Cops Take up Abuse Case after 30 Years

By Dan Box
The Australian
July 19, 2012

www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/cops-take-up-abuse-case-after-30-years/story-e6frg6nf-1226429467581

A DEDICATED police strike force is investigating alleged serial child abuse by a former Catholic priest, almost 30 years after church authorities were first warned about his behaviour.

NSW Police Strike Force Glenroe has been gathering evidence from a number of families of alleged victims, though a spokeswoman would confirm only that the unit would "review all relevant material".

The father of one alleged victim said he spoke to detectives last week, having first told church officials and local police in 1983 that his son had been abused. No action against the priest was taken at the time.

"I said: 'Look, you might notice an edge in my voice. That's simply because it's 29 years too late and there's a lot of victims since'," said the man, who asked not to be named.

"I want to see the man taken from the community. That's what I asked for 29 years ago."

The mother of another alleged victim of the former priest, known for legal reasons as Father F, said she had little confidence in the police, given the response her son received from officers after reporting his own alleged abuse in 1984.

Clare Jurd said that her son Damian "went to the police here in Tamworth . . . he told me afterwards in the car: 'They treated me really badly. Why was I going to talk to them?'."

NSW police declined to confirm if Strike Force Glenroe would investigate whether three senior clerics may have committed an offence by not reporting to police an alleged confession made by Father F in 1992.

While the three clerics have since insisted there were no grounds on which to contact police, each has given a conflicting account of the meeting.

John Usher, chancellor of the archdiocese of Sydney, has said Father F made "no admissions of actual criminal conduct".

Vicar-general of Armidale Wayne Peters said Father F confessed to having "fondled the genitals of each of these boys and to quote 'sucked off their dicks' " but did not name his victims.

Brian Lucas, secretary-general of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, said: "Of course we knew the identity of (one of the victims) but it was pointless referring this to the police", who had already investigated the case.

Lawyer Jason Parkinson, who has represented victims of abuse by Catholic priests, said there were no proper legal grounds not to report the alleged confession. "Why couldn't they let the police make inquiries, and why couldn't they have assisted the police with their inquiries?" he said.

Neither Father Lucas nor Monsignor Usher has been contacted by Strike Force Glenroe.

NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell yesterday called on church officials to provide police with the results of their own "independent inquiry" into the management of Father F. "I would hope, when this report is complete, it's not just presented to church officials, it's presented to the NSW Police Force," Mr O'Farrell said.

The bishops of Armidale and Parramatta, who commissioned former judge Antony Whitlam to lead the inquiry, refused to confirm if this would take place.