Former Priest Faces 29 Sex Abuse Charges

30/06/2009 - 14:28:52
Original Article
Ireland

A trial date has been set for a former priest accused of the sexual assault and buggery of two young boys almost 30 years ago.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, denies 29 charges of both indecent assault and buggery on dates between June 1, 1979 and June 31, 1983 when one of the alleged victims was aged between seven and 11 years old and the second was aged between 14 and 15 years old.

Judge Katherine Delahunt at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court remanded the accused on continuing bail and set a trial date for next April.

(AUS)Honoured Priest Accused of Abusing Males

06/26/09
Original article
by Andrew Drummond

He has dedicated his life to the Catholic church. For years he was a member of the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board and his work with HIV and AIDS sufferers in Sydney earned him a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 1994.

But this week, Father Hugh Edward Murray, 79, was charged with five counts of indecently assaulting males.

Suffering heart disease and too sick to face the charges in Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court on Thursday, a solicitor for Murray said he "vehemently" denied the allegations that he said stemmed from a "police trawl".

Even if the charges are not proven, if Murray is deemed to have "behaved or acted in a manner that has brought disrepute on the Order", the retired priest could be stripped of his OAM.

Police say Murray is the ninth man to be charged over historical child sex offences at boys boarding school St Stanislaus Catholic College (Stannies), at Bathurst in central western NSW.

There are three alleged victims in the matters Murray is charged with, one of whom was a Stannies student.

Police allege the indecent assault against the boy occurred at Bathurst some time between February 6, 1978 and June 1978.

The other charges relate to two victims with four alleged indecent assaults occurring at Sydney and Eastwood between June 1966 and January 1973.

His solicitor Greg Walsh did not enter a plea on Murray's behalf in court on Thursday but later made clear his intentions.

"The allegations are vehemently, strenuously denied," Mr Walsh told AAP on Friday.

The matters involving two of the alleged victims were investigated by police in 1999 and no charges were laid, Mr Walsh added.

"The chances of these charges reaching any conviction is highly unlikely," Mr Walsh said.

"I've got no doubt that the charging of Father Murray is consistent with the police conducting what is a police trawl ... finding and charging any person they can link to what can only be described as a bizarre set of allegations."

Murray, who is on bail, is excused from attending court when the matters are next mentioned on August 20.

This story was found at: http://news.brisbanetimes.com.au/breaking-news-national/honoured-priest-accused-of-abusing-males-20090626-czpy.html

Kenya:Priest Accused of Child Molestation

Alex Kiarie, AfricaNews reporter in Nairobi, Kenya

06/18/09

Original article

1. A Catholic priest in Kenya, Father Renato Kizito Sesana has been accused of child molestation. His accusers are male minors who were formerly under his care. Many Kenyans are still reeling from the accusations leveled against the Italian Catholic priest.

   

   The reports that were first reported by a Kenyan private TV station-KTN- showed two unidentified boys who claimed that Fr Kizito had at one time molested them. They said that the Catholic priest had used Italian words to hypnotise them before sodomising them.
   
   One of them has since turned to drugs, while the other has since left the Kivuli Children's Home that is run by Fr Kizito.
   
   Initially, when the TV reporters went to Fr Kizito for a rejoinder, the priest refused to answer questions. The station aired footage in which the priest was seen brushing off a reporter. However, he did emerge on Wednesday and denied the allegations. He even dared those who had any evidence to show it. He added that he was being targeted by some individuals who were eyeing the Kshs3 billion ($38.6m) property that he has amassed.
   
   But in a dramatic move, the KTN aired a photograph of Fr Kizito in bed with a boy-both naked. The photograph was however edited because of its x-rated content. The station claimed that it is in possession of more graphic photographs of Father Kizito's escapades with young boys below the age of 12.
   
   It is claimed that Fr Kizito used top take photographs as he molested the boys. He would later send the photos to his accomplices in Italy, who would in turn travel to Kenya disguised as donors and sodomise the boys.
   
   One of the boys told of how he together with his colleagues were taken for a 'trip' to the Coastal town of Mombasa, where they were sodomised by the prelate's visiting friends. Fr Kizito later promised to pay the boys' school fees and support them financially on premise that the boys would tell no one about their ordeals.
   
   Father Kizito, 67, is a renowned catholic priest, whose missionary work has earned him respect and recognition. He runs several homes for the orphans in Kenya, Zambia and even some parts of Sudan. He is also the brains behind Radio Waumini, the first Catholic radio station in Kenya. The station broadcasts live services from the Vatican every Sunday.
   
   He is also an accomplished journalist. In fact, between 1995 and 2002, he ran a column titled 'Father Kizito's Notebook' in one the mainstream newspapers, 'The Sunday Nation'. The paper is owned by Kenya's largest private media house, the Nation Media Group.
   
   He was born in Leco, Italy, and holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering among other qualifications. In several of his writings, the priest attracted the ire of readers when he claimed that homosexuals should be forgiven for they need more understanding from the society. The letters to the editor from readers castigated the priest for being sympathetic to homosexuals, which many Kenyans frown upon.
   
   The latest scandal involving catholic priests come hot on the heels of a brewing spiritual war pitting reformist priests who are advocating for marriage. Some of the purists, led by Zambian dissident Bishop Emanuel Milingo, have even disclosed that they have been married for over twenty years. It also adds to the long list of randy priests who have turned against their young flock.
   
   A few months ago, the Vatican announced a one billion dollar bill in compensation for the sexual offenses of catholic priests to American victims.
   
   Over 10,000 cases involving 4,300 priests were reported in the US between 1950 and 2002. In 1999 Pope John Paul sacked a Mexican priest for sexual related reasons. Ireland too has reported a high number of sexual offenses involving catholic priests. However, Africa has reported fewer cases.
   
   Kenya in particular has never had such a high profile case involving a senior catholic prelate like the Fr Kizito.
   
   Reached on phone, the Kenyan Catholic Arch-Bishop John Njue, confirmed that the church leadership has been receiving complains about father Kizito. But he added that they church has been unable to act on the reports because they have been coming in form of anonymous letters. He however added that they will look into the matter with the aim of taking the necessary steps.
   
   Kenyans who talked to AfricaNews expressed shock and disbelief at the reports. They called upon the Kenyan government to investigate the case and prosecute if possible.

(IRL)Incest Probe: 'Siblings Forced to Have sex'

06/18/09

Original article

Police last night confirmed they were investigating horrific allegations of serious sexual abuse in a family in the west of Ireland.

The investigation involves a family with a large number of children -- five of whom are understood to have made statements claiming their parents committed incest.

The abuse allegations first emerged at the beginning of the decade, when one of the children made claims while in foster care.

The Director of Public Prosecutions decided not to bring charges following an initial two-year investigation, even though gardai recommended serious charges against both parents.

However, the case is now being re-examined following the successful prosecution of a Roscommon mother of six for incest earlier this year.

The two cases are not linked, with the current investigation focussing on abuse which is alleged to have taken place in a different county.

A garda spokesman said: "Gardai can confirm that an investigation is being carried out into allegation of serious sexual assault involving a family in the west of Ireland."

The couple's two eldest children, who are now in their mid-to-late 20s, are understood to have denied being abused by their parents.

However, the next five children are understood to have claimed that they and a number of their younger siblings, who were only infants at the time, were subjected to a shocking litany of abuse in the family home.

It is understood there were also allegations that some of the children were forced by the parents to have sex with each other. As well as violent sexual abuse, allegations of extreme neglect were also made.

Children were left to go hungry and sometimes had to steal or hide food, it was claimed.

The children involved are now aged between 10 and their early 20s. All were taken out of the family home and placed in care.

The mother in the family has herself alleged she was sexually abused by a priest when she was young. She has also had documented difficulties with alcohol abuse.

The family first came to the attention of health authorities in the mid-1990s when they lived in a different town.

They came under the supervision of the local health board after neighbours made complaints about the physical well-being of the children.

However, it was not until the family moved to the west of Ireland that the sexual abuse allegations came out.

Sources said comments made by one of the children to a foster parent in late 2000 triggered the initial garda probe.

Evidence gathered in the case, including medical examinations of the children, was examined by an independent international expert.

Last night Rape Crisis Network Ireland (RCNI) described cases of sexual abuse within a family as being among the hardest to investigate and prosecute, because of the primacy of the family in the Constitution.

RCNI executive director Fiona Neary said parents can still hold psychological control over their children, even if abuse has occurred.

She said the DPP should work more closely with gardai on such cases, using specially trained prosecutors, similar to the system used in the UK.

Ms Neary added: "Gardai also need to be getting specific guidelines from the DPP on what would best inform a book of evidence in a child sexual abuse case."

Paraguay President Accused of Sex Attack

June 24, 2009
Original Article

A former housekeeper who accuses Paraguay's President Fernando Lugo of fathering her six-year-old son has charged that the former Catholic bishop initiated the relationship by sexually assaulting her.

Benigna Leguizamon, 27, said in a radio interview that the assault took place in the bishop's two-story residence where she worked as a housekeeper.

"He locked me in a room and there he took off my clothes by force and he overpowered me. There was no way of escaping him," she said.

"He asked me not to be angry. Later he continued the relationship until I became pregnant. At that point, he promised to assume responsibility for it," she said, saying their relationship lasted two years.

Her comments on Monday to a radio station in her hometown of Ciudad del Este were printed on Tuesday by newspapers in Asuncion.

Lugo, who has been embroiled in a sex scandal since acknowledging in April having fathered the child of another woman while still a priest, brushed off the latest accusation.

"It's the second chapter of this story. Let's wait for the third chapter, to see what they come up with," he said on Tuesday.

Leguizamon, one of three women to accuse Lugo of being the father of their child, has sued to establish that he is the father of her six-year-old son, Fernandito.

Asked whether he would acceded to her demand, Lugo said he would do "what the lawyers say and what the court determines."

His lawyer, Marcos Farina, said he will object for a second time to a judge's order for the president to appear in court in Ciudad del Este to submit to a paternity test.

Farina argues that Lugo's duties as president of Paraguay, an impoverished country whose population is 90 per cent Catholic, prevent him from doing so.

Lugo has so far accepted paternity of only one child, two-year-old Guillermo Armindo, the result of a relationship with 24-year-old Viviana Carillo.

Damiana Hortensia Moran, 39, also claims he fathered her four-year-old son, Juan Pablo. But she has not sued to prove paternity.

In the radio interview, Leguizamon said a fourth woman with a four-year-old child also was planning to sue the president to establish paternity.

Lugo, meanwhile, has urged the Catholic church to "rethink celibacy" for priests.

"I think that recent events should lead the Catholic Church to reflect on the value of celibacy inside the church," Lugo told Chilean daily newspaper El Mercurio in an interview published on Sunday.

From the start of the scandal, opposition leaders have called for Lugo's resignation. A leftist, he was elected in April 2008, ending a 61-year-rule by the Conservative Party.

Child sex: The Cruel Truth

06/17/09

Original article

Father Renato Kizito during an interview at Shalom House on Ngong Road in Nairobi on Wednesday. Photo/STEPHEN MUDIARI

By CAROLINE RWENJI and FRED MUKINDA Posted Wednesday, June 17 2009 at 22:30

Sexual abuse against children has been on the increase over the years, but many of the cases are never reported, police have said. Information available at police headquarters shows that 1,626 cases of attacks against children were recorded in 2007. The number rose to 1,984 in 2008, representing an increase of over 300.

The Cradle, a child rights organisation, on Wednesday said that an average of 10 cases involving child abuse have been reported at its Nairobi offices every week since January. The police figures translate to an average of five children being defiled every day.

Cradle’s deputy director, Mr Gilbert Onyango, described the prevalence as “very high” while the deputy spokesman of the police department, Mr Charles Wahong’o, said the number of defilement cases of paedophilia was “quite high”.

According to the Cradle, 74 per cent of all cases of violence against children involved defilement. Girls between the ages of 12 and 14 were the most vulnerable. The minors are often abused by people they know and trust, particularly in whose care they are entrusted.

Eighty six per cent were defiled by someone they knew, according to a 2007 report by Cradle, which adds, 43 per cent of the children were molested repeatedly by the same abuser.

Child abuse cases have been in the headlines this week, with police arresting a suspect with a pack of pictures of naked children. A well-known Catholic priest, Father Renato Kizito, is defending his reputation against claims that he sexually abused children under his care for 20 years.

The Catholic church, whose reputation in other countries is damaged by cases of child sexual abuse, has promised to investigate all cases and punish appropriately those found guilty. “Children are easy targets because they are vulnerable,” said nominated MP and former Cradle executive director Millie Odhiambo.

Children’s Legal Action Network (Clan) executive director Tom Chavaga said his organisation deals with between 5,000 and 6,000 cases of child abuse each year, some of which involve defilement. His organisation’s rescue centre receives 230 victims of violence a month, with 45 per cent being children.

Cases of child abuse are rampant in urban areas especially Nairobi and the coastal region, he said. A disproportionate number of sex abusers are foreigners. Some are probably criminals in their own countries. They settle in low-income areas pretending that they want to help the residents.

The Nairobi Women’s Hospital Chief Executive Officer, Dr Sam Nthenya, said his hospital has treated over 12,000 cases of sexual and domestic violence in its Gender Violence Recovery centre. Child rights organisations are concerned that only a few of the cases of abuse are reported. Most abused children prefer to say nothing for fear of repercussions.

Some of these cases have, however, found their way to the courts, although there are complaints of justice being slow and sometimes compromised. In 2008, a court ordered the CID to investigate corruption claims in a defilement case.

The mother of a five year old girl who had been abused complained to the Attorney-General that the investigating officer approached her on behalf of the accused and offered Sh50,000 to withdraw the case.

(AUS)Abused Daughters' Parents Front Campaign

06/16/09

Original article

They've campaigned to meet the Pope and spoken out against horrific abuses within the Catholic Church that destroyed two of their daughters' lives.

Now Anthony and Christine Foster want to warn other parents that the "insidious" sexual abuse inflicted on two of their three young girls during primary school could happen to anyone.

The Melbourne couple, who found themselves excluded from a meeting of sexual abuse victims with Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to Australia last year, are the face of a new advertising campaign warning parents to "Wise Up" to child sexual abuse.

Their firstborn, Emma, committed suicide in January last year at the age of 26 after a long battle with drugs.

She had been repeatedly raped by parish priest Kevin O'Donnell over about four years, starting in her first year of primary school.

Her younger sister, Katie, was raped by the same priest and now requires 24-hour care after she was hit by a car while drunk at the age of 15.

Mr Foster says parents need to be attuned to signs their child may be being "groomed" or suffering at the hands of a pedophile, because the "insidious" nature of sexual abuse makes it hard to detect.

Children are silenced by threats from their manipulative tormenters and find it impossible to speak up, he says.

"It can happen under your nose, without you knowing, and without you knowing for a long time," Mr Foster told AAP.

He said the new campaign by child protection agency Child Wise, including a television advertisement featuring the Fosters, aims to highlight how a "normal, average" family can be torn apart by sexual abuse.

In the Fosters' case, Emma turned to drugs and self-harm while Katie turned to alcohol, both with catastrophic consequences.

"You go from kids who look absolutely gorgeous, having a perfect life, to a heroin addict who dies beside her bed on her own," Mr Foster says.

At 13, Emma became anorexic, started cutting her wrists and took overdoses of painkillers and other off-the-shelf medication.

After she began seeing a psychiatrist, the Fosters learnt she had been abused by a parish priest who visited their children's Catholic primary school in Melbourne's southeast.

Looking back, Ms Foster said there were some signs that Emma was distressed as a young child - she began wetting the bed and had regular anger headaches.

She said the couple had tried to protect their children but the harm was done in a place where they should have been safe, by a trusted person.

"That's not taught, it's like a big black hole that parents fall in," she said.

"That's how I feel about myself, because I did protect my child, we did. We did everything."

The Wise Up campaign points to an alarming incidence of child sexual abuse, with one in four girls and one in seven boys affected.

Child Wise child protection manager Karen Flanagan said the Fosters' experience showed sexual abuse does not discriminate.

"While we know sexual abuse happens a lot to marginalised families, the point is it can happen to anyone," she said.

O'Donnell was jailed for just over a year in 1995 for a range of sexual offences against other victims and died in 1997.

The Fosters battled with the Catholic Church for eight years to be compensated for Emma's abuse and received a substantial payout three years ago.

The couple travelled to Sydney last July seeking to confront Pope Benedict and Cardinal George Pell to campaign for the Catholic Church to offer victims of sexual abuse unlimited support, rather than the maximum $50,000 compensation cap, but were denied a hearing.

For more information on the Child Wise Up campaign, including a booklet by Christine Foster visit www.childwise.net.

Kenya Shocked by Abuse Allegations Against Priest

06/16/09

Original article

Catholic bishops are shocked by allegations of sexual abuse supposedly committed by Rev. Renato Kizito Sesana - an Italian priest known for his work with disadvantaged children. The bishops will investigate.

By Spero News

The Catholic bishops of Kenya have expressed shock at allegations of child sex abuse by a prominent missionary priest and promised "to investigate the matter to its final conclusion."

The privately-owned Kenya Television Network (KTN) claimed in a Monday night report that Fr. Renato Kizito Sesana, an Italian missionary well known for his work with disadvantaged children, has been sexually molesting some of the boys in his care for the last 20 years.

KTN reported that it was in possession of leaked videos that the priest shot of himself abusing the boys. The station said it could not air the videos because they were too graphic. Fr. Kizito is also claimed to have invited some of his friends and other contacts in Europe to molest the minors.

On Tuesday, Fr. Kizito categorically denied the report in a press statement. "Let me state very clearly. I have not sodomized any child. I am ready to face anybody who can prove the opposite," he said.

In a pastoral letter signed by Kenya Episcopal conference chairman, John Cardinal Njue, the country's Catholic bishops said they were shocked by the KTN news report.

"If these allegations are true, then we condemn them in the strongest terms possible and in our pain we feel sorry for the affected children and their families. We will do everything possible to investigate the matter to its final conclusion in order to establish the truth and take all the appropriate actions as a caring church."

Source:CISA

(AUS)‘I was Only Giving the boy Anatomy Lessons’, Said Paedophile Priest

06/12/09

Original article

A FORMER Roman Catholic priest who claimed he had given an 11-year-old boy “anatomy lessons” has been jailed by an Australian judge for indecent assault.

Ex-Catholic priest Desmond Gannon

Desmond Laurence Gannon’s prosecution was his fifth for abusing youngsters. He was previously convicted in 1995, 1997, 2000 and 2003 for other indecent assaults committed between 1958 and 1976, but had only served one term of imprisonment.

The 79-year-old ex-priest from Melbourne refused to apologise for the assault on the boy for fear of a compensation claim being made against the church, the court heard.

He told police last year that he was merely giving the boy an anatomy lesson when he took him from school and assaulted him in 1968.

I thought it was less formal rather than inviting him into the presbytery, and that’s all … I won’t say sexual abuse because at the time I didn’t know what it was.

In jailing Gannon for 25 months, Judge Frank Gucciardo damned the serial abuser for his lack of true remorse.

He told Gannon that his absence of contrition:

Displays a turpitude of character that borders on the scandalous and is offensive to morality and the law.

He added that Gannon’s explanations for his conduct to the police betrayed self-delusion and a “lack of understanding of the impact of your behaviour” on the victim.

From August to September 1968, when Gannon was a priest in Kilmore, he assaulted the boy in a car, on a bush track, in a church and at a pool. Now 51, the victim said in an impact statement that after the abuses he had felt:

Broken, old, clumsy, dirty, ugly, guilty, confused, rejected, worthless and scared.

A psychiatrist reported that Gannon had a perverse psychosexual structure and had made “some progress” by expressing concern for the victim and the gravity of the offences.

But Judge Gucciardo found that, while Gannon now posed little risk to the community, a jail sentence had to be imposed “in recognition of the significance of the wrong inflicted”. Gannon was jailed for 25 months with a minimum term of 14 months.

(AUS)Lambasting for Pedophile Priest

06/10/09

Original article

Steve Butcher

The behaviour of Desmond Gannon was "offensive to morality and the law". Photo: Mark Wilson

A JUDGE who jailed an elderly former Victorian priest for sex offences against a boy 41 years ago has damned the repeat pedophile offender for his lack of true remorse.

Judge Frank Gucciardo yesterday told the man his absence of contrition "displays a turpitude of character that borders on the scandalous and is offensive to morality and the law".

Judge Gucciardo said Desmond Gannon's explanations for his conduct, when interviewed by police last year, betrayed self-delusion and a "lack of understanding of the impact of your behaviour" on his victim.

He told Gannon, 79, that his demeanour in the interview and in a taped conversation with the victim was disturbing but "consistent with your appearance in court, clearly nonchalant and dismissive". Gannon, prosecuted for the fifth time for offences between 1958 and 1976, pleaded guilty to five counts of indecent assault on a boy aged 11.

From August to September 1968, when Gannon was a priest in Kilmore, he assaulted the boy in a car, on a bush track, in a church and at a pool. Now 51, the man said in a victim impact statement that after the abuses he had felt "broken, old, clumsy, dirty, ugly, guilty, confused, rejected, worthless and scared".

Judge Gucciardo said it was his view that "the vindication of a victim's plight in cases of this kind is central to the function of the criminal justice system".

A psychiatrist reported that Gannon had a perverse psychosexual structure and had made "some progress" by expressing concern for the victim and the gravity of the offences.

But Judge Gucciardo said such progress was not the same as contrition and remorse "unaccompanied by empathy or compassion for the victims but delivered with indignation at your own fate".

While Gannon posed little risk to the community, the jail sentence "is a recognition of the significance of the wrong inflicted". Gannon was jailed for 25 months with a minimum term of 14 months.

(AUS)Priest Jailed for Altar boy 'Anatomy Lesson'

06/10/09

Original article

A PEDOPHILE priest who claimed he was giving an altar boy an anatomy lesson when he sexually molested him has been jailed for more than two years.

Desmond Laurence Gannon, 79, was a Catholic priest at Kilmore, north of Melbourne, when he abused the boy on three separate occasions in 1968 and 1969.

Gannon pleaded guilty to five counts of indecently assaulting a male under 16.

The offences occurred during an 18-year period of abuse at Victorian parishes by Gannon.

Sentencing Gannon, Judge Frank Gucciardo said the abuse terrified his victim and made the boy "feel sick".

"This was a well-worn, thought-out routine ... with sex education a poor excuse," he said.

The judge said Gannon had demonstrated a lack of remorse and empathy.

He jailed Gannon for 25 months, ordering him to serve 14 months before being eligible for parole.

(UK)Ex-Midland Priest Faces Extradition Over Child sex Abuse

06/10/09

Original article

by Mark Cowan, Birmingham Post

A judge in California has agreed to the extradition of a former Midland priest over allegations of child sex abuse more than two decades ago.

Fr James Robinson, who worked across Birmingham, the Black Country, Sutton Coldfield and Coventry in the 70s and 80s, was arrested by US marshals in the city of Duarte, in Los Angeles County on January 26.

The US authorities were acting on a request from police and prosecutors in the West Midlands to extradite the 71-year-old back to the UK in relation to “historic sexual offence allegations”.

West Midlands Police said that a magistrate judge in Los Angeles has agreed to the extradition order “on all counts”.

It is hoped he will be brought back to the UK within the next two months.

However, he does have the opportunity to fight the extradition order and could launch a legal appeal that could hinder the process.

Robinson moved to the US in 1985, amid allegations he abused boys while training at Oscott College, Sutton Coldfield, as parish priest at St Elizabeth’s in Foleshill, and then at the Our Lady of Lourdes Church, in Cradley Heath.

He was defrocked eight years later after the then Archbishop of Birmingham, the Most Rev Maurice Couve de Murville, wrote to US church leaders.

Five people from Coventry and Birmingham have previously complained to police about Robinson. At least two men from Coventry have claimed they were sexually abused as boys by him.

They were later given compensation by the archdiocese of about £25,000.

They have now been told of the extradition breakthrough.

A police spokesman said: “This extradition order means that the paperwork will now be completed ready for his return to the UK.

“It is anticipated that this will be within a two-month framework. He still has the opportunity of appeal.

“West Midlands Police have spoken with those who have made allegations as part of this investigation and we will continue to update them as the extradition progresses.”

At the time of his arrest, the Los Angeles Times reported that the warrant filed in federal court in Los Angeles stated that the charges stemmed from “a chain of sexual abuse starting in approximately 1959 and continuing for decades, even after Robinson was ordained as a priest in 1971”.

In 2003, Robinson was found working as the caretaker of a trailer park in Los Angeles.

Priest Jailed for Molesting Altar boy

06/10/09

Original article

Daniel Fogarty

One of Melbourne's most senior Catholic clergy has admitted children were put at risk after a priest failed to report allegations of child molestation made against a colleague.

The church apologised to the victim after Desmond Laurence Gannon was jailed for 25 months on Wednesday for molesting an altar boy on three occasions between 1968 and 1969.

Gannon, 79, had told the Victorian County Court he was giving the boy an anatomy lesson.

The victim, who is now in his 50s, says he told another priest at a Melbourne parish where Gannon was serving in 1989 or 1990 about the abuse, but was ignored.

"The priest came out (to the victim's house) and talked to me and all he did was he said: 'It is a while ago and let's forget all about it'," the victim told AAP.

"That was the last I heard from him."

He said he was disgusted by the priest's attitude.

"The Catholic Church must have known," he said.

"They are as guilty as he is, I reckon."

Vicar General of the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne Monsignor Les Tomlinson conceded the failure by the priest to disclose the abuse put children at risk.

"I suppose that is an obvious consequence, yes," Monsignor Tomlinson said.

"At any stage it is deeply regrettable that for whatever reason a person to whom's notice these matters are brought fails to act on it, because that means the situation isn't dealt with."

Gannon pleaded guilty to five counts of indecently assaulting a male under 16.

The court heard the abuse began in 1968 when the boy was an 11-year-old student at St Patrick's Primary School in Kilmore, north of Melbourne.

The priest drove the boy to a bush track where he removed the boy's pants and underpants and said "this is your penis".

He also kissed and fondled the boy.

Gannon later fondled the boy as he was putting on his robes prior to assisting him celebrate Mass and in the pump room of a local swimming pool, the court heard.

Asked by police why he took the boy to the secluded bush location and touched his penis, Gannon replied he was explaining the "differences in anatomy".

Wednesday's prison sentence is Gannon's second. He was jailed for 12 months in 1995 - and received suspended sentences - after being found guilty of molesting boys at Victorian parishes between 1958 and 1976.

Sentencing Gannon, Judge Frank Gucciardo said the former priest had demonstrated a lack of remorse and empathy.

"This was a well-warn, thought-out routine, even on your own say so, with sex education a poor excuse," he said.

"You ceased offending after the realisation that other priests were being convicted and sentenced, and that provided a strong incentive to desist."

Monsignor Tomlinson apologised to the victim on behalf of the church.

"We are sorry, yes," he said.

"We deeply regret the actions of Father Des Gannon."

The victim urged others who have been abused to come forward.

"A lot more people are willing to help and listen now and not just shove it under the carpet," the victim said.

He said that instead of fulfilling his childhood ambition of being a policeman, he became a juvenile delinquent after the abuse.

Judge Gucciardo ordered Gannon, of Box Hill, serve 14 months before being eligible for parole.

This story was found at: http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-national/priest-jailed-for-molesting-altar-boy-20090610-c3b7.html