ABC News
July 22, 2009
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/07/22/2632837.htm?section=justin
A friend of a former school chaplain who was accused of sex offences says John Mountford had paid blackmail money to his landlord.
The friend Adrian Hitch says the former St Peters College chaplain was found stabbed to death in his apartment in the Libyan capital Tripoli last weekend.
Dr Hitch says Mr Mountford was being blackmailed by his landlord, who was threatening to expose his history.
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| John Mountford blackmailed by landlord, says a friend Photo by Chaiwat Subprasom |
"The next email I got from him he said he is now demanding $10,000 and he can go to hell type of thing," he said.
Dr Hitch says his friend had set up a language school with a business partner for oil industry workers.
"They were teaching English to the workers from the major multinational oil companies and they were going from strength to strength," he said.
He says the Mountford family wants his body repatriated to England.
The former chaplain was charged with sexual abuse of a St Peters College student in Adelaide but a trial collapsed in 2007.
Dr Hitch says Mr Mountford's reputation never recovered and he has lashed out at comments from SA Premier Mike Rann on news of Mr Mountford's death.
"He was defamed in parliament, he was defamed again on the news last night by Rann getting up there and saying Mountford disgraced himself, disgraced his profession by abusing children," he said.
"Well he's never been found guilty of abusing children. He's never been found guilty in a court of law."
The handling of the Mountford case was a key issue leading to the resignation of Adelaide's Anglican archbishop Ian George and a church inquiry into sex abuse allegations.
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