Fugitive priest located by The News sentenced a 3rd time for molesting scores of boys

By Reese Dunklin
Dallas Morning News
May 28, 2014

http://watchdogblog.dallasnews.com/2014/05/fugitive-priest-located-by-the-news-sentenced-a-3rd-time-for-molesting-scores-of-boys.html/

Frank Klep (File/2004)

After a 2004 Mass, Frank Klep hands out candy to Samoan children.

One of the most notorious figures from our 2004-2005 investigation about global transfers of predatory Catholic priests has been sentenced to 10½ years in jail.

The judge choked up during a hearing Monday in Melbourne, Australia, while describing Frank Klep’s “vile” sex crimes and “devastating” impact on abuse victims. According to news reports, the judge left the courtroom to compose himself.

“You’ve ruined lives and the ripple effect has touched every aspect of these young boys, and their families as well,” Judge Frank Gucciardo was quoted as telling Klep.

“There is no doubt,” the judge added, “your conduct plummets the depth of evil hypocrisy.”

Klep pleaded guilty late last year to sex-abuse charges involving 15 victims. He struck a deal with prosecutors to reduce the number of charges by half.

During a pre-sentencing hearing last month, he apologized to victims, saying: “I abused your trust and betrayed you in the most appalling circumstances.” Some of the now-grown victims watching in the courtroom walked out.

Klep now has at least 28 known victims.

The complaints against Klep date to the 1970s and 1980s, when he was a principal and administrator at a boarding school run by his Catholic order, the Salesians of Don Bosco.

Klep frequently molested young boys who went to the school’s infirmary for medical care. Some abuse also happened in their beds. One alleged decades later he had been drugged before he was fondled.

Victims began coming forward to church leaders by 1986, we reported in our investigation. In response, Klep was sent for a couple of years to work at the Salesians’ headquarters in Rome and pursue a master’s degree in New York City.

Klep returned to Australia in 1989 and again began working with children, at a Salesians’ youth center. At least one victim’s mother protested to no avail. Then, in 1993, two brothers took their allegations outside the church.

By going to authorities, the two triggered what ended in Klep’s first conviction, in 1994. Klep received less than a year in jail. His troubles weren’t over, though. Shortly after he finished his sentence, police opened a second criminal investigation.

Police questioned and fingerprinted him in 1996, then for unexplained reasons the case stalled. When investigators tried two years later to question Klep again, they learned the Salesians had transferred him to the Pacific island nation of Samoa. At that point, they charged him and issued an arrest warrant.

Klep’s Australian victims kept trying to get him sidelined. Salesians leaders took no meaningful action and assured them he was living in exile. I found a very different situation in 2004 when I traveled to Samoa for our “Runaway Priests: Hiding in Plain Sight” investigation.

We saw the fugitive handing out candy to children after one Sunday Mass. Some teenage boys said in interviews that Klep tutored them alone in his church bedroom. (You can read the full text of our 2004 Klep coverage at the bottom of this post.)

After our story published, the Samoan government moved swiftly to send Klep back to Australia. Officials found he had lied on Samoan immigration papers by failing to disclose his 1994 conviction.

Klep was arrested at the airport in Australia. He was later convicted and jailed nearly six years in the abuse of 11 now-grown boys. He was also laicized. But once again, his troubles weren’t over.

Following Klep’s release, a 2012 government child-abuse inquiry brought renewed attention to his past. More victims came forward amid the publicity. Authorities charged him in his third round of molestation cases, which led to this week’s sentence.

Klep becomes eligible for parole in 6½ years. He will be 76 years old.