AUSTRALIA
Courier
By Pat Byrne Dec. 19, 2013
A FORMER Christian Brother, convicted in 1997 over the indecent assault of two Ballarat school boys, was today jailed for three months over a fresh charge of indecent assault dating back to 1974.
Yet Stephen Francis Farrell, 62, who pleaded guilty to molesting his now third school boy victim, walked from Ballarat Magistrates Court after lawyers immediately appealed the jail term.
Magistrate Michelle Hodgson said Farrell had exploited his position of power to sexually abuse a 10-year-old boy in his care, adding the community must know that the courts denounce such behaviour.
“Slowly but surely we have come to realise many of these sexual predators are people who have taken advantage of positions of power,” Ms Hodgson said.
“We forget in a more secular 2013 the power the church wielded over families.”
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