Australian priest Father John Sidney Denham who appeared in a New South Wales court for sentencing on Thursday, described himself as a “scumbag pedophile”, in testimony during sentencing submissions. “I’ve spent the last 25 years trying to figure out why I did it, and I still haven’t got an answer for it,” he said in the submission, as victims and their families looked on from the public gallery, reports The Australian.
“Maybe I was so full of hubris that no one could resist me . . . I was an irresistible creature.”
Under questioning by crown prosecutor Helen Wilson, Denham accepted he committed a “gross breach of trust”.
He said he began to understand “what a foul creature I had become” after attending group therapy where victims of child sex abuse spoke about their trauma.
“I see myself as a mere scumbag pedophile who took advantage of his situation and used my power to abuse young people,” Denham said.
SIC: CTHAS