AUSTRALIA
BBC News
By Trevor Marshallsea
Sydney
An accused paedophile priest, who threatened a girl with a knife and killed a bird with a screwdriver in front of children, has again been the subject of horrific claims at an Australian inquiry.
(Some readers may find the contents of this article disturbing)
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse has heard many allegations in its two-year history, but none more disturbing than those against Catholic priest Peter Searson.
Apart from allegations of repeated child sex abuse, the late Searson is said to have made children kneel between his legs during confession, tape-recorded confessions he found titillating, killed a cat by swinging it over a fence by its tail, showed children a dead body, shoplifted and misappropriated parish money.
Not for the first time, Searson’s name was brought up at the commission on Wednesday when Australia’s most senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, continued giving evidence.
As the commission heard that the Church failed to act against Searson despite multiple claims of child abuse, Cardinal Pell described him as “one of the most unpleasant priests I have ever met”.
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