Convicted Paedophile Priest Michael Glennon Dies in Jail

By Goya Dmytryshchak
The Age
January 1, 2014

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/convicted-paedophile-priest-michael-glennon-dies-in-jail-20140101-305u5.html

Convicted paedophile, former Catholic priest Michael Glennon.

One of Australia's most notorious paedophile priests has died in a Victorian prison.

Michael Glennon, 69, is believed to have died of natural causes in an Ararat jail, where he was serving a minimum 10 and a half year sentence for child sex offences.

Corrections Victoria spokesman Mario Xuereb confirmed that a 69-year-old man died overnight at Hopkins Correctional Centre in Ararat, 200 kilometres west of Melbourne.

In 2003 Glennon was sentenced to at least 15 years' jail, reduced on appeal, for 23 child sex charges against three victims. It was the fifth time since 1978 that the Catholic priest had been convicted for abusing children, the youngest aged seven. Some offences were committed while on bail.



Dr Bernard Barrett, a researcher for the Broken Rites victim support group, said the Glennon case was of Australia-wide significance.

"Until Glennon was first jailed in 1978, abusive priests seemed to be immune from prosecution," he said.

"His 1978 jailing prompted more victims of Glennon and other clergy to contact the police, instead of merely tipping of his colleagues in the church as was the previous custom.

"The children in Glennon's court cases were not his only victims — they were merely those who eventually spoke to the police. The world will never know exactly how many children Father Glennon abused. Even Glennon himself would have lost count of the real number."

Derryn Hinch tweeted on Wednesday: "Good News to start 2014. Just heard evil paedophile priest Michael Glennon is dead. Died where he belonged: in jail. Victims rejoice."

Mr Hinch was jailed for contempt of court after revealing Glennon's prior convictions on air.

"Michael Glennon was a priest in the 1980s who ran a karate school and also ran a camp for kids at Lancefield and he was often the only adult present," he said.

"He was charged with a string of sex offences against children and I discovered that he'd already served one year in jail for the rape of a 10-year-old girl and he was still a priest and was still practising and was still running this camp, so I said all this on radio.

"As it turns out, years later, he committed more offences there. I ended up going to jail before Glennon did."