Who Is Burning down Melbourne's Churches? Police Investigate Link to Evil Paedophile Priests after a Suspected Arsonist Torches a Third Catholic Church in Easter Week
By Sarah Michael
On Wednesday, it took firefighters 90 minutes to extinguish blazes at the altar and storage room of St Mary's Catholic Church on Foster Street in Dandenong. Father O'Donnell - who was reportedly known by police as the 'two-a-day man' - was jailed for 15 months in 1995 after he admitted to abusing 10 boys and two girls. He is believed to have committed hundreds of sexual assaults against young girls and boys over the 50 years that he worked in Victorian Catholic churches, before he retired in 1992. He died in 1997.
At the Dandenong church in 1958 Father O'Donnell allegedly molested a 15-year-old boy in the presbytery and went on to sexually abuse his brother, sister and friends, The Age reported. He presided over the church from 1958 to 1986, before moving onto Oakleigh. On Monday, heritage-listed St James Catholic Church in Brighton was mostly destroyed by fire and St Mary's Catholic Church in St Kilda was found with a small amount fire damage to a door. Bishop Peter Elliott told 3AW Catholic churches would be increasing their security, and said he did not believe the fires were lit by sex abuse victims. Australian actress Rachel Griffiths said she was 'quite elated' when she heard the 124-year-old James Catholic church had been destroyed by fire. The Six Feet Under star revealed that like many of the church's former parishioners she found it hard to even 'drive past' St James church in Brighton, in Melbourne's south-east. Firefighters desperately tried to battle a fierce blaze that took hold of the building at around 6.30am on Monday morning but it was left gutted. Ms Griffiths told 774 ABC Melbourne the church was plagued by 'tragedy and complicated feelings' and described it as being known locally as 'the haunted house on the hill'. 'We've all attended many funerals of boys that we now know were abused by [Father Ronald] Pickering ... and other perpetrators in the parish - at the actual church that it occurred in,' she said. 'It's been hard for priests to really cleanse this parish, it's been very difficult to rebuild a community and we pretty much all scattered after the revelations came out and found other parishes.'
Ms Griffiths revealed she and other local Catholics had avoided being married in the church because of the sick crimes that historically took place inside it. Her mother stopped taking her to the church after her father left them because Pickering wouldn't have a 'divorced woman in the church'. 'I think that's probably one thing that saved our family that so many of my friends' brothers got involved with,' she said.
We stopped going because he stopped my mother at the door.' At least five people killed themselves after being sexually abused by paedophile priest Ronald Pickering between 1960 and 1980, according to research carried out in 2012. The former priest was named by the Catholic Church in 2013 as being guilty of sexually abusing children. However, after emigrating to Britain in the 1990s he was never brought to justice before he died. One victim, Raymond D'Brass, told a 2013 Victorian government inquiry that Pickering groomed him with cigarettes, money and alcohol. He was abused between the age of 9 and 13 while acting as a choir and altar boy at the church. In his statement at the parliamentary inquiry on March 4, 2013, Mr D'Brass said: 'Over this four-year period I am aware that two other boys were also sexually abused by Father Ronald Pickering. 'I was regularly fondled and petted by Pickering, as were other boys. This occurred within the change rooms of the church and within the presbytery. I began smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol with Pickering from the age of nine and on many occasions passed out from consuming the alcohol, which left me vulnerable to such abuse.'
He recalled: 'I now have several vivid memories of the sexual abuses, as well as some vague flashes due to the state of intoxication. In 1983, I stopped going to the presbytery after Pickering verbally abused me in front of the other boys for choosing not to attend the upcoming Sunday service and instead going to the cricket with my father. 'He told me that I was not welcome back and that I would burn in hell. Between 1983 and 1987, the two other boys who I know were abused continued to visit the presbytery and receive money, alcohol and cigarettes from Pickering, but I chose not to because I was terrified of him. I have no doubt that they were continuing to be abused by Pickering. 'One night after one of the boys paid a visit to Pickering, he attempted suicide. He was unsuccessful on this attempt, but he would go on to successfully commit suicide a short time later.'
The cause of the fire has not yet been established. 'MFB will determine the cause of the fire and then if it's suspicious it will be passed on to police,' a Victoria Police spokesperson said. More than 80 firefighters and 20 trucks were at the scene where the ancient bluestone church was fully alight on Monday morning. A caller to radio show 3AW, named Andrew, said: 'You can hear that in the background, the roof is actually collapsing now.'
Residents watching the fire were cleared from the area because of asbestos. And a 10 metre exclusion zone was put in place around the building over fears of structural collapse. MFB spokesperson David Jarwood told the ABC the smoke could be seen from 50 kilometres away. 'It's about 50 by 40 metres apparently the blaze is, the structure, so I'm not surprised people can see a plume from Mornington,' he said. Smoke from the St James Church fire could be seen across Melbourne, including the West Gate Bridge. An advice notice put out by the MFB said: 'Emergency services are attending to building fire in North Rd Brighton. The area of North Rd and St James Brighton is currently closed and people are advised to avoid the area.'
The church was built in 1891 and the Parish of Saint James was established a year later. In 1990 a bell tower and bells were installed at a cost of $500,000. The Victorian Heritage Database website said the church 'stands on a site which has great importance in the early history of Catholicism in Victoria as the place where the mission to Brighton was established circa 1854'. It is described as 'a fine complex of Roman Catholic church, rectory and church close, mostly dating from the last century but with additions made in 1908 and in the 1920s'. It has an 'unusually elaborate 1934 decoration of the chancel with Roman mosaic flooring, opus sectile tiling and marble altars and rails. The pipe organ by Alfred Fuller of Kew, placed centrally in the rear gallery, is a rare example of his work'.
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