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Former priest jailed for student sex abuse at boarding school in 1960s
By Emily Portelli News
AN ELDERLY former Catholic priest who forced a teenage boarder to sexually gratify him and then confess his sin and beg forgiveness will serve only six months in jail. James Patrick Jennings, 81, received a largely suspended three-year term of imprisonment for the sustained sexual abuse of three young boarders at a regional Victorian school in the mid-1960s. County Court judge Wendy Wilmoth said allegations of abuse were reported to at least three priests at St Vincent's College in Bendigo but took decades to reach the police. The judge said one complainant — now in his 60s — came forward only when his local priest read aloud an apology from the local bishop for the sexual assaults on children by priests. Judge Wilmoth said Jennings' state of profound denial led him to allege the complainants — who had not met and had no knowledge of any other complaints against the former priest and teacher — had fabricated the assaults for financial gain. In February a jury found Jennings guilty of five counts of indecent assault on a person under 16. The attacks on the boys, aged 12 and 13, started shortly after he was appointed to teach at the boarding school 1963 and continued until 1967. On each occasion, Mr Jennings fondled or masturbated the boys in their beds, in his office or in the school sick bay. In one incident he allegedly instructed one boy to masturbate him, saying "he owed him one". Jennings then admonished the boy, making him confess his sins to him and another priest and beg for forgiveness. Judge Wilmoth said the hypocrisy of the admonition and the exploitation of the young boy's emotions and religious faith were aggravating factors. The offending spanned five years before one of the students complained to another priest and Jennings was removed from the school. He was ordered by his superiors, to return to Sydney, where he had started as a teacher priest in 1959 at St Stanislaus College. He was moved from the school two years later and posted in Queensland "because of an undue familiarity problem with one of the students," court documents revealed. A former St Stanislaus College student told the County Court Jennings had indecently assaulted him. In 2010 Jennings stood trial in the Sydney District Court on charges of abusing boys at St Stanislaus College. Four complainants gave evidence but Jennings was later found not guilty of all charges. Jennings left the priesthood in the 1970s and become the financial controller of a top Sydney school. He also helped his wife raise her three children. Judge Wilmoth said there were many aggravating factors to the crimes, such as the gross breach of trust involved, but mitigating factors — including Jennings' age, ailing health and service to the community — had to be considered. She sentenced him to three years' imprisonment and suspended two-and-a-half years of the term for a three-year period.
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