Friday, January 25, 2013

Second priest charged with concealing abuse

A retired priest from the Hunter region in  NSW has become the second Catholic priest in Australia to be charged with concealing a child sex crime, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

The retired priest, 81, was charged at Charlestown police station on January 4 with misprision of a felony – failing to disclose a serious crime – relating to child sex offences committed by another man in the Hunter in the mid 1980s.

Strike Force Georgiana Detective Sergeant Kristi Faber also charged the retired priest with one count of accessory before the fact relating to the offences.

He became only the second Catholic priest in Australia to be charged with concealing child sex crimes after Detective Faber charged former Toronto priest in August last year with concealing the child sex crimes of another Hunter priest in the late 1970s.

That priest died of cancer in October before the matter went to trial. 

He denied the charges.