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	Hunter Child Sex Abuser "Evil Scumbag" By Joanne Mccarthy Newcastle Herald July 2, 2010 http://www.theherald.com.au/news/local/news/general/hunter-child-sex-abuser-evil-scumbag/1874404.aspx CATHOLIC priest, teacher and child sex abuser John Denham lashed himself in court yesterday as a "reprehensible", "evil" "scumbag" and a "foul creature". But Sydney District Court Judge Helen Syme was warned to be cautious about the sincerity of Denham's statements of remorse because he had refused to accept his obvious sexual attraction to children. In his first public statements since pleading guilty to multiple child sex charges Denham, 67, repeatedly told Judge Syme yesterday that he did not know why he sexually abused 39 boys aged 7 to 16 between 1968 and 1986, the majority at St Pius X school at Adamstown. In one explanation he described himself as being an "irresistible creature" who exerted the "power of the priesthood" to abuse boys he called "little bastards" in an interview with a psychologist. "I must have convinced myself that they were consenting, otherwise, why would I do it?" Denham said. "It was probably hubris, thinking I was somebody important, somebody powerful, who can do what I want. I just don't know why I did what I did." Asked by Crown prosecutor Helen Wilson whether "sexual attraction to children" offered the simplest explanation for his offending, Denham replied he "obviously preyed" on vulnerable children "at that time". Challenged about telling a psychologist he was "aroused by the pain" of the boys, Denham said he was aroused to sympathy by the boys' troubled behaviour. Asked how his "sympathetic arousal" became sexual assault, Denham replied: "That's how it happened to me unfortunately". He told the court he had not offended since 1986 and said it was possible to have "pedophile inclinations" at one time, but not another. Denham was charged with 134 offences involving 27 boys at St Pius X from 1975 to 1980, two at Charlestown, nine at Taree and one at Granville. He will be sentenced today after pleading guilty to 29 of the charges, and having multiple other offences taken into account by the court. He will be jailed for a lengthy period, the court heard. "The offender is 67, approaching 68 years. He is a person now facing the prospect of spending the remainder of his years in jail," his solicitor Greg Walsh told the court. Ms Wilson warned Judge Syme to be "a little cautious about the depth and sincerity" of Denham's statements of remorse to the court and victims, in part because of his refusal to accept his "obvious sexual attraction to children at the time". Denham told the court he stopped offending in 1986 "once I began to see what a foul creature I'd become". He complained about his treatment by Maitland Newcastle Bishop Michael Malone. The bishop "wanted nothing to do with me", and his defence was funded by Legal Aid, he said.
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