Paedophile priest dies before facing court amid new allegations

By Shannon Deery
Herald Sun
April 15, 2014

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/paedophile-priest-dies-before-facing-court-amid-new-allegations/story-fni0fee2-1226885260795

Former priest Wilfred Baker outside Magistrates Court.

A NOTORIOUS paedophile priest who was allowed to continue working despite accusations of serious assaults against children has died while waiting to face justice on new charges.

Alleged victims of Wilfred Baker have been left devastated that he will not be held to account for a string of crimes against kids between 1966 and 1974.

He was set to stand trial in the County Court on a string of new offences including indecent assault and gross indecency.

The Herald Sun understands brothers allegedly abused by Baker were poised to give evidence against the disgraced priest.

But prosecutors today filed a notice of discontinuance in the matter following his death in February.

His victims say they would not have been abused if allegations of sex abuse reported to Archbishop Frank Little in 1978 were reported to authorities.

Archbishop Little was reportedly told Baker had been molesting students but did not act.

Baker was instead moved around Melbourne parishes with his congregations and authorities unaware of the accusations.

During the 60s and '70s he worked at parishes in East Brighton, Mordialloc, Doveton and Eltham.

The convicted paedophile was sentenced to four years' jail in 1999 over 16 counts of indecent assault and one of gross indecency, involving eight boys aged 10 to 13, over a 20-year period.

He had admitted taking some of his young victims to his parents' home in Maryborough where he assaulted them.

Baker had befriended the boys' parents, who allowed their children to go away for the weekend with the priest.

Baker was placed on administrative leave with his faculties withdrawn in 1997 and never again worked as a priest. He was laicised in September 2012.

Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne spokesman James O'Farrell said Baker did not function publicly as a priest after he was placed on administrative leave.

He said the Church had refused to bury Baker in a crypt for priests at the Melbourne General Cemetery.

``The Archdiocese acknowledges and apologises for the suffering which Baker caused to those whom he abused and to the families of his victims,'' he said.