Church 'Sheltered Abuser'

By Heath Aston Heath Aston
Sydney Morning Herald
January 20, 2013

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/church-sheltered-abuser-20130119-2czy0.html

A PRIEST accused of sexually abusing altar boys throughout the 1980s was sheltered by the Catholic Church in the parish of Father Finian Egan, who is facing charges of indecent assault and rape.

A report released last week detailed the accusations against the priest, who allegedly assaulted boys in the dioceses of Armidale and Parramatta between 1981 and 1992.

Despite being moved from a number of dioceses and being charged with serious sexual offences against a boy in 1987 - charges that were later dropped - the priest, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was not defrocked until 2005.

The report by Federal Court judge Antony Whitlam, QC, criticised the former bishop of Armidale, Henry Kennedy, who is now dead, for failing to stop the priest after complaints followed him from parish to parish.

The Whitlam report tracks the priest's relocation to Sydney after the Director of Public Prosecutions dropped charges against him in 1988 arising from a Tamworth incident.

The report noted that he moved to a presbytery in Carlingford. It was at Carlingford that Father Egan was parish priest for 20 years between 1979 to 1999.

Father Egan, 78, appeared in Ryde Local Court last May on 16 charges of indecent assault and one charge of rape while he was a priest in Sydney and on the central coast.

He was a one-time friend and priest of the present NSW Attorney-General, Greg Smith.

Mr Smith paid tribute to Father Egan in his inaugural speech to Parliament for his ''Irish wit and pastoral devotion to his flock''.

The Attorney-General last year defended himself against claims he had dismissed a complaint by an alleged victim against Father Egan as being brought by someone who was ''just trying to get $1 million from the church''.

Mr Smith insists he recalls no such comment and says he ''would never suggest any victim of sexual abuse was simply motivated by a desire to claim a financial payout''.

It was from the Carlingford presbytery that the priest wrote to the then bishop of Parramatta, Bede Heather, to discuss the ''possibility of going on loan for your diocese''.

He then served in Merrylands, but his position was terminated after complaints by parents of altar boys.