AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
Rachel Browne
A paedophile priest told a bishop children “enjoyed” sexual activity and asked the Catholic Church for a $25,000 loan at the same time he was being blackmailed by one of his victims, according to documents tendered in evidence to a royal commission.
John Joseph Farrell, who was jailed in May after pleading guilty over a string of sexual offences against youngsters, “never expressed any regret for his actions” according to former Parramatta bishop Kevin Manning.
A 2005 letter from Bishop Manning, tendered to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, recounts a meeting with Farrell in which he confronted the priest about “widespread sexual activity with children”.
“When confronted with facts [Farrell] said: ‘I don’t know what you are on about, these kids came looking for it, they enjoyed it’,” Bishop Manning wrote.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.