Former Armidale Priest Back in Court

By Catherine Clifford
ABC News
September 4, 2013

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-05/former-armidale-priest-back-in-court/4936278?§ion=news

Armidale Court House, NSW.

A barrister has told Armidale Local Court online comments made about a former priest facing multiple child sexual abuse allegations amount to "a threat to kill".

Barrister Peter Hamill, SC appeared for the Defendent, who's been charged with nearly 140 counts of alleged abuse against 10 children in the 1970s and 1980s at various locations in Moree, Narrabri, Inverell and Armidale.

Mr Hamill tendered evidence of blog posts, among them two that read, 'The Church can't stop him so we must ...' and 'All paedophiles should be castrated ...'.

He described these comments as vitriolic, without restraint and a threat to kill and urged Magistrate Stafford to keep in place an order stopping the media from identifying the accused.

The court also heard terms such as, 'monster', 'rock spider' and 'rot in hell' had been irrationally directed at the Defendent on social media sites.

Peter Hamill said it was clear the blog postings were prejudicial, inflammatory, factually wrong and vigilante in nature.

He said even the Defendent's Armidale-based lawyer, Glen Ping Kee, is being approached in the street by Armidale locals and called rude names.

But the Director of Public Prosecutions [DPP] opposed the application to keep the suppression order in place.

Crown prosecutor, Peter Woods, told Magistrate Stafford someone had already published an e-book online naming the Defendent.

He also said there'd been no active blogging allegedly threatening the Defendent since July or August of last year.

But Magistrate Stafford accepted the Defendent's former address had been circulated online, posing a magnified risk to his personal safety.

She refused to lift the non-publication order and warned the media if it publishes the Defendent's name or image such an action would be deemed a criminal offence.

The media was ordered not to publish the former priest's name or visual image in any Australian state or territory.

Bail has been continued and the matter adjourned to November 6 at Armidale Local Court.