Fr Glenn Humphreys Facing Charges in Court in Western Australia

Broken Rites
January 16, 2014

http://brokenrites.org.au/drupal/node/203

Father Glenn Humphreys, 60, a member of the Australia-wide Catholic order of Vincentian Fathers, has been charged with child sexual abuse allegedly committed in Western Australia. Father Humphreys has ministered in several states in Australia. Until 2011, he administered the Townsville Cathedral parish in northern Queensland on behalf of the Bishop of Townsville.

On 16 January 2014, the Humphreys case came up for a brief administrative procedure (a committal mention) in the Perth Magistrates Court.

Father Humphreys, who lives at a Vincentian address in Sydney, was not required to be present when his name was mentioned in court. The administrative procedure was handled by the magistrate in consultation with the prosecutor and a defence lawyer.

West Australian detectives have charged Father Humphreys with four counts of unlawful and indecent assault and one charge each of carnal knowledge and attempted carnal knowledge, allegedly committed against a teenage boy in Western Australia between 1983 and 1986, when the boy was aged 15 to 17.

The case will be passed on now to a judge in the West Australian District Court during 2014. Father Humphreys will then be required to officially submit a plea. Depending on the kind of plea, the District Court would then set a date for the appropriate proceedings. It might be some time before the matter is finalised.

Police investigations in Western Australia are continuing. In Perth the matter is being handled by the W.A. Child Abuse Squad, 79 Stirling Street, Perth, WA 6000, telephone, 08-94281517.

Background

Fr Humphreys (born 6 July 1953) is a member of a Catholic religious order, the Congregation of the Mission (also called the Vincentian Fathers). This order has its headquarters in Sydney, and it also has various other addresses around Australia such as (to name just a few examples):

St STANISLAUS College, Bathurst, New South Wales. ("Rev. G. Humphreys CM" was listed at this address in the 1979 edition of the Directory of Australian Catholic Clergy.)

SYDNEY: Rev. G. Humphreys has been listed at various times at the Vincentian Community in Eastwood, as well as St Anthony's parish in Marsfield and St Vincent's parish in Ashfield.

WESTERN AUSTRALIA: St Vincent's parish in Kwinana, Perth.

From the 1970s to the late 1990s, Reverend Glenn Humphreys spent time at these kinds of Vincentian locations.

From 2002 onwards, he ministered in the diocese of Townsville in far-north Queensland. In 2002, he was listed as ministering in Kirwan, a suburb of the city of Townsville. After that, he was appointed to the Sacred Heart Cathedral parish in Townsville, where he became the parish administrator, running this parish on behalf of the bishop until 2011.

In mid-2011 the church withdrew him from Townsville. This transfer was reported in the Townsville Bulletin daily newspaper on 23 June 2011. Since then, according to the annual Australian Catholic Directory, Fr Glenn Humphreys, CM, has been based at a Vincentian house in Sydney.