SA Supreme Court Told Catholic Church Dismissed Teen Sex Allegations against Father John Fleming As a Priest “just Being Inappropriate”

Daily Telegraph
October 30, 2014

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/sa-supreme-court-told-catholic-church-dismissed-teen-sex-allegations-against-father-john-fleming-as-a-priest-just-being-inappropriate/story-fnii5yv6-1227107701916

Father John Flemming outside the Supreme Court.

A WOMAN who claims Father John Fleming used her, as a teenager, for sex has told a court the Catholic Church dismissed her complaint as the priest “just being inappropriate”.

The woman, known as “Jane”, today told the Supreme Court she was shocked by a Catholic Church worker’s reaction when she raised a complaint against Fr Fleming in 2001-2002.

She said she told the woman that, following a 1970s menage-a-trois, when she was a teenager, Fr Fleming had used her to service his sexual needs.

Father Fleming denies the allegations.

“After I had told her, (the worker) said ‘wasn’t he just being inappropriate?’,” Jane said.

“This person was essentially telling me essentially that what I had just told her was inappropriate — it was not inappropriate, it was wrong.”

Fr Fleming, 71, is suing over Sunday Mail articles reporting allegations he was inappropriately sexually involved Jane, another woman known as “Jenny” and a man known as “Richard”.

He asserts those allegations were false and a “material cause” in the termination of his position with Catholic liberal arts institute Campion College.

The Sunday Mail, published by the same company as The Advertiser, says the priest’s asserted behaviour was “wrong whichever way you cut it”.

Today, Jane said she did not confront her past with Fr Fleming until 2001-2002.

She said that changed when then-Governor General Peter Hollingsworth was criticised for his handling of sex allegations laid, against a priest, by a young woman.

“I remember thinking ‘oh, that girl, it’s probably her fault, this poor man, losing his position for some stupid girl’,” she said.

“I caught myself saying that and (asked) ‘what are you thinking?’, and I guess that began the process of actually looking at the cause of that thought.”

Jane said she first approached, and received great support from, the Anglican Church because Fr Fleming had been one of its priests at the time of her dealings with him.

That church, however, was unable to assist her because Fr Fleming had converted to Catholicism.

Jane said she pursued the matter with that organisation, leading to her conversation with the church worker after which “I fled, essentially, I just fled”.

She said SA Police subsequently contacted her, saying there were other people making complaints against Fr Fleming.

“That changed things because, if I did nothing, then if anybody else was hurt it would be my fault ... I’m an adult and, if I don’t say anything, I’m morally responsible,” she said.

Jane said she felt police did not handle her complaint “with any depth” and so approached the Sunday Mail to tell her story.

She said her experiences with Fr Fleming had “certainly changed the course of my life”.

“I didn’t learn about right and wrong, and it doesn’t seem like much, but it means you put yourself in the wrong situations,” she said.

“There are boundaries for really good reasons, and those boundaries protect.”

The trial, before Special Auxiliary Justice Malcolm Gray, continues.