Armidale Catholic priest John Joseph Farrell
charged with child sexual abuse
Former Armidale Catholic priest John Joseph Farrell has been charged with nine counts of child sexual abuse.
The charges relate to alleged assaults against two boys, one at Gunnedah in 1975, about 85 kilometres west of Tamworth in northern New South Wales, and the other at Narrabri in 1983, about 175 kilometres north-west of Tamworth.
Farrell, 62, was charged with four counts of sexual intercourse without consent, four counts of indecent assault, and buggery.
Some of the ex-officio indictments were first laid 28 years ago, but the magistrate dismissed the account of one of the alleged victims, Damian Jurd, in favour of Farrell at a committal hearing.
Mr Jurd later took his own life.
His mother, Claire Jurd, told 7.30 she was in shock at the news Farrell will again face the allegations.
"We are ecstatic. We had given up hope," Ms Jurd said.
The church's management of Farrell, case study 44, will be investigated by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse over two weeks, starting on Monday.
The criminal case will go to trial from April 10, 2017 at Sydney District Court.
A NSW Police statement said the charges were laid following investigations from Strike Force Glenroe detectives.
"Investigations are ongoing," a NSW Police statement said.
The strike force was formed in July 2012 to investigate alleged historical child sexual assault offences committed by a former priest.
The strike force includes detectives from the Sex Crimes Squad and the New England and Barwon local area commands.
Child abuse royal commission: Police 'under pressure' after 1,659 cases flagged for investigation
By Brad Ryan
The royal commission into child sexual abuse has referred more than 1,500 matters to authorities, straining the resources of police forces around the country, one of its hearings has been told.
Justice Peter McClellan, who chairs the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, told a hearing in Sydney that 1,659 matters had been passed on to police to consider for further investigation.
Prosecutions have been brought against 71 people.
"Because of the volume of references, the resources of the various police forces have been placed under significant pressure," Justice McClellan said.
"I understand a great many references are awaiting investigation, or the investigations are underway but not complete."
Justice McClellan said the commission had received information about more than 4,000 institutions, but it was impossible to hold public hearings into all of them.
"We have carefully selected the institutions we have publicly investigated with a view to providing the Government, the institutions and the public with an understanding of the nature of the problems which we have identified," he said.
"The case studies have been selected to ensure an appropriate geographical spread and also an appropriate reflection of the type of institution where survivors were abused."
Commissioners have also met abuse survivors in 5,866 private sessions, with another 1,616 people yet to be seen.
The commission is today beginning a public hearing into how Catholic authorities dealt with allegations of abuse by former priest John Farrell.
It will examine the responses of the Catholic dioceses of Armidale and Parramatta, and a Sydney special issues group.
Justice McClellan said it was expected to be the royal commission's final hearing specifically relating to Catholic institutions.
Royal commission into child sex abuse:
'All I could think about was ... killing Father Ryan.
I didn't do it. I should have.'
A sudden case of early dimentia has struck numerous high-ranking Catholics. They are still not dealing honestly with the covering-up & enabling of pedophile priests.
They will have to one-day, and they won't like it much.
"During the service, all I could think about was running to my mate's parents' place and grabbing the biggest two knives he had and killing Father Ryan. I didn't do it. I should have.
"The damage that bastard's done to my life, my family, my friends and to everybody else. I feel guilty that I didn't do it and he went on to abuse other boys," Gerard McDonald told the royal commission this week.
Francis Cable, also known as Brother Romuald, leaving Newcastle Court. Photo: Jonathan Carroll
Four years after the Hunter region campaigned for a royal commission following the suicide of child sex abuse victim John Pirona, public hearings have taken place on how the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic diocese responded to child sexual abuse allegations about a notorious paedophile priest and three Hunter Marist brothers.
McDonald was giving evidence about Vince Ryan, who was convicted in 1995 for offences against more than 30 young boys. Pirona was one of his victims, and his death in July 2012 – and suicide note with the final words "Too much pain" – became the final straw for the Hunter community.
In Newcastle Courthouse this week, two of Ryan's victims, Scott Hallett and McDonald, gave shocking evidence of Ryan giving them wine as nine-year-old altar boys and urging them to have anal sex with each other in front of other boys, and of the priest having oral sex with the boys.
Both men told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse they wanted to kill Ryan when he appeared at their high school a few years later for a church service.
Scott Hallett ended his harrowing evidence on Wednesday by asking people to "go home today, pull out a photo of yourself and one of your children when they were nine, 10 or 11 years old … and go through a couple of the statements that survivors have provided you here, and people may get a bit of an insight what our world is like".
'The church knew an awful lot more than you revealed in this document, didn't it?'
At the hearings in Newcastle over the past month, senior Anglican and Catholic clergymen have struggled with their memories, stumbled over words, made concessions after documents have been produced and, on occasion, been forced to say they've not told the truth about their responses to child sexual abuse allegations.
Audrey Nash believes her son was abused by Francis Cable. Photo: Jonathan Carroll
They have "not recalled" a lot.
On the second day of the Catholic hearing former Maitland-Newcastle bishop Michael Malone admitted he had covered up that the church had known for 20 years that Ryan committed crimes against young boys, after he was questioned about his statements and interviews following Ryan's conviction in 1996.
Vince Ryan was convicted in 1995 for offences against more than 30 young boys. Photo: Ron Bell
Royal commission chairman Justice Peter McClellan: "The church knew an awful lot more than you revealed in this document, didn't it?"
Malone: "Yes."
Bishop Roger Herft did not recall receiving serious child sex allegations about the now defrocked former dean of Newcastle, Graeme Lawrence. Photo: Max Mason Hubers
There are no liars in Christendom - just saying...
McClellan: "And you didn't tell the public that you knew that?"
Malone: "I didn't tell them, no."
John Pirona was one of Vince Ryan's victims. Photo: Jonathan Carroll
In later evidence he said the "covering up" was because the church did not want people so shocked by knowledge it had protected a paedophile priest for several decades that they would turn away from their faith.
It was not their faith the church was worried about, it was the church.
The retired Hunter bishop, who did not attend a World Youth Day service with Australia's bishops in Sydney in 2008, but walked across the Harbour Bridge with abuse survivors, said he reached a point where "You either had to try to defend the church or you had to try to serve the needs of survivors, and I chose the latter."
Justice McClellan responded with the question at the heart of the child sexual abuse crisis within the Catholic Church – "Why was it ever a choice?"
Wow! What a great question!
Bishop Malone ventured an explanation how church law enshrined secrecy around child sexual abuse.
"Membership of the church is a bit of a strange beast insofar as the church has its own culture, its own law, its own way of obeying structures within the church, its own sacramental system, and as such, it's divorced from society, and that has meant the church has gone along parallel lines with society, so that civil law somehow was not seen as impinging on the life of the church, in the past," he said.
Catholic nun Evelyn Woodward told the royal commission she did not follow up once she reported allegations about Vince Ryan to a senior priest, in part because of "the position of women in the church at that time".
"We were pretty low in the pecking order, and there was a hierarchical system which I think led me to say 'I've got to hand it over to whoever's in charge of the diocese.' If that makes any sense," Sister Woodward said.
'No recollection'
One of the Australian Anglican Church's most senior clerics, Perth Archbishop Roger Herft, did not recall receiving serious child sex allegations about the now defrocked former dean of Newcastle, Graeme Lawrence, in 1995, 1997 and 1999 from three separate sources, including another bishop and a priest, or of speaking to Lawrence on those three occasions and accepting his denials.
"Are you seriously suggesting to the commission that you have no recollection of raising an extraordinarily serious allegation with one of the most senior priests in the diocese?" said counsel assisting the commission, Naomi Sharp, on August 12, before the archbishop was shown a letter, written by him in 1995 to one of the complainants, confirming the allegation and his subsequent acceptance of Lawrence's denial.
At an earlier hearing into the Anglican Church in the Hunter, during his time as bishop of Newcastle from 1993 to 2005, Herft stated: "No one ever raised with me directly or indirectly any matter that would have brought concern to me regarding the behaviour or otherwise of the dean of Newcastle."
By the end of his evidence on August 29, after documents showing he received serious allegations in 1995, 1997 and 1999, Herft accepted he had been advised of the allegations, but insisted he had no recollection of those events, or of speaking to Lawrence and accepting his denials.
Two former Newcastle Anglican bishops, Richard Appleby and Alfred Holland, insisted they had never known of any child sex abuse in the diocese, and if they had they would have fought it "decisively".
Bishop Appleby repeatedly said he had "no recollection" of being told about notorious Hunter Anglican child sex offenders Father Peter Rushton and youth worker James Brown, and denied evidence by others who said they had told him of allegations between 1983 and 1992.
Bishop Holland was repeatedly asked if he was telling the truth during his evidence about Rushton, his denial of knowledge of rumours that trainee priests at St John's Theological College at Morpeth "might fancy little boys", or his denial of knowledge that a Wyong priest he wrote a character letter for had been charged with raping a teenage boy.
He also denied a conversation with a lawyer who had "the ear of three bishops", about obtaining a medical certificate stating the retired bishop was in no fit state to give evidence. Holland also denied being advised to respond to questions by saying he could not recall past events, after the royal commission produced a diocese file note indicating Holland would receive that advice.
The royal commission heard evidence a "gang of three" senior Anglican diocese members – Graeme Lawrence, defrocked priest Bruce Hoare and former diocesan registrar Peter Mitchell – protected Peter Rushton for decades, and Lawrence himself was protected by "a cohort of Newcastle Cathedral practitioners who appear, unquestionably" to have supported him.
Peter Mitchell – jailed in 2002 for defrauding the diocese of nearly $200,000 – repeatedly denied any knowledge of brown or yellow envelopes containing details of child sexual abuse by priests, despite a range of documents showing he was closely involved with the management of the files.
Justice McClellan accused former diocesan lawyer Robert Caddies of leading "co-ordinated opposition" to current Newcastle Anglican Bishop Greg Thompson after a group of senior Anglicans, including Mr Caddies and former Newcastle lord mayor John McNaughton, complained to the commission in April after the bishop spoke publicly in October about being sexually abused by a bishop.
The group questioned the length of time between the abuse in the 1970s and Bishop Thompson's disclosure.
"Were you seeking to say to the royal commission that because it's taken so long, the bishop's credibility should be looked at?" Justice McClellan said.
I love this guy. He gets right to the heart of things. God bless you Justice McClellan.
Caddies denied it.
In the witness box on Tuesday, Audrey Nash, 90, of Hamilton, the mother of Andrew, 13, who hanged himself in his bedroom in 1974, said she believed her son died because he was abused by his Catholic Marist Brother teachers, the now jailed Brothers Romuald (Francis Cable) and Dominic (Darcy O'Sullivan).
Mrs Nash, who said she had committed her whole life to the Catholic Church until recently, was in tears about the impact of Andrew's death on her family, the sexual abuse of her surviving son by two Marist Brothers, and her uncritical acceptance of the power of Catholic churchmen.
"I feel so stupid that I used to fear and revere these people and that I used to respect them and look up to them," she said.
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