Ex-Catholic Priest Faces Sex Crimes Charge

Perth Now
October 18, 2012

www.perthnow.com.au/news/breaking-news/ex-catholic-priest-faces-sex-crimes-charge/story-e6frg13c-1226498431463

A FORMER priest who the Catholic church sacked in 2005 has been arrested in northern NSW over a number of historic sex offences against young girls.

A 59-year-old man, known as Father F, is expected to be charged with a number of child-sex offences against three girls in the 1970s and 1980s, a police source has told AAP.

He was arrested at an Armidale home at 6.30am (AEDT) on Thursday following an almost three-month investigation into allegations of child sexual abuse by a priest based in the area, police said.

The man has been taken to Armidale Police Station where he is currently assisting police.

Father F was implicated in other abuse cases the Catholic Church was accused of covering up, ABC TV's Four Corners reported in June.

The report said Father F was sacked by the church in 2005 after serious sexual abuse allegations but had since become a prominent citizen in the NSW town of Armidale.

It said Father F raped young boys in Moree in the 1980s before being transferred to a parish in Parramatta where he continued to sodomise altar boys.

The ABC said Father F made clear admissions of abuse to three senior priests during a meeting at St Mary's Cathedral in Sydney in September 1992.

As a result of the investigation, Father F was banned from conducting mass, hearing confession and counselling, but the matter was reportedly never referred to police.