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	Father Paul Pavlou Pleads Guilty to Child-sex and Child-porn Charges Broken Rites July 3, 2009 http://brokenrites.alphalink.com.au/nletter/page179-pavlou.html An Australian Catholic priest who was ordained in 2004 has admitted that he committed child-sex offences in 2006 — after only two years in the ministry. Broken Rites believes that this case undermines the Catholic Church's claim that it has taken strong action in recent years to prevent such things from happening. The case also raises questions about how the church is recruiting its priests. Father Paul Pavlou, 50, of the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese, pleaded guilty in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on 29 June 2009 to one charge of committing an indecent act with a 14-year-old boy and another charge of possessing child pornography. The offences occurred while Pavlou was ministering at a parish at Healesville, north-east of Melbourne, for about a year in 2005-2006, the court was told. Healesville is within the Melbourne Catholic diocese. For an indecent act with a child under 16, Father Pavlou was sentenced to 18 months in jail, which was suspended for 24 months. For knowingly being in possession of child pornography, he was sentenced to a two-year Community-Based Order. As a condition of the CBO, Father Pavlou is required to do a program for sex offenders and 50 hours of community work. He will also be registered on the Sex Offenders Register for 15 years. An additional charge of indecent assault was withdrawn following discussions between the prosecutor and the church's defence lawyer. Background Research by Broken Rites has ascertained that Paul Pavlou was born in Australia, in a family of Greek Cypriot origin. Other family members identify with the Greek Orthodox Church but Paul Pavlou became a Catholic and took an active role in Catholic affairs. He eventually became a Brother in a Catholic religious order, the Salesians of Don Bosco. He was a teacher at St Joseph's College (conducted by the Salesian order) in Fentree Gully (in Melbourne's outer east). Later, in his forties, he was accepted by the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese as a mature-age entrant for the priesthood and did his training at the church's Melbourne seminary. After being ordained during 2004, he worked as an assistant priest at Croydon (Sacred Heart parish) in Melbourne's outer east. He was listed as a priest, for the first time, in next edition of the Australian Catholic Directory (compiled in early 2005). Some time during 2005, he was posted to Healesville (St Brigid's parish). He was listed there (as the administrator, or acting priest-in-charge) in the next edition of the Australian Catholic Directory (compiled in early 2006). Some time during 2006, the complaint surfaced regarding the 14-year-old boy. Pavlou then left the Healesville parish during 2006 after being there for only 12 months. The reason for his departure, according to the next edition of the Australian Catholic directory (compiled in early 2007) was "sick leave", and his forwarding address was given as "care of the archdiocesan office". Police investigation Meanwhile, police from the Lilydale criminal investigation unit conducted a year-long investigation of Pavlou and they eventually issued him with a court summons. The case was listed for a mention in court in 2008, and again in early 2009, but Pavlou's lawyer successfully asked the magistrate for adjournments because the defence was still compiling its case. Originally, the defence indicated that Pavlou would contest the charges. Normally, this would entail a long hearing, perhaps over several days, with witnesses being examined and cross-examined. When the "contested hearing" date (29 June 2009) arrived, the defence indicated that Pavlou had decided plead guilty. This meant a relatively short hearing. The prosecution agreed to amalgamate the two counts of indecent acts into one charge. Porn found on computer The court was told that, during their investigations, police seized a computer hard-drive. There were a large number of photographs depicting children under 16 in pornographic situations, the court was told. "The vast majority of the images depicted young adolescent males," the police prosecutor (Senior Constable Sean Van Geyzel) said. Originally, in the police investigation, Pavlou claimed ignorance about the pornography but police found evidence that he paid for the porn himself. This persuaded Pavlou to change his plea to guilty. Sentencing After Pavlou's guilty plea, the hearing was largely devoted to submissions by the defence, seeking a lenient sentence. Church defence lawyer Brian Bourke told the court that, at the age of 50, Pavlou now had little prospect of employment in any field for which he was trained. As requested by the defence, the magistrate took into account the guilty plea when deciding the sentence. In sentencing, Magistrate Anne Goldsborough told Pavlou: "These are charges of the utmost significance not only for you but for the young victim involved." The victim and his family were present in the court for the magistrate's summing up and sentence. Footnote The prosecuting agency in the Pavlou case was the Lilydale branch of the Victoria Police's criminal investigation unit. The police contact at Lilydale was Leading Senior Constable Mark Molloy. The court case number for the Pavlou prosecution was X02540146. Any further complaints about Paul Pavlou should be addressed, in the first instance, to the Lilydale C.I.U. Paul Pavlou is the second Healesville parish priest to be convicted of child-sex offences. Father David Daniel, of Healesville, was jailed in 2000. Eight months before Paul Pavlou's conviction, another Melbourne Catholic priest (Father Fr John Haines) was jailed for similar offences. Haines was sentenced on 4 November 2008, after pleading guilty to six counts of an indecent act with a child under 16, procurement of a minor for child pornography and possessing child porn. In the very same month that Paul Pavlou was convicted, two other Catholic Church personnel from Melbourne were also convicted in the same court: * Father Desmond Gannon, jailed on 10 June 2009; and * Brother John Coswello, jailed on 22 June 2009. Church lawyer Brian Bourke, who represented Father Paul Pavlou in court, also appeared for Father Des Gannon. In 1995, Mr Bourke appeared in court for pedophile priest John Kevin O'Donnell, who was later jailed.
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