Fugitive Catholic Priest Located by the News Tells His Victims: ‘i Abused Your Trust’

By Reese Dunklin
Dallas Morning News
April 3, 2014

http://watchdogblog.dallasnews.com/2014/04/fugitive-catholic-priest-located-by-the-news-tells-his-victims-i-abused-your-trust.html/

I found Frank Klep giving candy to Samoan children in 2004, far from the criminal charges against him in Australia. Now he awaits sentencing on even more charges. (File)

Perhaps the most notorious priest from our 2004-2005 investigation into the global transfers of sexually abusive clergy apologized to his victims today in court.

But Frank Klep’s words were of little comfort, according to The Age newspaper in Australia.

Some victims — former students of his at an all-boys Catholic boarding school — walked out as he started reading a prepared statement.

“I abused your trust and betrayed you in the most appalling circumstances, for that I am truly sorry,” Klep said during a Melbourne hearing in advance of sentencing later this month.

This is Klep’s third pass through the justice system. He agreed last December to plead guilty to 12 charges, down from the 34 originally filed. That prosecution grew out of a 2012 government child-abuse inquiry and involves 14 now-grown victims.

Some of them also spoke during Thursday’s hearing. They described “failed relationships, depression and alcoholism they have experienced” since Klep’s assaults, The Age reported.

“I’m often ashamed of myself, how did I let this happen to me?” one was quoted as saying.

Klep has at least 27 known victims from his boarding school tenure in the 1970s and 1980s. He frequently molested the young boys when they sought medical care in the infirmary, which he oversaw. He also had served as principal.

My first Klep story found that parents had reported the sex abuse at the time to leaders of his religious order, the Salesians of Don Bosco. But he stayed in ministry. It wasn’t until the 1990s that Klep came under outside, criminal scrutiny for the first time.

After local police had opened a second investigation, the Salesians sent Klep to the Pacific island nation of Samoa in 1998. That’s where I found the fugitive priest working around young boys — despite the Salesians’ insistence that he had been isolated.

The Samoan government moved quickly to force Klep back to Australia. The legal justification: He had lied about his prior conviction on immigration papers.

Klep was arrested upon arrival in Australia in 2004 and later pleaded guilty to abusing 11 students. He served nearly six years and was also laicized. Then, after his release, publicity from the 2012 government inquiry brought yet more victims forward.

You can re-read my original reports on the Klep case at the bottom of this post.

Contact: rdunklin@dallasnews.com