Catholic Priest John Sidney Denham Treated Schools like ‘paedophilic Smorgasbord’

By Leigh Van Den Broeke
Daily Telegraph
January 23, 2015

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/catholic-priest-john-sidney-denham-treated-schools-like-paedophilic-smorgasbord/story-fni0cx4q-1227194891267?nk=9bd9d0e669a011da00cfb4b48d60c50f

Pedophile priest John Sidney Denham has been sentenced to at least another 13 years behind bars. Picture: ABC TV

A Catholic priest who treated schools as a “paedophilic smorgasbord” will spend at least another 13 years in jail after being sentenced for systematically abusing dozens of vulnerable boys.

John Sidney Denham, 73, had already been jailed for at least 14 years in 2010 for his “sadistic” sexual assault of boys as young as five.

But yesterday in the District Court in Sydney, Judge Helen Syme sentenced him to at least another 13 years for the abuse of another 18 boys — describing his crimes as some of the worst the courts have ever seen.

“As the crown rhetorically asks, ‘How much worse does it get?’,” she said.

Denham’s victims intermittently left in tears as the court heard how, through the protection of church colleagues, he was able to have 18 years of uninterrupted offending across schools in NSW.

At St Pius X College in the Hunter region, where he taught from 1975 to 1979, Judge Syme said the abuse happened “wherever and whenever” Denham wanted — in the playground, at his office and even outside the confessional.

The now deceased principal Father Tom Brennan must have known about his “depraved behaviour”, Judge Syme said, adding that there was an “organised undercurrent of sexualised behaviour being sanctioned and more than likely planned” at the school.

Preying on the most vulnerable boys, Denham would befriend the child, give them treats, abuse them and then threaten them. To one boy he tauntingly asked, “Who was going to believe a child over a priest?”.

He treated St Pius X as “his own paedophilic smorgasbord”, with dozens having complained of abuse over four-and-a-half years.

“The sheer volume of boys and the number of times each child was abused is staggering even to this court,” Judge Syme said.

The effects on them have been catastrophic, Judge Syme added, saying “old sins cast long shadows”.

For 25 charges relating to the abuse of 18 boys at the school, as well as 23 other offences, Denham was sentenced to at least 13 years and a maximum of 18 years.

As this will be served at the same time as his 2010 sentence, he will be eligible for parole in 2028 when he is 85 years old.

Outside court, a now 49-year-old victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said:

“I'm glad that God was on my side.”