Victims Confront Abuser Father Finian Egan in Court

The Broken Rites
December 16, 2013

http://brokenrites.org.au/drupal/node/165



Three women who were sexually abused as children by prominent Sydney priest Finian Egan have confronted the 78-year-old in court and have slammed the Catholic Church for harbouring him in the priesthood for five decades.

On 16 December 2013, Sydney District Court began pre-sentence proceedings regarding Egan.

Previously, Egan had been found guilty of seven counts of indecent assault and one count of rape in relation to attacks on girls aged 10 to 17 in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s in Sydney and on the New South Wales central coast. Prosecutors are pursuing a custodial sentence.

The pre-sentence hearing is so that the court can receive submissions from the prosecution and defence before a sentence is finally imposed.

In the December 16 hearing, each of the three women entered the witness box to make impact statements to the court, describing how this church-related abuse had disrupted their lives. They described the guilt, shame, pain and fear they have been forced to endure during their adult lives.

One woman described how she kept the abuse secret for 50 years after initially confiding in a nun who then flogged her, forced her to drink castor oil and made her clean up her own vomit.

To this day, the woman said she is fearful she will go to hell for speaking ill of a priest, so strong is the Catholic faith that was indoctrinated in her as a child.

The trial heard that she was a 10-year-old boarder at a girls' home when Egan made her sit on his lap, took off her underwear and sexually assaulted her.

She asked a nun to cut off her hair after Egan described it as "beautiful" and she still hates going to the hairdresser or receiving compliments, she told the court.

"I was a 10-year-old child who needed to be cared for, but instead I was manipulated, abused, punished and humiliated," the woman said through her tears.

Another woman said Egan took away her childhood, her innocence and her trust in people.

"Father Egan took away the chance for me to experience my first kiss with a boy, my first sexual experience," the woman said, adding Egan was like a member of her family who then abused her under her mother's nose.

A third woman told the court that she refuses to be labelled as a victim.

"I'm not a victim. I'm a survivor," the woman said.

She told the court that her Catholic mother had disowned her, blaming the child for not stopping the abuse.

"Still to this day I'm being crucified for what he has done," the woman said.

"I'm here today to lay the blame where it belongs: at the feet of the pedophile sitting in front of you."

These three women were not the only complainants against Egan. This trial was confined to female complainants, and it covered only these three women who agreed to take part in the prosecution. A fourth woman exercised her right to opt out of the proceedings.

The sentencing process will continue on a later date.



Guilty verdict

On 4 November 2013, a jury returned the Guilty verdicts against Egan in Sydney's Downing Centre District Court. He was found not guilty on one other charge of indecent assault.

Finian James Egan worked as a priest at Leichhardt and Carlingford (suburbs in Sydney), and at The Entrance (north of Sydney on the Central Coast).

The court was told that he targeted girls aged between 10 and 17 in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

Egan, aged 78 in 2013,  pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The court was told that Egan is still officially a priest, although (now in his late seventies) he has retired from being in charge of a parish.

While he awaits his sentence, Egan remains on bail on the condition he reports to police once a week.

The police investigation was conducted by Eastwood Detectives Office, Sydney.



Broken Rites research

Broken Rites first heard of Father Finian Egan in January 2003, when we were contacted by one of his victims. Five years later, in 2008, Broken Rites was contacted by a second Egan victim and later by a third, fourth, fifth and sixth victim. These six victims were from several parishes. They were of various ages. They did not know each other. And they contacted Broken Rites separately, not knowing that Broken Rites had received previous complaints about Egan.

Broken Rites began doing research on this priest. Broken Rites found that Finian James Egan was born in Ireland in the mid-1930s. He was ordained in Ireland on 14 June 1959 and was among a significant number of Irish priests who were exported to Australia around that time.

Broken Rites traced Egan's movements in the annual editions of the Australian Catholic Directory. Egan spent his career as a diocesan priest in the Sydney metropolitan area. Broken Rites found that one of his early postings, as an assistant priest, was in the Leichhardt North parish (this is listed in the 1961 edition of the Directory).

His next parishes included, for example, Cronulla (St Aloysius) and Fairfield (Our Lady of the Rosary).

His later work included parishes at, for example, The Entrance (Our Lady of the Rosary) and Narrabeen (St Joseph's).

For twenty years, from 1979 to 1999 he was the Parish Priest in charge of St Gerard Majella parish, Carlingford. He took an interest in the "Antioch" youth group in that parish.

In the 1980s the Sydney archdiocese became divided into smaller dioceses, and Fr Finian Egan then came under the new Broken Bay diocese, comprising Sydney's northern suburbs (plus the Central Coast), while the Sydney archdiocese became confined to the south side of the Harbour.

The 1988 Australian Catholic directory stated that Fr F.J. Egan was the secretary of the Clergy Remuneration and Retirement Fund in the Broken Bay Diocese. (This enhanced his significance among his fellow priests.)

Finian Egan retired from full-time parish work in 1999. In the 2000 Australian Catholic directory, he was listed for the Broken Bay diocese — as a "supplementary priest". He is still listed as a "supplementary priest" in the latest edition of the annual Directory, published in mid-2013.

Priests who are listed publicly as "supplementary" are still presumed by the public to be available for weddings, funerals and other freelance work, including sometimes acting as a relieving priest for another priest who is away.

A church website said that, even after retiring from full-time work, Fr Finian Egan continued to "have a presence" at the Carlingford parish.

Father Finian Egan was also associated with a church group (the Serra Club) which seeks to attract new recruits to the priesthood. A church website said in 2007: "Fr Finian Egan will be celebrating Mass for Serra [Club] on Wednesday 22nd August 2007 at the Catholic Parish of Waitara, Our Lady of the Rosary Church, and will be our guest speaker."

According to a church website, the objective of the Serra Club is "to foster and promote vocations to the ministerial priesthood of the Catholic Church."



New South Wales government

At Fr Finian Egan’s final parish (St Gerard’s parish in Carlingford), his parishioners included Gregory Eugene Smith, a lawyer who was elected in March 2007 as the Liberal Party’s member for the metropolitan seat of Epping in the New South Wales parliament. When Barry O’Farrell’s Liberal Party government came into office in NSW in 2011, Greg Smith became the Attorney General, putting him in charge of the state’s legal affairs.

In his inaugural speech in the NSW Parliament in 2007, Greg Smith mentioned that he had been a parishioner of Fr Finian Egan at St Gerard Majella's parish at Carlingford.

Greg Smith added:

• 
  
  "At St Gerard's, Father Finian Egan charmed us with his Irish wit and his pastoral devotion to his flock."

• 
  
  “Greg is a man of enduring faith and commitment and has been heavily involved in the life of the Catholic Church…
  
  “Greg was also formerly the President of NSW Right to Life…
  
  “Greg is a Cantor at St Gerard’s Church, Carlingford…"