Child Sex Abuse Royal Commission: Priest Didn't Report Rumours of "Boys Running Naked" at Camps Despite His Concerns
By Brad Ryan
A priest who heard rumours of "boys running naked" at camps run by another priest says he refused to help promote the so-called "summer safaris", but did not report his concerns to authorities. Father Mark O'Keefe has been giving evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which is examining the case of former Wollongong priest John Nestor. Mr Nestor was defrocked in 2008 after an investigation commissioned by the local diocese found he engaged in sexual misconduct at the camps between 1989 and 1993. Father O'Keefe, now a parish priest in Wollongong, told the commission he became aware of the camps while working as an assistant priest in Nowra in 1988. He said he later heard a story about "boys running naked" at the camps, though he cannot remember where the story came from. "I judged the boys running naked from one point to another to be inappropriate and that was all the information I had," Father O'Keefe told the Sydney hearing. He said he then refused to distribute flyers promoting the camps, but he did not report his concerns or investigate further. "It's a bit difficult to say when a line is crossed, a boundary is crossed," Father O'Keefe said. "I was not aware of any inappropriate touching or anything like that - that would have been reportable." Father O'Keefe said he would take further action if he heard the same sorts of rumours today. "It's always easy to see things 20 years after the event and respond differently, but I would, certainly now with much more information, act differently," he said. "At the very least, I would have tried to establish the accuracy of the report." Investigation finds pattern of sexual misconduct at camps The commission has been told the Wollongong diocese appointed Kamira Stacey Consulting to investigate Mr Nestor in January 2007. The investigation followed numerous complaints about the camps from children, parents, a camp assistant and a school principal in the 1990s. They included allegations Mr Nestor watched boys shower, showered in front of boys, conducted bodily "soap inspections" and touched a boy's genitals. The investigation found Mr Nestor engaged in a pattern of sexual misconduct at the summer camps between 1989 and 1993. In 1996, Mr Nestor was also found guilty of indecently assaulting a 15-year-old altar boy, but that conviction was overturned on appeal the following year. The local diocese tried to remove Mr Nestor from the ministry after that case but the Vatican resisted those efforts until Pope Benedict ultimately dismissed him in 2008. The royal commission is considering how the Wollongong diocese responded to the allegations and how the Catholic Church, under canon law, can deal with priests who are accused, but not convicted of child abuse.
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