BishopAccountability.org
	Priest Fondled Sleeping Boys - Court Told Herald Sun July 22, 2010 http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/priest-fondled-sleeping-boys-court-told/story-e6frf7kf-1225895789205 JUST a few metres from where his younger brother slept, priest James Patrick Jennings indecently assaulted boys in a Catholic boarding school dormitory, a court has been told. Aged in his 20s at the time of the allegations in the early 1960s, Mr Jennings - the dean of St Stanislaus Catholic College at Bathurst in regional NSW - would allegedly walk among the sleeping boys, aged about 12, and is charged with having sat on the beds of some and fondled them. Some 50 years later, an elderly Mr Jennings has pleaded not guilty to six counts of indecent assault against four boys at the school. The 77-year-old's lawyer, Gregory Farmer, claims that "time passed" since the allegations means there is an absence of witnesses and therefore evidence in the case. "I ask that you put aside any personal view that you may have of this (man) and listen carefully to what I anticipate will be the inconsistencies exposed (in evidence)," Mr Farmer told a jury of seven women and five men at Sydney's Downing Centre District Court where a trial began on Thursday. Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar. End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar. Crown prosecutor Jose Crespo said Mr Jennings's intention through his alleged actions was to "obtain some kind of sexual gratification" and in one instance he offered a boy sex education before exposing himself. "Have you had a sex lecture?" the court was told Jennings asked a young boy in his office some time in 1961. The boy, aged about 12 at the time, replied, "no", before Jennings allegedly said, "Okay, I will give you one." Mr Jennings then exposed himself to the boy, the court was told. Another complainant recalls being woken by Mr Jennings fondling him. A fellow student, not a complainant, gave evidence on Thursday that on more than one occasion he saw Mr Jennings enter the dormitory late at night and sit on the beds of two boys. One of the boys confirmed to the witness that Mr Jennings had touched him, before becoming very upset. "He was extremely upset and I recall it as if it was happening now... he was crying uncontrollably, he was overcome with emotion as to what had happened to him. "We were 12-year-old boys," the witness, now aged in his 60s, and whose identity has been suppressed, told the court. The witness said Mr Jennings's younger brother also slept in the dormitory, shared by about 36 boys all from the same school year. "I suggest to you... that you didn't witness any of these events that you gave evidence about," Mr Farmer said to the witness. The witness said: "What I've given you is the unembellished, unadorned, stark truth." The trial continues before Judge Robert Toner.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.