Retired Catholic Priest on Child Porn Charges

By Joanne Mccarth
Newcastle Herald
September 6, 2013

http://www.theherald.com.au/story/1758892/retired-catholic-priest-on-child-porn-charges/?cs=12

A RETIRED Catholic priest who has a family resource centre named in his honour has appeared in Wyong Local Court on child pornography charges.

Father Edward Sedevic, 72, of Lake Haven, successfully requested an order suppressing his personal details when he appeared in the court on Wednesday on three charges of possessing child abuse material and using a service to access child pornography.

He did not enter pleas and the matter returns to court in October.

Wyong Local Court magistrate Susan McIntyre revoked the order yesterday after a media application argued other men on similar charges, including a former police officer, a prominent Sydney dance teacher and a radio personality, had been named in media reports.

Police from the State Crime Command’s sex crimes squad charged Father Sedevic on August 20 with possessing a child pornography film.

On August 27 he was charged with using a computer in March 2010 to access child pornography.

He is required to report to Wyong police three times a week.

Bail conditions include not accessing the internet under any circumstances, not communicating by any means with a person under 18, and not to be near schools, video arcades, playgrounds and preschools where children gather.

Father Sedevic is described on the Broken Bay Diocese website as a retired priest ‘‘available to help (Warnervale) parish on a regular basis’’.

He is listed on the Sydney Archdiocese website as a retired priest from the Sydney area. Church records show he was a priest at Blacktown in 1979, and moved to Mount Pritchard in February 1984.

A history of the Mt Pritchard parish said Father Sedevic set up the parish’s first finance committee in May 1985. The committee included the then assistant parish priest Father Brian Lucas.

In April 2001, the Catholic Weekly reported the opening of Sedevic Cottage, Centacare’s family resource centre in the Mt Pritchard area. Father Sedevic was instrumental in its establishment. He left the parish in October 2000 for Haberfield, and later moved to the Central Coast.

The matter returns to court in October.