Church Protected Abuse Priest: Vic Judge

By Joel Cresswell
The 7 News
November 12, 2013

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/19788312/church-protected-abuse-priest-vic-judge/

A judge has slammed the Catholic Church for failing to take action on a predator priest in the 70s.

Melbourne's Catholic archdiocese actively protected a pedophile priest by moving him to a different parish, where he continued to abuse a boy, a judge says.

Russell Robert Walker, 64, was a parish priest when he repeatedly abused two altar boys in the 1970s, despite Melbourne's then-archbishop Frank Little being warned by one victim's mother.

Jailing Walker for five years on Tuesday, Victorian County Court Judge Felicity Hampel said the church's response to the warning was scandalous.

"Although you're not to be punished for the institutional response, what happened was scandalous," she said.

"This boy was not the only victim of clerical abuse in the Melbourne archdiocese, nor the only victim whose welfare was ignored while the church took active steps to protect the priest and itself."

The church hierarchy shifted Walker to another parish when approached by the victim's mother.

But after the move, Walker again abused the boy, taking him to a motel to try to conceal his crime.

"Although not a single step was taken by the church to protect the victim, offer him counselling or support, or report the complaint of sexual abuse by one of its ordained priests of a child in his pastoral care to the police, you were warned a complaint had been made and thereafter transferred to a nearby parish," Judge Hampel told Walker.

She also criticised the church for failing to defrock Walker, despite him leaving priestly duties in his 30s, and even when the allegations came to light in 2011.

"It is in my view remarkable that the church hierarchy has not taken any steps to strip you of your priesthood," she said.

Judge Hampel said Walker's case should be examined by the royal commission into child abuse.

Melbourne Archdiocese Vicar General Monsignor Greg Bennet said the church's response to allegations of abuse by Walker - which was to move him - was "wrong and totally unacceptable".

In a statement released following the sentencing he said the archdiocese would fully co-operate with any royal commission investigation and make counselling and other assistance available to the victims if they seek it.

Walker was 27 and a freshly ordained priest when he began abusing the two altar boys, aged 14, at a parish in Melbourne's southeast in the 1970s.

One victim was forced to endure three years of abuse.

On one occasion Walker plied one of the boys with wine and at other times he would climb into bed with them as they slept.

He also took one to a secluded Melbourne beach where he ordered him to strip naked.

The two victims, now aged in their 50s, wept in court as Judge Hampel detailed Walker's offending.

"You are truly courageous men," Judge Hampel told them.

"You have not given up on yourselves, or on life, although you mourn the loss of the lives you should have been able to enjoy, had this not happened to you."

Judge Hampel said Walker had targeted two vulnerable victims and his offending was a gross breach of trust.

Walker pleaded guilty to three representative counts of indecent assault.

Judge Hampel noted that Walker made full admissions to police and accepted he had remorse for his crimes.

He will be eligible for parole in three years.