This priest, from NSW, is convicted by a jury in Victoria

By Broken Rites
Broken Rites
February 25, 2014

http://brokenrites.org.au/drupal/node/218

In 1959-1962, Father James Patrick Jennings began his priestly career, ministering at St Stanislaus College in Bathurst, New South Wales, followed by a church school in northern Victoria in 1963-68. Half a century later, on 24 February 2014, a Victorian jury convicted Jennings of committing child-sex crimes at the Victorian school.

The Victorian school was St Vincent's College, which was then situated at Bendigo, 150 kilometres north of Melbourne. Both the Bathurst school and the Bendigo one were boarding schools, for boys only, and were owned by the Catholic order of Vincentian Fathers (this order is officially known as the Congregation of the Mission).

The Vincentians are an Australia-wide religious order, which has schools and parishes in several states. That is, the Vincentians are not confined to a particular diocese. Father Jim Jennings worked in Queensland as well as in New South Wales and Victoria.

Jim Jennings had been a pupil at the Bathurst school, where he first learned the Vincentians' patterns of behaviour. While he was in his teens, the Vincentians recruited him to become a trainee priest in their Order, and, after finishing at the seminary, his first posting was to teach at the Bathurst school in 1959.

In the Melbourne County Court on 24 February 2014, a jury convicted Jennings (now aged 80) of indecently assaulting three boys, aged 11 and 12, while he was their dormitory master at St Vincent's, Bendigo, in 1963-68.

[St Vincent's College, Bendigo, was established in 1955 and was staffed by the Vincentian order. In 1977, it was taken over by the Marist Brothers. In 1983 this school then became part of Catholic College Bendigo.]

The  jury found Jennings guilty of five counts of indecent assault. He was cleared of a sixth indecent assault charge.

Jennings had pleaded not guilty to all six charges.

The magistrate remanded Jennings in custody to appear at a pre-sentence hearing in April 2014, when the prosecution and the defence will make submissions about what kind of sentence the court should impose on Jennings.

When the trial began on 11 February 2014, the prosecutor told the court that Jennings began offending at Bendigo started soon after he was sent to teach there in 1963.

Jennings's Bendigo victims were  in Year 7 or 8 when they were abused in similar ways between 1964 and 1968. On each occasion, Jennings allegedly fondled or masturbated the boys.

In one incident, a boy was allegedly instructed to masturbate Jennings, the court was told.

The prosecutor said that the first alleged incident occurred when one boy, then 13, was called to Jennings' room at the college one night.

A second boy, aged 12, was first assaulted when he woke one night to find Jennings sitting by his bed and touching him.

That boy and the third victim were allegedly indecently assaulted at the college sick bay.

The offending spanned five years before one of the students complained to another priest. The Vincentians then took steps to protect Jennings and the Vincentians' public image. Despite the Bendigo matters, the Vincentians kept him in their Order. They merely transferred him away from the Bendigo school to work as a priest in New South Wales and Queensland.

Rev. James P. Jennings was listed at Southport parish on the Gold Coast in Queensland in 1973-1976. (Any complaints from Queensland should be reported to the Queensland police.)

When Jennings left the Southport parish, he also left the Vincentian order. He later married. Until he was brought before the Victorian County Court in 2014, he had been living in Tasmania.

A former pupil from St Stanislaus College in Bathurst NSW gave evidence at this Victorian trial that he had been abused by Father James Jennings at St Stanislaus. The purpose of this ex-pupil's evidence was to demonstrate that Jennings had a tendency to abuse children. The Victorian court charges were confined to incidents that occurred in Victoria.

The ex-pupil from St Stanislaus told the Victorian court that he had been preparing for bed at his dormitory at St Stanislaus when the first incident occurred. His pyjama cord came out of his pants, and when Jennings called him into his room to fix it, Jennings indecently assaulted him, the witness said. "I was too ashamed to tell anyone," he told the court. "I felt there must be something wrong with me." He said another incident occurred when he was in bed. He kept his eyes shut throughout it because he was scared he would be "bashed" if he opened them. Once the person stopped touching him, he opened his eyes and saw the priest leaving the dormitory.

In New South Wales, James Patrick Jennings was investigated by detectives in Strike Force Belle, based at Bathurst Police. Strike Force Belle was set up to investigate allegations of sexual assaults on students at St Stanislaus College in Bathurst.

In 2010 Jennings stood trial in the Sydney District Court on charges of abusing boys at St Stanislaus’ College. Four complainants gave evidence but the Sydney jury failed to convict Jennings.