Stannies priest convicted of abuse
Saturday, December 04 2010 @ 05:17 AM GMT
Views: 427
Tag: australia By David Marr
ANOTHER priest has been convicted of abusing a boy at St Stanislaus' College in Bathurst.
Father Kevin Phillips has pleaded guilty in the District Court to four counts of gross indecency with a child under the age of 18. Several other charges against the priest were dropped.
Story Continues below
Soon after becoming assistant chaplain at the boarding school run by the Vincentian Fathers, Phillips began to invite students to his room to drink and smoke.
Advertisement: Story continues below
He was 40 years old at the time. According to the agreed statement of facts, Phillips was a mentor to the 16-year-old boarder who he abused on several occasions in 1990.
Phillips disappeared from the school in November that year after complaints were made to another teacher about the priest supplying whisky and cigarettes to the students and parading naked in front of them.
A notice put up at the school said Father Phillips had ''left to take care of his seriously ill mother'' and would not return. At the time of his arrest last year, Phillips was in charge of several parishes in north Queensland.
Father Brian Spillane, the school chaplain at the time Phillips committed the crimes, was convicted earlier this week on nine counts of sexual assaulting young women and next year faces trial on 135 charges involving boys at the school.
Operation Belle, the NSW Police investigation into allegations of abuse at the school since the 1970s, has seen two priests convicted - Phillips and Rick McPhillamy. Another was declared too old and infirm to stand trial, two were acquitted and four are yet to stand trial.
Those four include Spillane and the former headmaster of the school Father Peter Dwyer who is appealing to the High Court to have his dozen charges heard over several trials. Phillips was released on bail and will be sentenced in February.
Tag: kevin-phillips
Tag: vincentian-fathers st-stanislaus-college nsw bathurst
bathurst
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/stannies-pr...18ju2.html
