More Bathurst School sex Abuse Charges

Original article
08/31/09

One of the men accused of sexual assaults at two Bathurst schools, in central western New South Wales, is facing more charges.

The 66-year-old was yesterday charged in the Downing Centre Local Court in Sydney in relation to an extra 29 counts of indecently assaulting 11 boys and girls.

He was granted bail to reappear in the court today.

Strike Force Belle is investigating allegations of abuse against students at St Stanislaus and All Saints College in Bathurst between 1960 and 1993.

Priest Peter Julian Brock Accused of Sexual Abuse

Original article
08/29/09

The first case involved what must be identified as a local celebrity-type priest, a media darling, spokesperson for the local diocise, Member of the Order of Australia, Newton John Award winner and conductor the Newcastle University choir. Various young men gave evidence that Father Peter Julian Brock masturbated over them and performed oral sex on one child while on school camps.

Father Brock also liked playing Strip Jack Naked card games with children. On one occasion he confessed sobbingly to the boys saying: “You don’t understand how hard it is being a priest”. I don’t think he was referring to the sexual arousal he felt from lauding his “God-given” powers over defenceless children – more so the oft’ trotted out sexual frustration by clergy defence. News media reports made mention of a troubling exchange between a mother and child – in response to her son’s allegations against Father Brock, his mother slapped his face while admonishing the child for such blasphemous words.

The ripple effect among parishioners, my family included, is profound, as this comes on the back of more than five similar cases locally in as many years. (For further info. see:www.theherald.com.au/news/local/news/.../1329844.aspx
http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=9385
http://slackbastard.anarchobase.com/?p=1516http://www.flickr.com/photos/uon/3467269078/http://brokenrites.alphalink.com.au/nletter/page178-brock.html)

Peru Arrests Priest Accused of Molesting Child

Original article
08/27/09

LIMA – A Colombian priest was arrested in the southern Peruvian region of Puno for allegedly molesting a 9-year-old girl who has Down syndrome, the Peru.21 newspaper reported Tuesday.

The Rev. Antonio Jose Zapata Calle was reported to authorities two months ago by the girl’s family and a court in Puno ordered his arrest after the investigation was completed.

The 47-year-old priest is being held at a prison in the city of Juliaca under tight security due to fears that other inmates might attack him because his case involves a child.

Zapata arrived in Puno four months ago to do missionary work.

The South Andean Human Rights Institute plans to ask the court to sentence the priest to life in prison if he is convicted of molesting the girl, the newspaper said.

Congress approved a law in 2006 that imposes life prison terms on those convicted of raping children younger than 10.

Some 1,000 children are raped each year in Peru, official figures show. EFE

Archdiocese Removes Priest Pending Outcome of Investigation

08/23/09
Church of St. Patrick pastor faces decades-old allegations

Kristin Harty
Cumberland Times-News

CUMBERLAND — The pastor of the Church of St. Patrick has been fired amid allegations that he sexually abused a minor in the mid-1970s — charges he has denied.

Monsignor Thomas Bevan, 73, was removed from the ministry Aug. 19 and cannot function as a priest until an investigation is complete, the Archdiocese of Baltimore announced Sunday afternoon.

“If the allegations are proven false, he would be restored to the ministry,” said Sean Caine, spokes-man for the Archdiocese. “If they are credible, he would remain permanently removed.”

About 200 church members gathered at St. Patrick’s on Centre Street Sunday afternoon to find out what happened to Bevan, after he was replaced by a guest pastor during Masses Saturday and Sunday. The meeting, led by Bishop Mitchell Rozanski, lasted less than an hour.

“I’m just in shock,” said Susan Cioni, a St. Patrick’s member for 27 years. “It’s still like it’s not real. We’ve known Father Bevan for a long time. He did wonderful things for St. Patrick’s. I’m very sad. Of course, he’s not proven guilty yet. Who knows what will happen.”

According to the Archdiocese, in June, a former student at the parish school of St. John Catholic Church in Frederick said he was abused on a number of separate occasions while Bevan was an associate pastor there from 1974 to 1979. The Archdiocese said it immediately reported the case to civil authorities in Frederick County, but was instructed not to take further action, including conducting its own investigation or contacting Bevan.

The Archdiocese said it received permission from county authorities last Tuesday to resume its investigation. Archdiocese representatives met with Bevan — and fired him — the next day.

In 2005, Bevan faced a similar accusation of sexually abusing a minor, but the case was not pursued because of a lack of evidence, the Archdiocese said. Bevan denied the charge, which stemmed from alleged incidents in 1974.

Bevan, who was ordained as a priest in 1963, has been pastor at St. Patrick for 12 years. With about 900 families attending, it’s one of Allegany County’s largest churches.

Members were concerned Sunday about the future of the parish — and about Bevan’s well-being.

“We just wanted to make sure he’s OK,” said lifelong member Jeff Widdows, who attended Sunday’s meeting and learned that Bevan is being taken care of financially and receiving counseling.

Bevan couldn’t be reached for comment.

“A lot of parishioners came away feeling very resentful that they’ve removed him before the accusations are proven,” Widdows said. “The church has gone from one extreme to another — from sweeping it under the table to guilty until proven innocent ... I understand that if the allegations are true, he has to pay consequences, but this man’s reputation has been ruined.”

In addition to serving at St. John in Frederick and St. Patrick in Cumberland, Bevan served as associate pastor at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Middle River (1963-1974); pastor at St. Mark in Fallston (1979-1991); temporary administrator at St. Mary in Cumberland (1991-92); and temporary administrator at St. Patrick in Mount Savage (1992).

Bevan served as executive director of the Secretariat for Priestly Life & Ministry for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops from 1992 to 1997, and in the Office of Clergy Education for the Archdiocese from 1976 to 1991. During his time as an associate at Mount Carmel, he taught religion and church history at the parish high school. While an associate at St. John, he taught liturgy courses at Mount St. Mary’s.

Caine said that two representatives from the Archdiocese will help run St. Patrick in Bevan’s absence, with Father Jim Kurtz, pastor of SS. Peter and Paul in Cumberland, stepping in, as well.

Counseling has been of-fered to those affected by the allegations, Caine said.

More than 4,450 Catholic priests have been accused of sex abuse between 1950 and 2002, according to a study by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Of 11,000 total allegations, 6,700 were investigated and substantiated, the study said. Another 1,000 were unsubstantiated, and others were not investigated because the priests involved had died by the time the allegation was made.

Cases gained widespread public attention after a series of Boston Globe articles in 2002.

Bitter Words for Church in Salute to Abuse-probe Judge

Original article
08/24/09

IT was a far cry from that bleak May day when survivors of institutional abuse were not admitted to the long-awaited news conference in a Dublin hotel at which Mr Justice Sean Ryan published his damning report into systematic abuse of children by religious orders in State run institutions.

At the weekend, three months later, Judge Ryan stood side by side for a family photograph with representatives of survivors' groups and journalist Mary Raftery, whose documentary, 'Suffer Little Children', first alerted the public to the scale of child abuse in what was known as "CatholicIreland".

The judiciary, the abused and the media came together in the Co Mayo market town of Ballina to receive special awards presented on behalf of the Humbert Summer Schoolby its honorary president, John Hume, the peacemaker inNorthern Ireland and Nobel Laureate.

Saturday on the banks of the rain-swollen River Moy was a day of remarkable salmon leaps in the torrential saga of state and media probing into what has become known as 'the Irish disease'.

In his first public appearance since his explosive findings were made public, Judge Ryan paid a moving tribute to "the courage and fortitude" of the abused, whose horrendous evidence about their experiences as children is now permanently recorded in the landmark report of theCommission to Inquire into Child Abuse, which he chaired. Judge Ryan did not hold back from giving full credit to the residents of State institutions for bringing to light "events which were shrouded in darkness for so long".

In turn, survivor Michael O'Brien, the former mayor ofClonmel who captured the nation's imagination by challenging the platitudes of Government minister Noel Dempsey on an unforgettable RTE 'Questions and Answers' programme, bowed to the good judge and thanked him "for the momentous work you and your team have done". But Mr O'Brien was only prepared to give conditional pardon to the religious congregations who locked up him and thousands of other children in penal institutions as serfs. He will forgive his oppressors only when he knows in his heart that "these people mean it when they say 'we are really, really sorry'."

"I do not want silly apologies. I want to see repentance," he said.

Showing moral courage by her attendance, but bringing with her no extra cash demanded by the Government and survivors to top up the meagre redress deal negotiated by former education minister Michael Woods, Sr Marianne O'Connor, secretary general of Cori, the Conference of religious of Ireland, said the Humbert School was "the first public forum to which religious have been invited since the publication of the Ryan".

There was no prize for the religious orders from the Humbert School. Only two of the local clergy were present. It was noted by many that the Bishop of Killala, John Fleming, away on pilgrimage to Lourdes, had not sent a special delegate to witness both the awards, and there was a series of scathing criticisms of the secrecy deployed by the Catholic hierarchy and their lack of direct engagement with the survivors.

The criticism came from Augustinian priest Fr Iggy O'Donovan and Fr Kevin Hegarty, two courageous priests who want the Irish Church to move out of its closed cloisters into the more participative church of the Second Vatican Council, in which bishops share decision-making with priests and laity in a national synod.

Fr Hegarty, exiled to the remotest parish in north Mayo for publishing articles on clerical child abuse in the mid-1990s, noted how today's bishops tried "to establish clear blue water between themselves and the religious congregations" in the wake of the Ryan Report.

"As they sought to sail away from the wreckage revealed in the Ryan Report, room on the Episcopal lifeboats was extremely limited," Fr Hegarty lamented, while Michael Kelly, deputy editor of the traditionally conservative 'Irish Catholic' newspaper, bemoaned that following Ryan the Irish Church now stood "in the gutter, as far as the rest of the world is concerned, humiliated, hopefully repentant".

Fr O'Donovan, who was reprimanded for concelebrating an Easter Sunday Mass in Droghedathree years ago with an Anglican rector, explained that he belonged to a Church which, as an institution, "rarely if ever admits to having been wrong or to having inflicted harm on people".

Most strikingly of all, Michael O'Brien accused the Irish bishops of not telling Pope Benedictthe full scale of the Irish abuse crisis -- and he demanded that the Pope should meet two survivors to listen to their stories.

Rome, Maynooth and Cori needed to take seriously the alarm bells rung in Mayo this weekend, or their Church is moribund as far as the next generation is concerned, he said. However, while Rome, Cori and Maynooth continue to man the breached ramparts of their closed walls, the danger is that like the Church, the Cowen government will shrink from its financial responsibilities to abuse victims.

The unspoken hope of Maynooth and Government Buildings is that the survivors' group will divide and fight among themselves, and that the media and the public will weary of their plight.

Priest Demands Freeze on Recruiting Clergy

Original article
By Shane Hickey

Monday August 24 2009

A LEADING priest has called for the Catholic Church to halt the recruitment of clergy in light of the child sex abuse scandals.

Fr Aidan Troy, who came to international prominence when he walked with Ardoyne schoolchildren through loyalist protests in north Belfast, said the Church needed to "halt recruitment, reform and reorganise".

He said the hierarchy had been responsible for a "wholly inadequate response to the horrendous abuse that has been uncovered" and that they should not engage in "window dressing", but instead take radical action.

Fr Troy was the parish priest of the Holy Cross church in north Belfast during 2002 when ugly scenes of sectarian hatred and violence saw Catholic parents having to escort their children to school under heavy security in a hardline loyalist area.

Now based in Paris, he said that he was "ashamed" at the Church's reaction to the Ryan report into child sexual abuse in institutions run by the religious orders.

"It has been more about improving the Church's image than tackling fundamental problems," he said.

"In the 1970s I was sent around schools to recruit pupils to the priesthood. I couldn't do that now. Back then, parents were delighted if their sons chose to become priests. Now, most would understandably oppose it and try to talk them out of it."

A spokesman for the Catholic Church said a national office for the safe-guarding of children had been set up by the Church, missionaries and religious orders.

"An inadequate response may have been correct some time ago, but not in recent years," he said.

- Shane Hickey

Three Priests Involved in Genocide

Original article
08/20/09

Three new judgments, including that of Fr. Hormisdas Nsengimana, will be rendered by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) before the end of the year, according to the Tribunal's estimates.

The other defendants who will also know their fate before 31 December are Lieutenant Colonels Ephrem Setako and Tharcisse Muvunyi. The exact dates of the judgments are yet to be known.

Accused of genocide, murder and extermination, Fr. Nsengimana, who has claimed his innocence, was, in 1994, vice-chancellor of the Christ the King College of Nyanza (southern Rwanda), one of the most prestigious schools in the country.

According to the prosecutor, who requested life imprisonment on 12 February, the catholic priest, among other crimes, killed his colleague Fr. Mathieu Ngirumpatse.

Fr. Nsengimana is part of the 3 catholic priests detained by the ICTR.

Lieutenant Colonel Ephrem Setako, accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, was director of legal affairs at the ministry of defence.

His charges relate to massacres committed in Kigali and in his native prefecture of Ruhengeri (northern Rwanda) in 1994.

In this case, the prosecutor rested his case on 22 April while the defence did so on 26 June.

In the Nsengimana trial, as in that of Setako, the Chamber is presided by Norwegian Judge Erik Mose.

The case of Lieutenant Colonel Tharcisse Muvunyi in particular is so far the first at ICTR to be re-tried.

In this new trial, his charges relate to a speech he made one afternoon towards the end of May 1994 at the commercial centre of Gikore, in the Nyaruhengeri commune, in the prefecture of Butare (southern Rwanda).

According to the prosecutor, the message was interpreted exclusively by Hutu audience as a call to exterminate the few Tutsis who were still alive in the region, an issue being contested by the defendant.

The prosecutor rested his case on 22 June and the defence case, which should not last more than a week, opens on Monday.

Athanase Seromba Convicted and Sentenced to Life Imprisonment

08/20/09
Original article

Gregoire Ndahimana, former mayor of Kivumo, western Rwanda, arrested last week in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity is expected at the seat of the International Criminal tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha,Tanzania, before the end of the week.

"He could be here before the end of this week," said Bocar Sy, ICTR's Chief of Press Service during a press conference on Thursday.

However, he admitted, there was a delay on the transfer of that accused which would normally take short time unlike other transfers from other continents such as Europe and the United States which would take longer time as they would first be compelled to go through legal battle. U United Nations

He said the arrest of Ndahimana was a result of a joint operation between the DRC government and two UN institutions, ICTR and United Nations Organization in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC).

Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congonited Nations Organization sion in the

The defendant is accused of playing a role in organizing the killings of mostly ethnic Tutsis who had sought refugee at the Nyange Parish Church, Kibuye prefecture, western Rwanda between April 6 and 20, 1994.

Former Nyange Parish Priest, Fr. Athanase Seromba had already been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for his involvement in the massacres at the site.

According to the UN report about 800 000 people, mostly Tutsis and few moderate Hutus perished in the Rwandan 1994 genocide.

Priest Accused of abusing Homeless Boys in Brazil

Original article
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: August 20, 2009

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) - An Italian priest who ran a shelter for homeless children in Brazil has been charged with sexually abusing boys for years and allowing visiting foreigners to exploit the children.

Father Clodoveo Piazza, now working as a missionary in Mozambique, was charged along with another former director of Fraternal Help Organization, a private group based in Salvador, Brazil.

Chief state prosecutor Lidivaldo Britto says a judge will decide whether to request Piazza’s extradition or seek an Interpol arrest warrant. Britto says Piazza is working with children in Mozambique, and he’s “afraid that kids there are in a similar dangerous situation.“

Priest's Card Game Turned to sex, Court Told

Original article

BY DAN PROUDMAN

20/08/2009 8:50:00 AM

CATHOLIC priest Peter Julian Brock used a ruse of playing cards to lure a boy into naked sex trysts which lasted several years, a court heard yesterday.

The alleged victim told a committal hearing yesterday of how Brock had introduced the card game "strip jack" where players lose pieces of clothing depending on what they are dealt in a "counselling room" of a Hunter presbytery before sexually abusing him.

The man, who was a young teenager at the time of the alleged abuse in the 1970s, also told the court how his mother had slapped him and told him "you don't make comments like that about priests" after he had confided in her that Brock was abusing him.

Brock, 63, faces 22 child sex charges involving two alleged victims during the 1970s.

Brock has not been required to enter a plea.

In the first day of a committal hearing expected to last until tomorrow, the man told Newcastle Local Court yesterday of the ongoing abuse he had allegedly suffered at the hands of Brock after the well-known priest had befriended his family.

The court was told Brock had drunk alcohol and socialised with the man's father and often visited the family home.

He had introduced the alleged victim to "strip jack" and regularly played it at the family home, where the pair only got down to their shorts.

But it was when Brock began asking the boy to a presbytery, sometimes by ringing the family and telling the boy's mother that he wanted to play cards after having a "bad day", that the abuse allegedly began, the court heard.

The man told the court that once naked, he and Brock would sit opposite each other and Brock would push the boy's knees apart "so he could look at me" before abusing him.

"He would be drinking and having a smile on his face and drank more and more," the man said.

"He would keep encouraging me to keep my knees apart."

The alleged victim said he began putting more clothes on before visiting Brock in the hope that he would still be dressed when the priest was naked and "that once he had his clothes off I wouldn't have to go any further".

PRIEST SEX CASE

Accuser Admits to Misleading Police

BY DAN PROUDMAN

21/08/2009 9:08:00 AM
Original article

A MAN who has accused Catholic priest Peter Julian Brock of sexually assaulting him as a teenager admitted yesterday he initially identified the wrong presbytery where some of the abuse allegedly occurred.

The man told Newcastle Local Court he had misled police about when the alleged abuse finished because he was concerned they would think he was homosexual if he admitted it continued into his 20s.

The committal hearing also heard how Brock had officiated at the man's wedding years after he was alleged to have abused him.

Brock, 63, is facing 22 child sex offences relating to two boys and alleged to have occurred in the 1970s.

He has not been required to enter a plea.

On Wednesday, the hearing was told Brock abused the boy over several years by luring him into becoming naked while playing card games.

Some of the abuse allegedly occurred in a "counselling room" of a Hunter presbytery.

The court heard yesterday that the alleged victim had, in two statements to police, said that he had been assaulted at a certain Hunter presbytery, but Brock was not based there until years after the abuse was alleged to have first occurred.

In a third statement to police, made almost a year after the first statement, the man changed the location.

Under cross examination yesterday, the man agreed he had deliberately misled police in his first statement when he said the abuse had stopped when he was still a teenager.

He said he was embarrassed that police would think he was homosexual if he told them the sexual activity continued into his 20s.

He told police in a second statement he was abused until he was 24 or 25. On Wednesday he told the court that it continued until his late 20s.

Defence counsel Peter Hamill, SC, asked the man about the discrepancies: "It's your memory that is the problem, not your math, it's a fact that it's your memory that changes."

The man replied: "I know what happened to me, I know as a child and I know he did it."

Accused Priest Released on bail

08/15/09
Original article

A FELLOW priest put up bail and the Catholic Church offered accommodation to secure the release from custody of a priest charged with grooming a 13-year-old girl for sex.

Robert Fuller, 54, a priest at All Saints Church in Liverpool, in Sydney's southwest, was yesterday charged with grooming and procuring a child under the age of 16 via internet chat sites.

He was arrested in a carpark where he had allegedly arranged to meet the girl. He soon discovered the person with whom he had been talking online was not a teenager but a police detective.

Detectives also executed a search warrant at a presbytery in George Street, Liverpool, where they located and seized computers, documents, photographs and a mobile phone.

A police document tendered during the bail hearing at Parramatta Local Court yesterday alleged that during online chat sessions, Father Fuller had masturbated on web camera and encouraged the girl to masturbate herself. He had also arranged a meeting with the girl.

"During five of the conversations, the (accused) activated his web camera and his face was captured by investigators," police alleged.

The Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell, called the news "appalling and distressing" and said he shared "the concern and alarm" of parishioners, parents and the school community.

Father Fuller was immediately stood down from his ministry.

A friend and fellow priest, Father Terry Bell, currently acting as bishop of the Western Sydney diocese, offered $25,000 as bail and accommodation at a church-owned property on the NSW Central Coast in support of Father Fuller's bid for bail.

Magistrate Peter Miszalski granted the priest bail, requiring him to report to police three times a week, surrender his passport, not use the internet and not be in proximity to children. Father Fuller will next appear in the same court on October 8.

A Sydney Priest Accused of Grooming a 13-year-old Girl for sex has Been Released on Bail.

08/14/09
Original article

Detectives posing as a girl on an internet chat site allege that 54-year-old Father Robert Fuller was sexually explicit in conversations he had with them.

Court documents say he sent sexually explicit videos of himself, where his face is clearly seen.

It is alleged that the priest went to the car park at Parramatta swimming pool yesterday thinking he could meet the young girl.

Instead he was arrested by officers from the Child Exploitation Internet Unit.

In court today, Fuller's lawyer said that the crown case was very strong but he said that the priest had a clean record.

The priest's friend, Father Terence Bell, described him as a hard worker with a good reputation at his parish at All Saints Catholic Church in Liverpool.

He told the court that the church could post $25,000 to secure Fuller's release on bail.

Father Bell said he could live in a unit in Terrigal which the church owns and is used by priests for holidays.

Fuller was granted bail and the magistrate ordered him not to talk to anyone under the age of 18.

He is also banned from using the internet.

‘Devil in Dog Collar’ Priest Faces Jail for sex Abuse over 36 Years

08/12/09
Original article

LONDON - A priest, tagged as “the devil in a dog collar” by one of his victims, is facing jail for sexual assault on schoolboys over 36 years.

Father David Pearce, who was a headmaster at a school, confessed indecent assaults on five Roman Catholic pupils.

The 67-year-old was said to have attacked his final victim after being slapped with restrictions designed to prevent such conduct.

“I believe the Church are responsible - they knew what he was up to. Devil in a dog collar sums him up,” The Sun quoted one victim as saying.

Judge Andrew McDowall, at Isleworth Crown Court in West London, told Pearce “you should have acknowledged your guilt sooner”, adding a “substantial custodial sentence” was an “overwhelming possibility”.

Westminster RC diocese said: “Ealing Abbey is deeply saddened by the case.”

Pearce is due to be sentenced in October. (ANI)

Priest Faces Jail for Abusing Schoolboys

08/13/09
Original article

A PERVERTED priest who admitted sexually abusing schoolboys in his care for a period of 36 years has been warned to expect jail.

Father David Pearce, of Ealing Abbey, in Charlbury Grove, Ealing, had originally denied the allegations made by five pupils at St Benedict's School, Ealing, where he had been headmaster.

The assaults involved caning and intimate touching. But the 67-year-old, who had been dubbed Gay Dave by pupils in the school, changed his plea to guilty at the last moment as the trial at Isleworth Crown Court was about to go ahead.

Father Pearce, who retired from his role as head of the school 15 years ago, admitted 10 indecent assaults against four boys under 16 and sexually assaulting a fifth. Restrictions had been placed on him by superiors.

Judge Andrew McDowall, at Isleworth Crown Court, told Pearce to expect a substantial sentence and added: "You should have acknowledged your guilt sooner."

He will return to the court to be sentenced in October.

Outside the court, one victim blamed the church, saying: "They knew what he was up to. Devil in a dog collar sums him up."

Pearce started his abuse at the school in 1972, but it ended last January when he was arrested at his home, after claims had been lodged by a pupil.

Westminster RC diocese said: "Ealing Abbey is deeply saddened by the case."

Ealing Abbey founded the school in 1902 and monks act as trustees. The school admits pupils aged four to 18 and has a mixed sixth form.

Famous alumni include the former governor of Hong Kong Chris Patten and the comedian Julian Clary.

Sydney Priest 'Groomer' Caught on Webcam, Court Told

Original article
Dylan Welch and Georgina Robinson

August 14, 2009

Single page view

Accused ... Robert Fuller.

A 54-year-old Sydney Catholic priest has been arrested and charged after allegedly attempting to groom detectives who were masquerading as a 13-year-old girl, sending them a series of sexually explicit chat-room messages.

Police allege they posed as a 13-year-old girl on the internet to catch Robert Fuller, a priest of three decades standing and the parish priest of All Saints at Liverpool for six years. Prior to that he was the parish priest at a Punchbowl parish.

They allege he sent chat-room messages between July and August, and even tried to arrange a meeting to engage in sexual activity.

Police arrested Father Fuller in a car park at Parramatta, in western Sydney, at 12.30pm yesterday, and later charged him with grooming a person under the age of 16.

He was refused bail and appeared in Parramatta Local Court today, where he sat silently throughout the hearing.

Magistrate Peter Miszalski, police prosecutor Sergeant Kai Penninkilampi, and defence lawyer Greg Walsh all agreed it was a strong case.

In opposing bail, Sergeant Penninkilampi said Father Fuller being on bail could pose a risk to the community.

He also said it didn’t matter if Father Fuller lived away from children.

"The defendant has shown an absolute preparedness to travel wherever and whenever to contact [the presumed girl] and I would submit it doesn’t matter where he lives."

In a police document tendered during the hearing, it was alleged that, between July 21 and yesterday, Father Fuller had communicated with a person on an online messenger service, Yahoo7 Messenger, who he thought was a 13-year-old girl.

In fact the other person was an investigator from the Sex Crime Squad’s Child Exploitation Internet Unit.

Father Fuller used two names during the conversations - "rr" and "rogers_2468" the document stated.

There were a total of 25 conversations between the priest and the investigator, the court heard.

"During the communications the accused was sexually explicit with the [investigator] with a view to grooming and procuring 'her' for sexual activity," the document stated.

The accused masturbated in front a of a web camera and encouraged the presumed girl to masturbate, the document read.

"The accused ... states he is concerned about getting into trouble because of her young age.

"During five of the conversations the [accused] activated his web camera and his face was captured by investigators."

Eventually a meeting was arranged with Father Fuller near Parramatta Park and he was arrested by police nearby.

Mr Walsh said that Father Fuller would not present a risk to the community and could live in a holiday apartment owned by the Catholic Church in Terrigal, while he went through the court proceedings.

Another priest would live with him and no internet connection would be allowed at the flat, Mr Walsh said.

The church was also willing to offer a $25,000 surety on Father Fuller's behalf.

In granting bail, Mr Miszalski required Father Fuller to surrender his passport, not approach points of international departure, not to use the internet or approach children or places where children congregated and to be supervised at all times.

The matter will next be heard in October.

During yesterday's operation, police also seized laptop computers, documents, photographs and a mobile phone from the presbytery at All Saints Catholic Parish on George Street.

Three schools, including a primary school and separate boys' and girls' colleges, are next to the presbytery.

A Catholic Education spokesman said Father Fuller was not on the teaching staff at either school.

Rwanda Genocide Suspect Arrested in DR Congo

Original article
(AFP) – 5 days ago

ARUSHA, Tanzania — Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo have arrested a former Rwandan mayor for his alleged role in the 1994 genocide, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) said Wednesday.

Gregoire Ndahimana was arrested yesterday Tuesday in the east of the country, an ICTR official said.

"Measures have been taken for him to be transferred to ICTR headquarters in Arusha in Tanzania," the official told AFP.

Accused of genocide and crimes against humanity, the former mayor of the town of Kivumu is alleged to have played a role in the massacre of more than 1,000 Tutsis who took refuge in the Catholic church in the village of Nyange.

They were buried alive under the rubble when the church was bulldozed.

According to the prosecution, Ndahimana helped prepare the massacre.

A Catholic priest, Athanase Seromba, was sentenced to life by the ICTR appeals court in 2008 for his role in the same massacre.

ICTR prosecutor Hassan Bubacar Jallow has said most of the 12 genocide suspects sought by the ICTR are in hiding in DR Congo.

Formed in late 1994, the UN-backed ICTR is responsible for judging primary suspects in the Rwanda genocide.

Porn Phone Priest Flees Temple

08/12/09
Original article
By Dielle D'Souza, Press Association

A priest was caught watching clips from a porn film during prayers in a Sikh temple in north India.

Jasbir Singh Gill, who was attending the morning prayers session, noticed that the priest was allegedly "not concentrating on the prayers" and was distracted by "something underneath the table on which the scriptures were placed".

Mr Gill said: "I was shocked to see the priest was actually busy watching pornographic clips on his mobile phone that he had cleverly hidden under the table."

The chief priest of the gurudwara in Jhar Sahab, near Ludhiana, Punjab was called, but the priest managed to escape leaving his mobile phone behind. A complaint was later filed to a police station in Ludhiana.

A police spokesman said: "We have registered a complaint against the accused after checking the porn movie clips on his mobile."

Diocese Settles Boonville Priest Abuse Case

Original article
By Mark Slavit
Thursday, August 13, 2009 at 4:55 p.m.

JEFFERSON CITY -- Officials with the Jefferson City Catholic Diocese have agreed to pay part of a settlement to a man who claims to have been sexually abused by a former Boonville priest.

Jefferson City Diocese officials would not say how much they paid of a $600,000 settlement agreement.

An attorney representing the alleged victim says no amount of money can erase a stolen childhood, a shattered faith and horrific betrayal.

This story centers around a priest who used to call himself Father Carmine Sita. Sita was arrested and charged in 1982 with sexual molestation and marijuana distribution in New Jersey. Sita later changed his name to Father Gerald Howard and the Catholic Church moved him to a Boonville parish here in Mid-Missouri. The alleged victim, whose name remains anonymous, says Father Howard abused him during the 1980’s at Boonville’s Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church. We do know that the alleged victim now lives in Virginia and sued the Catholic Church for more than $1 million. The church and the alleged victim reached a settlement of $600,000 in June, which is highest settlement for any sexual abuse case in Mid-Missouri involving a priest. Church officials do not know today’s whereabouts of Father Gerald Howard. That concerns the alleged victim’s attorney Bryan Bacon.

“We really encourage anyone that was assaulted by Fr. Howard in Boonville to come forward," Bacon said. "The statue of limitations for this type of crime, there is none. There are no statues of limitations. If you have been violated, I urge you to come forward and call the police.”

Officials with the Diocese of Jefferson City admit former Bishop Michael McAuliffe made a tragic mistake when he agreed to assign Father Howard to the Boonville Catholic Church in 1983. Church leaders say new procedures prevent situations like this from happening again.

“We’ve trained about 8,000 people in our diocese and the 38 counties that we serve," Associate to the Chancellor of the Diocese of Jefferson City Ronald Vessell said. "We’ve trained about 8,000 people in the ways of preventing child sexual abuse. That along with background checks. We do about 1,000 background checks a year.”

Vessell would not say how much of the $600,000 settlement his diocese is paying. Vessell did say any amount is a lot for a small diocese like his. Vessell says parishioners will not pay for the settlement. The church uses a special fund that has been created by private donations specifically for settlements involving child sexual abuse and priests.

The Catholic Diocese of Jefferson City now has it’s own lay review board that handles any allegations of child sexual abuse.

That board determines if any allegations are credible, before making any recommendations to Bishop John Gaydos.

That process was not available when Father Gerald Howard allegedly abused his victim in the 1980’s.

Mo. Clergy sex Abuse Case Settled for $600,000

08/13/09
Original article
By: JIM SALTER

The Associated Press

The Roman Catholic Church and a religious order with ministries in the St. Louis area have agreed to pay $600,000 in one of the largest clergy sex abuse settlements ever in Missouri.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests disclosed the settlement Thursday. The deal calls for the Diocese of Jefferson City, the Archdiocese of Newark, N.J., and the Servants of the Paraclete to share in payment to a man, now in his late 30s, who claims he was abused about 25 years ago by the Rev. Gerald Howard. The deal was finalized in July.

SNAP's David Clohessy criticized Catholic Church officials for failing to publicly disclose the settlement.

"They should have been shouting from the rooftops, 'A convicted predator has struck again _ keep your kids away from him and come forward if you were abused,'" Clohessy said. "But instead they're doing what they've done for centuries, being secretive and reckless and self-serving."

The man, whose name was not released and who now lives in Virginia, had repressed memory of the abuse, Clohessy said, but came forward last year. His disclosure led to mediation with church officials. No lawsuit was ever filed, according to a statement from Ronald Vessell, associate to the chancellor for the Diocese of Jefferson City.

"It is our hope that this individual and his family find healing," Vessell said in the statement, which also encouraged anyone with information about abuse to come forward.

Jim Goodness, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Newark, said it told the Cooper County, Mo., prosecutor of the allegations as soon as the victim came forward. "They (SNAP) are clearly wrong that this was kept quiet and not reported to anybody," Goodness said.

Cooper County Prosecutor Doug Abele confirmed the archdiocese sent him information on the case.

"We took a look at it and declined prosecution," he said. "There was not enough basis to support a finding of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt."

A man answering phones for the Servants of the Paraclete said no one would be available to discuss the case.

Howard was ordained in New Jersey in 1976 when he went by the name Carmine Sita. In 1982, he pleaded guilty to having sexual contact with a minor, served probation and then was sent to a treatment center in New Mexico operated by the Servants of the Paraclete. During that time, he changed his name to Gerald Howard.

He then sought an assignment in the Diocese of Jefferson City. Then-Bishop Michael McAuliffe assigned Howard to serve as associate pastor of a Boonville, Mo., parish where the man and his family attended church. The diocese said it was not clear whether McAuliffe knew of the priest's criminal history.

Howard served in Boonville in 1983 and 1984. The diocese said he was removed for reasons other than abuse, and there were no abuse allegations on record against him.

Goodness said Howard has not worked as a priest for several years. It was not known where he lives or what he does for a living.

The Servants of the Paraclete, the only Catholic religious order in the U.S. that ministers to "priests and brothers in personal difficulty," closed their New Mexico treatment program for priestly molesters in 1996. But they run a treatment center in Dittmer, Mo., outside St. Louis.

The largest known clergy abuse settlement in Missouri came in 2004, when the Archdiocese of St. Louis agreed to pay $1.6 million to a family that accused the Rev. Gary Wolken of abusing their son. Wolken was imprisoned on sex abuse charges.

Clohessy said the Boonville victim is doing his best to keep his life together.

"Like so many of us, his recovery won't be anywhere near complete if Howard is allowed to walk free among unsuspecting families," Clohessy said.

N.S. Church Parishes to pay in Sex-abuse Settlement

Original article
08/14/09

Roman Catholic parishes in the diocese of Antigonish in Nova Scotia are being told they will fund a $13-million settlement agreement for church members who alleged they were sexually abused by priests.

In a series of meetings held this week in Sydney, Antigonish and Port Hawkesbury, members of parish councils and finance committees met to discuss how they will come up with the money.

The settlement was announced in Halifax last week for people who claimed they suffered sexual abuse going back more than 50 years.

Tom Langley, chair of the legal settlement committee, said the diocese and parishes have enough assets to pay the settlement. He said surveys were taken of the diocese's properties and cash flow in February, months before the settlement was announced.

"The first thing that will occur is that parishes will be asked to pool their cash and liquid resources into a fund to begin the process," he said.

Langley said no churches or glebe houses currently in use will close. The other assets of a church, such as land, may be sold, but Langley said the settlement committee wants the parishes to make their own decisions about what they'll have to give up.

Michael Campbell, a member of the Parish of St. Leonard in New Waterford, said some parishioners are wondering where the money will come from.

"Many would say that parishioners weren't the ones responsible, and that's true," Campbell said. "However, because of our faith and understanding the challenge before us, as a community of Catholics, we will work together to help in any way that we can."

The settlement came out of a class-action lawsuit filed last year. The suit, spearheaded by a New Waterford man who said he was abused by a priest, claimed the church knew that children were being sexually abused and didn't protect them.

Bishop Raymond Lahey also apologized to the victims and their families when announcing the settlement last Friday.

Former Deaf-school Student Sues Archdiocese

Original article
Suit Claims Priest There Molested him in 1970s

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: Aug. 13, 2009

A civil lawsuit filed Thursday against the Milwaukee Archdiocese is the first by a former student of St. John's School for the Deaf in St. Francis, where the late Father Lawrence Murphy is believed to have molested as many as 200 boys from 1950 to 1974.

The lawsuit, filed in Milwaukee County Circuit Court by Dean Weissmuller, 50, of Phoenix, is the 11th civil fraud case pending against the archdiocese alleging sexual abuse by priests.

Documents filed as part of the lawsuit suggest that the archdiocese knew of allegations against Murphy as early as the 1950s and worked to protect his reputation for decades after.

They include a letter from a Chicago priest who said he met with then-Archbishop Albert G. Meyer about the allegations in the 1950s, and another by now-retired Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland saying a private funeral was necessary for Murphy to "to protect his good name."

"What this shows is an institutional, deliberate policy of fraud that's existed over the last five decades," Peter Isely of the Midwest chapter of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests said in response to the lawsuit.

"This is not a problem of individual priests or bishops, but a fraudulent system constructed around sexual crimes against children," he said.

The archdiocese issued a statement in response to the lawsuit saying it has long acknowledged the abuse by Murphy, calling it a "violation of everything our Church and the priesthood represents," and apologizing to victims.

Weissmuller's lawsuit alleges he was molested by Murphy and dorm supervisor Thomas Tannehill between 1970 and 1972 while a student at the residential school for the deaf. It maintains the archdiocese knew Murphy and Tannehill had previously abused students, deceived families about it, and allowed the men unsupervised and unrestricted access to vulnerable students in spite of it.

Murphy died in 1998, Tannehill in 2007. Neither man was charged criminally in Wisconsin, though a database maintained by the Web site bishopaccountability.org says Tannehill was later arrested on accusations of abuse in Indiana.

Milwaukee Archdiocese documents at the site say Tannehill, a former student at the school, groomed victims for Murphy.

A social worker who evaluated Murphy for the archdiocese in 1993 estimated that he sexually assaulted as many as 200 boys during his tenure at St. John's. He was placed on the archdiocese's list of priests with substantiated claims of sexual abuse in 2004.

Weakland, a central figure in the lawsuits, outraged victims this spring when he claimed in his 2009 memoir that he and church leaders did not understand early on the "criminal nature" of child sex abuse or the long-term effect on victims.

Weissmuller's is the second of the civil fraud lawsuits to allege abuse by Murphy. Last year, Donald Marshall of West Allis alleged he was sexually assaulted by Murphy in the late 1970s at Lincoln Hills School in Irma, where Murphy worked after retiring from St. John's in 1974.

Murphy, well-known in the deaf community, was fluent in American Sign Language and a tireless fund-raiser during his time at St. John's.

In 1974, several former students went to authorities alleging abuse, but Murphy denied it and the investigation was dropped. No charges were filed because the men were adults and the statute of limitations had expired.

Victims later met with then-Archbishop William Cousins. Murphy and others were present. Cousins acknowledged that the church had been aware of the problem for years but that officials felt Murphy was too important to the school to lose.

Murphy resigned after being questioned by a reporter about the allegations. He was allowed to retire and moved to Boulder Junction, where he assisted in two area parishes until 1994. Church disciplinary proceedings were under way when he died.

Wisconsin law bars most lawsuits regarding older claims of sexual assault. But the state Supreme Court ruled last year that the church can be sued for fraud if victims show it was aware of misconduct and did not warn others.

The Milwaukee Archdiocese has said it could be bankrupted by a judgment in the lawsuits after a 2008 ruling that it could not tap its insurance policies to cover intentional fraud.