Priests accused of 183 sexual offences

Tag: australia

Geesche Jacobsen, Jonathan Dart and Harriet Alexander

FIVE clergymen from an exclusive Catholic boarding school now stand accused of 183 sexual offences - and more men are expected to be charged in coming weeks, a court heard.


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But yesterday, as four of the men faced court with a large group of supporters, the alleged sex scandal extended past St Stanislaus College in Bathurst when the former school chaplain was charged with indecently assaulting two girls as young as seven or eight.

New charges were laid yesterday, and at least 25 victims - most of them former pupils from the school - have alleged rape and buggery, as well as indecent assaults involving kissing and touching.

The former chaplain, Father Brian Spillane, faces 117 charges, including four charges that he indecently assaulted two young girls in Marsfield in 1979 and 1980. They were allegedly aged seven or eight and 12 or 13.

Spillane had 20 charges against him dropped yesterday, but most of them were substituted with new charges relating to the same alleged incidents. Sexual assault laws have changed repeatedly since the time of the alleged offences.

Of the charges dropped, some of the most significant related to the first person to go public with allegations of abuse against the Vincentian priests.

The man set up his own website and handed out pamphlets on the streets of Bathurst earlier this year to bring attention to the matter.

The solicitor acting for three of the accused, Greg Walsh, criticised the handling of the case by police and prosecutors. "The withdrawal of a significant number of charges is important in my understanding of how those charges were brought," he said.

Mr Walsh said the decision to arrest another of his clients on Tuesday, the head of the Vincentian order in Australia, Greg Cooney, was an embarrassing bungle for police. Father Cooney was later released without charge.

Yesterday the Chief Magistrate, Graeme Henson, ordered the prosecution to finalise the present charges by February. He also told Downing Centre Local Court the men were entitled to the presumption of innocence.

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St Stanislaus College

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/p...86175.html