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	Priest Convicted on Sex Charges By Nick Clark Village Voice February 19, 2008 http://www.villagevoice.com.au/article/20080219/NWS03/802190313/-1/nws/priest+convicted+on+sex+chrges A Lane Cove resident and former Marist College priest in Tasmania was found guilty in the Supreme Court in Launceston last week of sex offences - two years after first being convicted. Tasmania's Mercury newspaper reported that Roger Michael Bellemore, 72, of Lane Cove, was found guilty of three counts of maintaining a sexual relationship with young boys in the early 1970s. He was a priest at Marist College in Tasmania's Burnie and committed a series of sexual assaults against boys aged between 11 and 13 years. Bellemore was first convicted in 2006 and was jailed from February to December in that year. However, an appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal was upheld and Bellemore was released. In August last year, Justice Alan Blow dismissed a jury four days into the retrial when inadmissible evidence was given. Three victims made statements to the Supreme Court about their abuse at the hands of Bellemore. "No sooner had I started [at Marist College], so did the sexual abuse by priests," a victim said. "I was horrified and scared and I had no one to turn to." "I was easy prey for the priests. They knew what was going on in my background life - a broken family and no home life to speak of. "I was taken advantage of, I was used by them. I was passed from one priest to the other." The court heard that the crimes had been a severe breach of trust. Bellemore was remanded in custody for sentence on February 21 at 4pm.
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