Police Concede Priest Wasn't Pursued over Child Sex Abuse

By Richard Baker, Nick McKenzie
WA Today
July 22, 2012

http://www.watoday.com.au/national/police-concede-priest-wasnt-pursued-over-child-sex-abuse-20120722-22i9r.html

POLICE have admitted for the first time that a notorious paedophile priest escaped justice and lived out his life in Britain because they failed to question him about serious child sex allegations.

Victoria's Assistant Commissioner, Steve Fontana, confirmed Father Ronald Dennis Pickering was not pursued because detectives handling complaints about him in the 1990s believed force command was unlikely to support any request to travel to Britain.

Pickering, who died recently in Britain after fleeing Australia in 1993, has been linked to the suicides of up to eight people he allegedly sexually abused as children at various Catholic parishes around Melbourne in the 1960s, '70s and '80s.

The Melbourne archdiocese has acknowledged in writing Pickering's ''proclivity for child abuse'' and has financially compensated several victims. Pickering is understood to have received some pension entitlements from the church after its leadership became aware of his crimes.

Mr Fontana said other factors contributing to the decision to leave Pickering alone were the historic nature of the complaints against him and the reluctance of one potential victim to press charges.

He acknowledged the complaints would be handled differently today. ''[It's] a completely different environment … we've come a long way,'' he said.

It is understood British police were never asked by their Australian counterparts to question Pickering, who left Melbourne for the British seaside town of Margate after he was warned in 1993 by a senior person in Victoria's Catholic hierarchy that sexual abuse complaints about him had emerged.

A police file on Pickering shows detectives first received allegations about him in November 1995. A more specific complaint came in March 1996 from another person who alleged Pickering had sexually abused him at St Mary's parish in Melbourne's St Kilda East. The file shows detectives at this point established Pickering was overseas and his name was entered on a database so any re-entry to Australia would be flagged.

In 1998, a man claimed to have been abused at the St James parish in Gardenvale, in Melbourne's south-east.

A fourth sexual abuse allegation regarding Pickering was made to police in April.