher at a Brisbane high school. Crown prosecutor Ron Swanwick said that, in a two-and-a-half-year period, "sexual activity occurred two to three to four times a week, running into some hundreds of occasions". Mr Swanwick said a joint love of classical music, particularly Mozart, as well as composing music and attending concerts, forged the setting for the abuse. He said alleged kissing, masturbation, oral sex and anal intercourse - which was allegedly reciprocated - occurred at various locations including the complainant's home, at Sharwood's various residences, at church camps, in a car, at concerts and during a picnic at a Brisbane riverbank. "The events have laid submerged in the complainant's mind. They have never been entirely forgotten," Mr Swanwick said. The court also heard Sharwood befriended the family of the complainant - who is now married with four children - when he arrived at their home to help clean up amid the devastating 1974 floods, dressed in his swimming costume. Mr Swanwick said the victim was confused when Sharwood initially touched his genitals but "concluded that the priest did it and it couldn't be wrong". He said Sharwood told the complainant he loved him on numerous occasions. However, Sharwood apparently was angered by the complainant's decision to tell his parents that his bottom was bleeding, prompting them to take him to a doctor and specialist. Sharwood moved to Sydney in 1976 - the same year the complainant's father intercepted a love letter penned by the accused to his son. He took it to the parish, where a bishop and a reverend bestowed "absolute forgiveness and restoration to the church" on Sharwood to reform him. The court also heard that, despite Sharwood's move to Sydney, the relationship did not end, with another sexual encounter occurring in a Brisbane motel room between the two when the complainant was 16. Mr Swanwick said Sharwood was an assistant priest at the complainant's wedding in 1982, after the boy was a groomsman at the accused's wedding in 1977. Sharwood later worked at a exclusive Brisbane private school, which terminated his employment in 2002 on hearing of the alleged abuse, Mr Swanwick said. The hearing continues before Judge Fleur Kingham.
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