A Priest, 88, Is Remanded in Custody for a 1970s Rape of a 12-year-old Boy

Broken Rites
August 1, 2014

http://brokenrites.org.au/drupal/node/240

On 1 July 2014 an Australian jury convicted a Melbourne priest (Father James Henry Scannell, 88) on a charge of buggery, committed against a 12-year-old boy more than 40 years ago. After the assault, the priest required the boy to take part in Confession and ordered him not to tell anybody about the assault, the court was told. The victim (now in his fifties) finally reported this crime to the police after learning that his aunt's funeral in 2010 was to be conducted by this priest. As well as working in this parish, Father Scannell was a "chaplain" for many years for vulnerable people at the Kew Mental Hospital and Children's Cottages in Melbourne.

In the Melbourne County Court on 1 August 2014, Judge David Parsons began pre-sentence proceedings for Scannell. The judge heard submissons by the prosecutor and the church's defence lawyer about what sort of sentence should be imposed on Scannell. The court received a written impact statement from the victim, outlining how the church-abuse disrupted his adolesence and his later life. The judge then remanded Scannell in custody. The judge will hand down his sentence in a week's time.

Court documents stated that in the early 1970s, as well as his chaplaincy at the Kew Cottages, Father Scannell was doing some ministering in a nearby parish (St Anne's, East Kew), and this is where the 12-year-old boy lived. The boy's aunt knew Father Scannell and this is how the boy came into contact with the priest. The boy was paid to do some odd jobs at the priest's house in East Kew, where the sexual abuse occurred. Father Scannell was then aged in his mid-forties.

Father Scannell (date of birth 17 April 1926) is listed in the current (July 2014) edition of the official Australian Catholic Directory as a "Supplementary Priest" of the Melbourne archdiocese. Supplementary priests are no longer in charge of a parish, but they are available to do relief work for other parish priests or for conducting weddings or funerals. Father Scannell has the letters "PE" (pastor emeritus) after his name, which means that the Melbourne archdiocese had awarded him the honour of being a distinguished priest.

Preliminary court proceedings

The court process began when James Henry Scannell appeared for a preliminary ("committal") procedure in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on 26 June 2013, accompanied by supporters.

Scannell was charged with one incident of buggery and two incidents of indecent assault. He pleaded Not Guilty to all charges.

The magistrate placed a non-publication order on Scannell's name for the time being. Therefore, media reports in 2013 referred merely to an un-named priest. (This non-publication order continued until the County Court jury returned a verdict on 1 July 2014.)

In a police document, tendered in court in 2013, the victim stated that Father Scannell paid him some pocket money to do odd jobs around the priest's house on a Saturday morning. The jobs included weeding the garden, washing his car and sweeping paths.

"On about the third or fourth occasion when I finished my jobs he would sit me down on the couch in the lounge room and start talking to me about things that made me feel uncomfortable," the victim stated.

He stated that, after these talks, the priest "would tell me to kneel beside his chair and face him, then take Confession."

He stated that the abuse happened several times before the final time he went to the priest's home to do odd jobs. He stated: "I don't remember even doing any work. (He) took me straight into his lounge room and sat me on the couch. From memory (he) was only wearing a dressing gown," he stated.

The victim detailed to police how the priest "cuddled me and tried to kiss me on the lips. I kept trying to turn away...(he) wouldn't let me go.

"I remember being frozen with fear and was scared of what was happening".

The victim stated that the priest then took him to a bedroom where the priest undressed the boy and abused him further.

The priest then made the boy take Confession again before ordering that "this event should never be talked about with anybody," the victim stated.

The boy then walked home crying, the court was told. He never went back to the priest's house again.

The victim stated that he kept the incidents as a secret for many years.

At the Magistrates Court hearing, the court arranged for the victim (aged 54 in 2013) to appear, via closed circuit television, from a different room in the court building. He answered questions from the prosecutor and the defence lawyer. As usual in such committal proceedings, the Magistrates Court was closed to the public during this evidence, so as to protect the privacy of witnesses.

The court was told that the victim first revealed the allegations when he and his wife were watching a documentary about Catholic priests. The wife told the court that the documentary made her husband angry and he then told her about the priest who had molested him.

The court was told that in October 2010 the victim's aunt died. The victim's sister contacted Father Scannell, asking him to conduct the funeral of the aunt who had known the priest. When the victim heard about the proposed funeral arrangements, he said he would refuse to attend if this priest was there, because of what the priest had done to him as a child.

The sister told the court that, after hearing about the abuse, she contacted the priest and told him not to conduct the funeral or attend.

According to court documents, the victim became angry at himself after his aunt's funeral, for never reporting his allegations to police. After the funeral, he finally decided to contact the police. After being interviewed, he eventually made his signed police statement.

The priest told police that the victim's aunt had asked him to have a word with the boy about puberty, according to the transcript of his interview with police. He denied molesting the boy.

In court, Magistrate Ann Collins decided that there is sufficient evidence for the case to go to trial, to be conducted by a judge in a higher court, the Melbourne County Court. The priest was granted bail in the meantime.

[Two days after the Magistrates Court hearing, the Melbourne Herald Sun published a comment from Melbourne retired priest Father Bob Maguire who said (in reply to a question from a reporter) that he had known the accused priest since the 1960s. Father Maguire indicated that, in this court case between the complainant and the priest, he was supporting the priest.]

Jury trial

At the jury trial in the County Court in June 2014, Scannell was faced with one charge - the buggery. He again pleaded not guilty and the jury was presented with the evidence.

In addressing the jury, prosecutor Kristie Churchill said that, after hearing that his aunt's funeral in 2010 would be conducted by Father Scannell, the victim reacted with shock. He decided that he had felt ashamed for long enough and therefore he reported the sexual assault to police.

The prosecutor said Father Scannell's reaction at being told he was not welcome to perform the funeral was notable. "He simply says OK, doesn't ask why, just says OK," she said.

Ms Churchill said the complainant, aged 55 at the time of the trial, is a reliable and believable witness who had given his evidence in graphic detail and "like it was".

Father Scannell's defence lawyer told the jury that it was difficult to prove one person's allegation against another when so much time had elapsed.

After the Jury's verdict, Judge David Parsons allowed Scannell to remain on bail until the pre-sentencing process, which was scheduled for 1 August 2014.

The Victoria Police investigation was conducted by Leading Senior Constable Tracey van Wyngaarden, of the Sexual Offences and Child-abuse Investigation Team (SOCIT) in Box Hill, Melbourne. This SOCIT office is still available for receiving any further information about James Henry Scannell.

Research by Broken Rites

James Henry Scannell was originally a member of the Marist Brothers, where his "religious" name was "Brother Frederick". He was in the Marists' southern province (this province, with headquarters in Melbourne, supplied "reverend Brothers" to schools in Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia). Broken Rites has ascertained that "Brother Frederick" once taught at the Marist Brothers school in Northam W.A., along with two other Marist child-sex offenders - Brother "Bertinus" and Brother Frank Hesford.

In the 1960s, James Scannell ceased being a Marist Brother and was allowed to become a priest. Henceforth he belonged to the Melbourne archdiocese, where he became known as "Father Jim Scannell". Broken Rites has searched the annual editions of the Australian Catholic Directory, and we found that he was first listed as a priest in the 1967 edition, which said he was then based at the parish of St Mary of the Angels, Geelong.

From 1968 until the late 1990s, he was listed as chaplain at the Geriatric Hospital and the adjoining Children's Cottages in Kew, Melbourne. Simultaneously he did some work in parishes around Melbourne, including Kew East, Kingsville, Brighton East and Warburton.

The Kew Children's Cottages and Geriatric Hospital had originally been known (in the 19th century) as the Kew Lunatic Asylum or later as the Kew Mental Hospital or Willesmere. The site was beside the Yarra River, only 6 kilometres from central Melbourne. These institutions have now been closed and the site has been developed for private housing.

Broken Rites would be interested to learn more about Father Jim Scannell's activities while he was the "chaplain" for these vulnerable people, especially at the Kew Cottages for children. Scannell was publicly identified with the Kew Cottages. For example, on 8 April 1997 the Melbourne Age newspaper reported a ceremony at the Kew Cottages, at which Father Jim Scannell spoke.

The Kew Cottages were established in 1887 to accommodate unwanted children who have an intellectual disability. Some Wards of the State and other various "difficult" children were also admitted. Many of those children remained in residence at the Cottages as adults. The Kew Cottages institution was finally closed in 2008.