AUSTRALIA
Daily Advertiser
Ken Grimson
13 Sep 2016
WAGGA’S retiring Catholic Bishop, Gerard Hanna, has been summonsed to appear as a witness at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
The commission, chaired by Justice Peter McClellan, has turned its attention this week to the activities of defrocked Catholic priest John Joseph Farrell.
Farrell, 63, was found guilty in May of 79 child abuse offences against 12 victims, and last week was charged with fresh offences for which he is expected to stand trial in April next year.
In her opening address to the commission in Sydney on Monday, senior counsel assisting, Gail Furness, said Farrell’s offences first came to light in 1984 when he was a priest at Moree in the Armidale Diocese.
The commission is examining how the diocese, and the Diocese of Parramatta where Farrell also served as a priest, responded to claims of inappropriate behaviour against him.
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