By Ken McGregor
Adelaide Now
October 1, 2009
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,26150812-5006301,00.html
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| Wilfred Edwin Dennis leaves the District Court after facing charges of indecent assault, gross indecency and carnal knowledge. |
A FORMER Anglican priest has been found guilty of molesting one of his altar boys in the 1970s.
Wilfred Edwin Dennis, 74, of Vale Park, was today found guilty of carnal knowledge.
Dennis sexually abused the boy at a northern suburbs church beween October 1975 and the January 1977.
He also had been accused of assaulting another altar boy between 1972 and 1974, but was found not guilty on three counts of indecent assault and one count of gross indecency.
During his trial, the District Court heard Dennis had admitted to an Archbishop to molesting more than 40 boys.
Judge Sydney Tilmouth told the court that Dennis' testimony during the trial had been ``bizarre'' and ``unconvincing''.
``His evidence... was quite frankly, bizarre,'' Judge Tilmouth said.
``Likewise his explanations for the correspondence to Archbishop Hepworth were unconvincing.
``All in all the court approaches the evidence of the accused with considerable reservations.
``The court finds the victim's evidence so convincing and the accused's denials specific to that evidence so unconvincing (that he must be found guilty).
Judge Tilmouth remanded Dennis on continuing bail to next appear for sentencing submissions in November.
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