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	Priest Stands Trial over Alleged 1970s Abuse ABC [Australia] March 21, 2007 http://www.abc.net.au/news/items/200703/1878268.htm?tasmania In the Launceston Criminal Court in Tasmania, two former students of the Marist College in Burnie have alleged they were sexually assaulted by a priest 35 years ago. The pair gave evidence in the trial of 70-year-old Gregory Laurence Ferguson, who was a teacher at the college in the 1970s. Ferguson is charged with committing sex crimes against two boys aged between 12 and 14 in 1970 and 1971. Today two witnesses who went to school with the alleged victims gave evidence. One of the men told the jury Ferguson invited him and another boy into his room to smoke a pipe. He alleges while he was there, Ferguson grabbed his hand and put it on the priest's private parts. He said he also witnessed Ferguson sexually assault his friend. Another witness described how Ferguson had punched him in the stomach and threw him on a bed then sexually assaulted him. Ferguson's lawyer Greg Walsh suggested to the witness that the incidents did not occur and that he just wanted to get money out of the Church. The witness replied, "it was never about money". The trial continues.
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