Chilling Message to Elderly Rapist Priest
By Isabel Hayes
[with video] It was a chilling, final message from a rape victim to the elderly priest who stole her childhood 40 years ago. "May God have mercy on your soul Father Egan," the woman said. "Because I certainly don't." As three women abused by child predator Father Finian Egan over three decades faced their tormentor in the Sydney District Court on Monday, the 79-year-old sat motionless in his chair, one hand resting on his face. The Catholic priest is facing a certain jail term after a jury found him guilty of rape and seven counts of indecent assault against the three women, when they were aged between 10 and 17 in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. One woman, who can't be named for legal reasons, 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 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 sentence hearing. "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. The woman said that after Egan was charged, she was contacted by Towards Healing, the controversial Catholic Church sexual abuse claims body, which is currently the subject of a Royal Commission inquiry. "I knew the reputation of Towards Healing and didn't want any part of it," the woman said, adding she felt she was contacted in the hope she would "go away and possibly even drop the charges". "There's no amount of money or someone saying sorry that can remedy the damage done to me as a child." The woman who was raped by Egan as a teenager after he "coerced and lulled her into a seeming submission" said he stole 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 abused her under her mother's nose. Egan's third victim told the court she refused to be labelled as such. "I'm not a victim. I'm a survivor," the woman said. She told the court her Catholic mother had disowned her and blamed her 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." Egan removed his hearing aid briefly during part of the victim impact statements before returning it. His lawyer said he suffers from a number of medical conditions and can currently only eat small amounts of food due to denture issues. But Judge Robyn Tupman noted he "obviously has to go to jail". Egan, who remains on bail, will be sentenced on Friday.
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