Diocese Rejects Claim by Priest over Abuse Case

Cathnews
February 20, 2013

http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=35068


A spokesperson for the Bishop of Wollongong, Peter Ingham, said the Diocese has categorically denied claims by a Catholic priest who he suspects the church paid his alleged victim in return for evidence against him, reports AAP in the Sydney Morning Herald.

John Gerard Nestor was laicised by the Vatican after a child abuse case. As a priest in the Wollongong Diocese in NSW he was charged with the indecent assault of a 15-year-old altar boy in 1991.

He was convicted and sentenced to 16 months in jail in Wollongong Local Court on February 18, 1997.

But in October of that year, he won an appeal against the conviction, serving no time behind bars.

Tony Abbott, then-parliamentary secretary in the Howard government, provided a character reference for Mr Nestor in the lower court, describing him as a "beacon of humanity".

Mr Nestor now alleges the complainant in the case received compensation by the church.

"I suspect - and I have reason to say it, I don't know it (for sure) - that he was promised money in return for giving evidence against me, by the church or officials of the church," he told AAP.

"Because they didn't particularly like me."