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	Priest Faces 22 Sex Charges By Tim Connell and Dan Proudman Great Lakes Advocate August 26, 2009 http://www.greatlakesadvocate.com.au/news/local/news/general/priest-faces-22-sex-charges/1606849.aspx A COMMITTAL hearing into 22 child sex charges against Peter Julian Brock, a Catholic priest who later resided at Bulahdelah, has been adjourned after evidence from two alleged victims. Brock, 63, faced three days’ evidence about abuse he allegedly committed against two boys in the 1970s. He has not been required to enter a plea. On Friday, one of the men told Newcastle Local Court that he watched as the priest allegedly indecently assaulted a teenage boy following a naked game of cards in the 1970s. The man, himself a teenager at the time, also told the hearing he woke up in bed with Brock on a trip away to see the clergyman watching him and masturbating. The court had earlier heard from one of the alleged victims who said he had been repeatedly abused by Brock over several years, including being stripped naked while playing cards in a “counselling room” of a Hunter presbytery before being assaulted. On Thursday, magistrate Elaine Truscott heard from the second alleged victim, who told of playing the card game “strip jack naked” at a private residence with Brock and other boys. He told the court of an occasion where he watched as another boy stripped before Brock put his head between his legs. “[Another boy] and I tried to stop Peter going any further with that game,” the witness said. He said he was “flabbergasted” after waking up on a trip away to allegedly see Brock masturbating next to him. The man told the court Brock later spoke to him about the incident, telling him “I’m just human too... or something along those lines”. Under cross-examination, the man said he did not tell anyone about the incidents until he was approached by police more than 30 years later. The court heard from a woman who said she could now remember her son suggesting in the 1970s he was being abused, but she failed to act. Brock spent 2006 and 2007 with the Bulahdelah Parish. Read more in this week's Great Lakes Advocate.
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