AUSTRALIAN Priest Accused of Abusing Boys Hospitalised before Deportation from Papua New Guinea

7 News
October 9, 2014

https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/25222837/australian-priest-accused-of-abusing-boys-hospitalised-before-deportation-from-papua-new-guinea/

An elderly Australian priest accused of sexually abusing boys in the 1960s has been rushed to hospital in Papua New Guinea after a suspected drug overdose.

It came just hours after Father Roger Mount was made aware of plans to deport him to Australia.

Father Mount has denied the allegations of abuse, but has also ignored a 2011 suspension from PNG's Catholic Church by simply refusing to leave his rural parish and overstaying his visa.

The Archbishop of Papua New Guinea, John Ribat, announced Father Mount was to be removed from the parish and deported after the Catholic Church in Australia paid out yet another compensation claim to one of his alleged victims this week.

The ABC tried to speak to Father Mount about the accusations, but he refused to leave the locked church.

Dorcas Ledo lives next door to the church and said, hours after this interaction, Father Mount's driver delivered the daily newspaper with its front page headline "Paedophilia claim rocks church".

Father Mount was rushed to hospital in Port Moresby, unconscious and vomiting, and a church official said he suspected an overdose.

His condition later stabilised.

For a decade, the priest made his home in the town of Sogeri, a forty minute drive from Port Moresby near the start of the Kokoda Track.

The head of the local church council, Joseph Efi, said he heard rumours of the abuse allegations but thought it was none of his business.

"I haven't asked Father on this one because I thought this was personal to himself," he said.

"As far as I'm concerned what happened in Australia is in Australia and I have no knowledge of [it]."

Mr Efi says two school-aged boys have been living with the elderly priest who has had extensive access to children in the decades after the sexual abuse allegations.

"In Papua New Guinea, yes he did look after those boys who were on the street, that's part of his history, he cared for them," Mr Efi said.

Father Mount's neighbour, Mr Ledo, said many teenage boys visited the priest.

"Those are not the only boys, big young boys come to [the] house and then go. We call them Father's boys," he said.

The original allegations against Father Mount date back to the 1960s when he was a brother with the St John of God order in New South Wales.

On Monday, Australian David McNamara received an apology and $91,000 after complaining of abuse at the hands of then-Brother Mount and two other brothers.

The priest has never faced charges and migrated to Papua New Guinea in the 1980s.

Archbishop Ribat said he will wait for a medical report on Father Mount before commenting further.