Clergy Child Molesters (126) — References/Archive/Blog

Church paid a $40,000 settlement to an ex-pupil

 
   Broken Rites - Australia, http://brokenr ites.alpha link.com.au/ nletter/ page114- hartcher.html , E-mail of July 4, 2006
   AUSTRALIA: A prominent Australian Catholic bishop has confirmed that he appointed a priest to administer a parish after the church had paid a $40,000 settlement involving the priest.
   Bishop Michael Malone, the head of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese in New South Wales, has played a prominent role in supervising the Australian church's professional standards. In the late 1990s, he became a member of the church's National Committee on Professional Standards. So it is interesting to see how Bishop Malone, with his special interest in professional standards, has managed professional standards in his own diocese.
   In 1999, Bishop Malone appointed Father Guy Hartcher, then aged 52, to be in charge of two parishes, Gresford and Dungog, in rural areas north-west of the city of Newcastle.
The priest's career
   Father Hartcher was not originally a diocesan priest but has always been a member of the Vincentian Fathers religious order (also called the Congregation of the Mission).
   In 1971, after training to be a Vincentian priest, Father Hartcher began working as a teacher at St Stanislaus College in Bathurst, NSW (a Catholic boys' secondary school, known locally as "Stannies" and staffed by the Vincentian order). Father Hartcher was then aged about 24. According to the Catholic Directory for the early 1970s, St Stanislaus College then had eleven priests and two lay brothers (all of them Vincentians) located at this school.
   By 1974, the Vincentian order arranged for Father Hartcher to go to overseas. He was listed for the last time in the Australian Catholic Directory's 1973 edition (at the Bathurst school) and was not listed in the Australian directory again until the 1990s. It is believed that he spent time in Rome, New Zealand and the United States.
   Returning to Australia, he was listed in the 1994 Directory as the rector of the Catholic Church's St Francis Xavier Seminary in Adelaide, South Australia.
   From 1995, the directory listed him at Vincentian addresses in Sydney until Bishop Malone appointed him to the Gresford-Dungog parish in 1999.
The bishop's announcement
   In 2004, when Father Hartcher had been administering the Gresford-Dungog parish for five years, journalists on the Newcastle Herald discovered some new information about Father Hartcher - information that his parishioners did not have. When Bishop Malone realised that this information might become public, he acted pre-emptively by issuing "A Message to Parishioners of Dungog and Gresford Parishes", dated Saturday 4 September 2004. This message, which was published on Bishop Malone's diocesan web site, told Father Guy Hartcher's parishioners: "Regretfully I inform you that Fr Guy Hartcher CM, who is a priest of the Vincentian Congregation and who has served you as Administrator of Gresford and Dungog Parishes since 1999, has been withdrawn from active ministry, as of Sunday 5th September, 2004."
   Three days after this, on 7 September 2004, the Newcastle Herald reported extensively on this development. The Herald revealed that, some time in the past before Father Hartcher came to the Gresford-Dungog parish, the Vincentian Fathers had paid a $40,000 settlement to a former student of St Stanislaus College in Bathurst.
   Broken Rites knows that this student was born in 1957 and was aged 14 in 1971. The civil settlement was made in March 1994, when the ex-student was aged 37.
The settlement deed
   Broken Rites has inspected a copy of the Deed of Release relating to this settlement. The Deed of Release is an agreement between the former student and the trustees of the Vincentian Fathers. According to the Deed of Release, the ex-student claims "that he has suffered loss and damage and that he requires specialist counselling and therapy ... as a consequence of alleged unlawful sexual assaults... that occurred while he was a student at the St Stanislaus College at Bathurst."
   In the Deed, the Trustees of the Vincentian Fathers agree "without any admission of liability" to pay $43,000 (inclusive of costs) to the ex-student "in full and final settlement" of all or any rights and actions that the ex-student may have "against the Trustees, Father Guy Hartcher or any servant or agent of the Trustees." In return for this payment, the ex-student "releases" the Vincentian Fathers from any further claims for payment (hence, this document is called a Deed of Release). It means that the student agrees not to sue the Vincentian Fathers through the civil courts.
   The ex-student's expenses amounted to more than $3,000, leaving him nearly $40,000, clear, from the gross figure of $43,000.
   In a letter dated 27 April 1994, the Australian head of the Vincentian Fathers (Fr Anthony Mannix) wrote to the ex-student: "I offer an apology to you, in an official capacity, for any harm experienced by you while you were in our care." [Broken Rites has inspected a copy of this letter.]
   During 1994, the year the settlement was signed, Father Hartcher left his position at the Adelaide seminary and moved to Vincentian addresses in Sydney.
   When Bishop Malone appointed Fr Hartcher as the administrator of St Helen's parish at Gresford and St Mary's parish in neighbouring Dungog in 1999, parishioners were not aware of the $40,000 settlement.
   Bishop Malone's statement on 4 September 2004, announcing Father Hartcher's withdrawal "from active ministry", did not mention the $40,000 civil settlement of March 1994. Instead, the bishop referred to criminal prosecutions against Father Hartcher that began in Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court on 30 November 1994 (and continued through the court system until 1997). The criminal proceedings concerned allegations made, separately, by two former students of St Stanislaus College. One of these students was the recipient of the $40,000 settlement. (In the criminal proceedings, Father Hartcher's full name was given as Guy Norman Hartcher.)
   Neither of the two criminal court prosecutions resulted in a conviction.
   The bishop's message said regarding the prosecutions: "Fr Hartcher maintained his innocence throughout the investigations."
   Bishop Malone's message continued: "Recently, a person scanning the Internet found reference to these historic matters and concluded that Fr Hartcher was unfit for ministry with children. This person made a formal complaint to police.
   "No new information has come to light but until these matters are independently investigated, Fr Hartcher will be withdrawn from active ministry. In accord with statutory requirements an independent assessment will be undertaken to determine his suitability for ministry with children. His Vincentian Congregational Leader Fr Gregory Cooney CM and myself agree on this course of action. Fr Hartcher will leave the parishes immediately.
   "Parishioners will be shocked by these events. Given the fact that two other priests in the diocese, both of whom spent time in Dungog and Gresford, have been stood down for similar reasons, the effects of this latest incident run deep," Bishop Malone wrote.
   Bishop Malone's message was also reported on the Catholic News web site www.cathnews.com and on another Catholic web site, www.onlinecatholics.com.au
   In the Newcastle Herald on Tuesday 7 September 2004, Bishop Malone's message was reported on page one. In this report, Bishop Malone strongly defended his 1999 appointment of Fr Hartcher.
   The Herald article said (on page 2): "Bishop Malone said he 'personally' believed Father Hartcher was fit for ministry of children. He said he had known about the old allegations before hiring Father Hartcher in 1999 and had received information in writing from the Vincentian Fathers that he was a 'fit person for the ministry and for ministry with children'."
   "I was also given many references in support of Father Guy and his ministry and he was also interviewed by a psychologist of the diocese who spoke to him at length prior to him engaging in ministry," Bishop Malone said.
   "So we were satisfied in the diocese that, with all the other bits and pieces that the Vincentians were able to supply about him, that he was a fit man for ministry. And I personally still believe that."
   Bishop Malone said he did not feel it was his job to tell Gresford parishioners about the previous allegations when Father Hartcher was appointed to the parish in 1999.
   "I chose not to inform the people because I didn't really think that needed to be done and a man was entitled to his own reputation in the eyes of the people," Bishop Malone said. "If he chose to tell people, then that was his business about what had happened to him."
   Although Bishop Malone's September 2004 message to parishioners did not mention the $40,000 civil settlement, the Newcastle Herald quoted him as acknowledging the settlement. The Herald article said: "Bishop Malone confirmed a cash settlement was made between the Vincentians, of which Father Hartcher is a member, with one of his students. The Herald understands it was about $40,000."
   The Herald quoted Bishop Malone as saying: "...I think the Vincentians chose to settle rather than engage in a long and protracted court process which may or may not have been successful, given the climate of these matters and that was their choice."
   After leaving the Gresford-Dungog parish, Father Hartcher was listed in the National Council of Priests directory in 2005 and 2006 as being located at a parish in Sydney's inner-west that is staffed by the Vincentian Fathers. This parish is within the Archdiocese of Sydney and it therefore comes under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop, Cardinal George Pell. Bishop Malone's decision in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese does not apply in the Sydney diocese - or in any other diocese.
Developments in 2006
   Twenty months after his September 2004 announcement, Bishop Malone issued another statement. On 30 May 2006, the Newcastle Herald reported: "Bishop Michael Malone has told Dungog-Gresford parishioners and his clergy that the diocese had withdrawn the approval for Father Guy Hartcher to minister in the region regardless of the outcome of an investigation into the cleric's past."
   Bishop Malone said consideration had involved consultations with Father Hartcher, his representatives, parish representatives, the Vincentian order leadership, as well as "many hours of investigation, deliberation and prayer."
   Bishop Malone's statement said: "Please be assured that this decision has been given the most careful consideration from every perspective.
   "After much discernment and advice, as your pastoral leader I believe I am acting in the best interests of all people involved, including Father Hartcher and the parish community of Dungog-Gresford."
   Bishop Malone's statement related only to the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle. Father Hartcher's future in the Vincentian order is a matter for that world-wide religious order. Therefore, Father Hartcher continued to be a priest in the Vincentian order, although he cannot practise in the diocese of Maitland-Newcastle. #

Church used collection-plate money to defend a criminal priest

 
   Broken Rites - Australia, http://broken rites.alpha link.com.au/ nletter/page 115-fletch er.html , E-mail of July 4, 2006
   AUSTRALIA: A prominent Australian bishop has admitted that Christmas collection money was diverted to lawyers to defend a priest in a child-abuse court case. In addition, the priest's lawyers were paid thousands of dollars from other church sources.
   The priest, Father James Patrick Fletcher, of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese in New South Wales, pleaded not guilty in 2004 to multiple counts of anal and oral sexual penetration of an altar boy, Desmond. The offences began in 1990, when Desmond was 13. A jury found Fletcher guilty on all charges.
   Legal experts said that Fletcher's legal costs for the 11-day trial exceeded $200,000. The church's defence team included an expensive Queen's Counsel (this barrister had previously represented Lindy Chamberlain), plus a second barrister and a solicitor.
   After the guilty verdict, the media questioned Fletcher's superior (the Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle, Most Reverend Michael Malone) about aspects of the case, including how the defence team was financed. Malone said that Fletcher "availed" himself of an "offered loan facility" to help fund his defence. It is not known how the "loan" was supposed to be "re-paid", especially seeing that Fletcher was about to be jailed for the crimes. It is not known why Bishop Malone called this payment a "loan".
   Bishop Malone also admitted he was aware of "one priest from one parish" donating part of the parish's Christmas collection to help pay Fletcher's lawyers. [The parishioners of this generous priest did not know that their Christmas donations were to be used to help another priest, Father Fletcher, to evade child-sex charges.]
   "Desmond" (not his real name) was not Fletcher's only victim. Desmond was merely the first Fletcher victim who eventually contacted the police - in 2002 at the age of 25.
   After Fletcher was charged in 2003, further Fletcher victims (from Fletcher's other parishes) began contacting the police.
The priest's background
   One of the victims who contacted police in 2003-4 said he was abused by Fletcher as early as 1978 - 12 years before Desmond's time. In 1978, Fr Jim Fletcher Fletcher had been the administrator (i.e., priest in charge) at St John's Cathedral, Maitland. He was also the master of ceremonies for the then bishop, Bishop Leo Clarke. (Bishop Clarke was in charge of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese from 1976 to 1995.) Fletcher's position at the cathedral was a prestigious one. Fletcher's colleagues at this cathedral (as shown in the Catholic directory for 1983-4) included another up-and-coming young priest, Father Philip Wilson, who eventually became the Archbishop of Adelaide.
   Fletcher took a particular interest in altar boys. Years later, his victims told how Fletcher had "groomed" them before sexually abusing them.
   According to police, Bishop Clarke knew in the late 1970s and early '80s that Fletcher's liking for boys was a potential public-relations problem for the cathedral. Therefore, in the mid-1980s, Bishop Clarke removed Fletcher from Maitland (a demotion that he resented thereafter). However, instead of removing Fletcher from parish work altogether, Bishop Clarke transferred him to other, less important parishes, including Gateshead (in Newcastle) and later Denman (a rural parish) in the mid-1980s. In these parishes, the congregations did not know about Fletcher's past, so he was able to continue unhindered with more altar boys. (Yet another of Fletcher's alleged victims - from 1986-7 - came forward in 2004, as will be explained later in this article.)
   By 1988, Fletcher had been transferred to another parish, with a fresh lot of altar boys and a fresh lot of unsuspecting parents. One of these altar boys (Desmond) ultimately caused the unmasking of Fletcher in 2002. In order to protect the privacy of Desmond and his family, Broken Rites is not publishing the name of Desmond's parish.
The story of Desmond
   Fletcher, who was known to parishioners as "Father Jim", committed sexual crimes against Desmond (an altar boy) repeatedly from the age of 13 in 1990. The details, as later established in court, were as follows.
   As a Catholic priest, Father Fletcher ingratiated himself with Desmond and his family, had meals at their home and lured Desmond away from home for sex. Fletcher drove the boy to parks and other public locations around the Hunter Valley. Fletcher, who had enormous authority over the boy as a Catholic priest, intimidated the boy into taking part in sex acts. The boy trusted the priest and therefore obeyed him. Fletcher instructed the boy how to perform oral sex on the priest and these encounters eventually progressed to anal sex.
   Desmond testified that, during anal intercourse, "he had never felt pain like it in his life" and had looked at a Saint Christopher medal in the car while the intercourse took place. The boy then cried and Fletcher hugged him, saying that "it was a normal part of life".
   After one incident, Fletcher dropped the boy at a bus stop to find his own way home.
   Desmond was unable to tell anyone about Fletcher's crimes because, as a priest, Fletcher had an exalted position in the Catholic community and he was a friend of Desmond's parents. Furthermore, to intimidate Desmond into silence, Fletcher warned him that "no-one would believe him" if he told anyone "because priests never lie. And he threatened to hurt Desmond's siblings if the boy ever spoke out.
   During these years of abuse, Desmond increasingly became a "difficult" boy but his parents did not know the cause of his grumpiness.
   The sexual abuse continued throughout Desmond's secondary schooling but Fletcher was charged only with certain selected incidents in the boy's early teenage years. It was not until Desmond was in Year 12 that he finally broke away from Fletcher's clutches.
   By 1995, Fletcher had moved on to a new parish -- St Brigid's parish in rural Branxton, west of Maitland - leaving Desmond to suffer in silence at the previous parish.
   This secrecy disrupted Desmond's adolescent development. He became distant, angry and depressed. He became a binge-drinker. At age 19, he tried to commit suicide.
   Finally, during a serious personal crisis in 2002, aged 25, Desmond admitted to his parents that he was a sex-abuse victim and that the offender was the Reverend Father Jim Fletcher. He disclosed how Father Fletcher forced him to have sexual intercourse with the priest.
   Desmond's father complained about Fletcher to the new bishop, Most Reverend Michael Malone, who had succeeded Bishop Clarke in 1995. But later the family realised that notifying the diocese turned out to be an unwise move.
   After telling his family, Desmond made a signed, sworn statement for the NSW police in mid-2002. As part of their investigation, the police contacted the Maitland-Newcastle diocesan office to ask if the diocese had received any previous complaints about Fletcher in any of his parishes. But this was another unwise move because the diocese "tipped off" Fletcher at Branxton parish that he was facing potential criminal charges. This enabled Fletcher to get his story together and to begin marshalling church support for his defence.
   According to public promises previously made by Australian Catholic bishops, the Maitland-Newcastle diocese should have transferred Fletcher immediately to other duties or they could have granted him leave (which the church sometimes disguises as "study leave" or "sick leave" for a priest facing sex-abuse allegations), so that he would not have contact with families or children, while the police investigation was proceeding. However, the diocese allowed Fletcher to continue working in his parish among families and children. The diocese was prepared to continue protecting Fletcher as long as it could get away with it.
   Indeed, in January 2003 (six months after the police complaint), the diocese even enlarged Fletcher's area of responsibilities, by adding another parish (Lochinvar) to that he already held (Branxton), thereby increasing his parishioners from 2447 to 3125. This additional appointment was documented in the next annual National Council of Priests directory, compiled in January 2003.
   By March 2003, it became evident that the police intended to formally charge James Fletcher with child-sex crimes. This meant that the charges eventually would be reported in the media, so, faced with a looming scandal, the diocese finally stood Fletcher down. This was nine months after the diocese learned about the police investigation.
Priest arrested
   On 14 May 2003, police arrested Father James Fletcher and laid the charges. Fletcher, with his legal defence strategy now organised, denied the charges. A magistrate granted him bail on condition that he have no contact with children younger than 16.
   The Fletcher charges were reported in the media. Newcastle and Hunter Valley newspapers demanded to be told why the diocese had waited so long before withdrawing Fletcher from parish ministry. Why had he been kept in his position during the police investigation?
   In a media statement immediately after the laying of charges, Bishop Michael Malone said the diocese had not stood Fletcher down in June 2002 because it "did not deem him to be a risk". [The church's statement did not explain how Fletcher had suddenly become a "risk" only after the media exposure, whereas he had "not been a risk" beforehand while the church was able to prevent Fletcher's parishioners from knowing about the matter.]
   In fact, Father James Fletcher obviously had been a huge risk for many years, as shown in the subsequent court proceedings and by the emergence of further victims afterwards.
   Thus, by speaking to the police, Desmond ensured that the church's cover-up of Fletcher was thwarted, although Fletcher continued to receive support in church circles during the court proceedings and afterwards.
   In the East Maitland District Court in November 2004, James Patrick Fletcher (aged 63) was charged with having performed sexual intercourse (anal and oral) on Desmond on eight occasions in 1990-1. He was also charged with committing an aggravated act of indecency on the child.
   Fletcher pleaded "not guilty" to all charges but declined to give evidence in the witness box (to defend himself against the charges). This protected him from being cross-examined.
   The jury, comprising eight men and four women, heard the full details of Desmond's abuse. The evidence was thoroughly sifted, at length, by the prosecutor and by the church's lawyers.
   Finally, the prosecution produced another alleged victim of Fletcher -- a 30-year-old man who said he was abused by Fletcher at the age of 13. This witness, who can be identified only as "Mr G", told the court that he was he twice stayed overnight at Father Fletcher's presbytery (parish house) in 1986 and 1987. (This was in one of Fletcher's new parishes after he had left the Maitland cathedral.) Mr G said that, both times, Fletcher gave him a goodnight kiss, interfered with the boy's genitals, performed oral sex on the boy and ordered him not to tell his parents. Mr G said he told nobody about this abuse until Fletcher asked a family member for a character reference. Mr G then contacted the prosecutors and arranged to give this evidence in court.
Guilty verdict
   On 6 December 2004, after long deliberations in the jury room, the jury unanimously returned a verdict of guilty on all nine charges. Fletcher was placed in prison on remand, pending the sentencing on a later date.
   Bishop Michael Malone told the media that he wished to apologise to the victims (plural) and their families and friends "for the immense pain and suffering caused by Father Fletcher's criminal actions". He apologised for not transferring Father Fletcher from parish work immediately after being told about the child-sex charges. He said: "In retrospect, the matter could have been handled better and we have learned that we have to respond more appropriately to these issues."
   Malone said that Fletcher would not return to the ministry. [This was a safe assumption because Fletcher had been thoroughly exposed and was facing a jail sentence].
   Malone claimed that the diocese was setting up a toll-free telephone number so that people could talk to the church about the matter. [This is a common tactic, which often results in further victims reporting offences - possibly about other perpetrators - to the church instead of contacting the police or a victims' group such as Broken Rites.] However, when a Newcastle Herald reporter rang the toll-free number, nobody answered.
   Malone also telephoned the victim, Desmond, telling him that he was courageous for coming forward. Malone also urged Desmond to "keep your faith". Desmond told the Newcastle Herald that this did not amount to an apology.
   After Fletcher's conviction, the diocese finally dropped his name from the March 2005 directory of the National Council of Priests. The church did not want to mention that he was in remand prison, awaiting his full sentence.
Jailed
   At the sentencing in Sydney District Court on 11 April 2005, Judge Graham Armitage said Fletcher committed an "inexcusable" breach of trust. He said the victim's evidence was the most compelling that he had heard.
   Judge Armitage said the victim had presented to the court as a down-to-earth young man who was truthful.
   Judge Armitage sentenced James Fletcher, aged 64, to a maximum 10 years in jail, with a non-parole period of seven and-a-half years.
Mother's anguish
   Outside the court, Desmond's mother told the media that, for her family, the sentence was "life-long" and no amount of time in prison could restore the joy in faith that they had lost.
   Praising her son's courage, the woman described him as "an extraordinarily brave boy".
   The mother thanked a Hunter Valley detective, Detective Sergeant Peter Fox (of Maitland and Cessnock), for his diligence and compassion in pursuing the case. She said she hoped her son's actions would make it easier for other victims to speak out.
   In media statements after the sentencing, Bishop Michael Malone admitted that he had handled the Fletcher matter badly. He also admitted that more needed to be done to ensure that those affected by Fletcher's actions got proper attention and support.
Court appeals
   Fletcher's conviction meant that the church was forced finally to distance itself from Fletcher, though not completely. Several of Fletcher's fellow priests continued to organise on his behalf.
   Fletcher appealed to the NSW Court of Appeal against his conviction. The church lawyers argued that the trial judge erred in admitting evidence from the second altar boy, Mr G, who said Fletcher performed oral sex on him in 1986 and 1987.
   The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal. One of the appeal judges, Justice Carolyn Simpson, said the trial judge was correct in allowing Mr G's evidence. At the time of the alleged offences against him, Mr G was the same age as the complainant [Desmond] and there were sufficient similarities between the two sets of allegations for the evidence to be admitted, Judge Simpson said.
   After losing his appeal in New South Wales, Fletcher then initiated an appeal to the High Court of Australia against the conviction, again opposing the use of Mr G's evidence. A High Court appeal is an expensive exercise but Fletcher had backing for this from his supporters in the church.
More victims
   Meanwhile, more victims of Fletcher were coming forward. On 13 December 2004 - while he was awaiting his sentence - Fletcher was charged in Maitland Local Court with having indecently assaulted yet another teenage boy. These incidents occurred at Maitland in January-March 1978 when Fletcher was located at the cathedral. This was a decade before Fletcher went to Desmond's parish. This case was adjourned to 18 April 2005 but, by then, Fletcher was in jail and the prosecutors considered that there was no point in bringing him back to court again. The 1978 victim was not the same as the previously mentioned "Mr G", whose incidents occurred at a different parish in 1986-7.
   Fletcher died in jail in January 2006, from a stroke, after serving 14 months of his jail sentence. His funeral service, held in his last parish at Branxton, was attended by Bishop Michael Malone, vicar-general Father Jim Saunders and 31 other priests. Fletcher's long-time friend Father Des Harrigan, who officiated at the service, asked those present to pray for Fletcher.
   Fletcher was buried in the priests' section of Sandgate Cemetery, near Newcastle.
   Father Harrigan, who was the executor of Fletcher's estate, confirmed that the High Court appeal application would still go ahead. Harrigan said that, as the executor, he had to follow the wishes of the deceased.
   Bishop Michael Malone said he would like to see the appeal proceed, so that Fletcher's family, his family and his victims could all "find closure".
   A family member of one of Fletcher's victims told the Newcastle Herald: "I cannot understand why his [Fletcher's] supporters keep pushing this. He is dead. Can't they understand that it is just perpetuating the pain for everyone involved, particularly the victims?"
A victim's letter
   One of Fletcher's victims wrote a letter to the editor, published in the Newcastle Herald on 10 March 2006, asking Fletcher's supporters not to proceed with the High Court appeal. The letter indicates that the writer's family had encountered Fletcher in the late 1970s
   The letter said, referring to Fletcher's abuse: "I am not the courageous young man ["Desmond"] who came forward, complained and testified about that abuse.
   "Nor am I the other brave person ["Mr G"] who gave evidence in support of that claim.
   "I am, however, the survivor of years of grooming and sexual abuse at the hands of Father Fletcher.
   "I met him as a shy nine-year-old, a member of a devout Catholic family whose devotion to the church meant that closer to a priest was to be closer to God.
   "For 25 years I tried to forget what Fletcher did to me and for 25 years I did not tell a soul. For the past two years, I have been forced to confront my reality over and over again, and I have had to contend with people who cannot see the truth.
   "The Catholic Bishop and Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle believe my story, as do the NSW police. Sadly, though, Father Des Harrigan and a (hopefully) small group of other people believe that me and Fletcher's other victims are liars and that we and our families should keep on suffering. Witness this week's appeal by Father Harrigan to the High Court.
   "I feel very sorry for Jim Fletcher's mother, family, friends and supporters. It must be a terrible burden to have to confront the double life of someone you love. Nonetheless, I would like to ask them all, and Father Harrigan in particular, to stop trying to clear his name.
   "It can do Fletcher, his supporters and his victims no good.
   "It is time that they too confronted their reality - they were deceived, and in their own way abused, by a man who was driven by his own desires." [End of letter. Name and address withheld. ]
   On the same day that this letter was published, the High Court dismissed Father Harrigan's application to appeal. Chief Justice Murray Gleeson said: "We [the judges] are of the view that the evidence in question [by Mr G] was correctly admitted in the particular circumstances of this case and we are not persuaded there has been any miscarriage of justice."
   By April 2006, six of Fletcher's sex-abuse victims had contacted the NSW police. However, police told Broken Rites that the police can do nothing further about Fletcher because of his death. Therefore, the police said, these new complainants should seek justice by claiming compensation from the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle. The payouts by the church would be a kind of fine for the church's negligence in inflicting Fletcher on his victims.
Family hurt by the church
   A close friend of Desmond's family told Broken Rites in early 2006: "The whole process of the past three years has been traumatic, especially by the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese giving Fletcher a tip-off that the victim had gone to the police.
   "The church's compensation process is slow and the Catholic Church seems to be trying to minimize the damage done to this young man and his family. After five years of this trauma, the family is struggling to keep their head up.
   "The church claims that it was not responsible for the priest. However, we believe, from things that we have heard, that the diocese knew that Fletcher was a danger to children but it protected him. I believe the church is responsible. They have a duty of care. And they claim that priests are people that you could welcome into your home and lives. It was a huge breach of trust."
   An interesting aspect of the Fletcher case is that in the late 1990s, while Desmond was suffering in silence about his sexual abuse, his local bishop (Bishop Michael Malone) was appointed as a member of the Australian Catholic Church's National Committee on Professional Standards, which supervises the church's handling of sexual abuse. And Adelaide's Archbishop Philip Wilson, who had begun his own career at the Maitland cathedral in the early 1980s in the heyday of Father Jim Fletcher, became the chairman of this national committee. #

Sex fiend free to live near children

 
   The West Australian, www.thewest. com.au/default. aspx?MenuID= 77&Content ID=579 , By GARY ADSHEAD, SEAN COWAN, LEE-ANNE PETCHELL, and MEGAN SADLER, Page One, Wednesday, July 5, 2006
   PERTH: A decision by Chief Judge Antoinette Kennedy to release a self-confessed child-sex predator back into a small WA community has outraged residents, who include the families of his three young victims.
   Bullsbrook residents yesterday demanded 58-year-old Kevin James Lilly be forced to leave the area and have distributed a letter outlining his appalling crimes around the semirural town 40km north of Perth.
   "Please give this notice high regard when sending children out to fundraise and travelling to and from school and sports," the letter reads.
   Last week's murder and rape of eight-year-old Sofia Rodriguez-Urrutia-Shu has added to the anxiety of residents and police were last night concerned about a vigilante-style attack on the child abuser's home.
   Lilly, who lives with his family near Bullsbrook Primary School, was believed to have fled the home yesterday and gone into hiding.
   He pleaded guilty to 10 counts of indecently dealing with two 10-year-old girls and a six-year-old girl and was given a two-year suspended jail sentence.
   In the first incident, last August, he exposed himself to the two older girls and then forcibly kissed one of the girls on the lips.
   When they said they didn't like what he was doing, he responded by saying to them: "It's my yard. I can do what I want."
  [Picture] Antoinette Kennedy: Sparks outrage.  
   In the second incident, on February 4, he played "truth, dare or torture" with one of the 10-year-olds and the six-year-old before prompting them to expose themselves to him and touching one of them. But when one of the girls' mothers saw him expose himself, Lilly was reported to police.
   "Why should my kids be the ones to suffer?" the mother of one of Lilly's victims said. "Where's the protection for her? "
   Residents, who have learnt some of the shocking details in the past 24 hours, said they couldn't understand why a court would allow him to return to the scene of his crimes.
   "It is very unpleasant to have someone like that living in the neighbourhood - a lot of kids walk up and down the street to get to school and cars go up and down all day with mums taking the children to school," long-term resident Arnold Roth said.
   In sentencing Lilly on June 23, Judge Kennedy was told Lilly had an alcohol problem and could drink up to 20 cans of full-strength beer in a single drinking session.
   He "returned to an immature state" when he drank, defence lawyer Michael Tudori said of Lilly.
   Prosecutor Mark Nicol told Judge Kennedy that because of the gravity of Lilly's crimes, a jail sentence was required.
   "This sort of thing really needs to have deterrence as the paramount factor," he said. "We say really this is such that nothing less than immediate imprisonment will suffice."
   But Judge Kennedy said there was a medium-to-low risk that Lilly would reoffend in the next five years.
   "I really feel from having read about you that you do realise the seriousness of what you have done to these little girls and their family," Judge Kennedy said. "I really do believe that you will do your best not to cause any more pain, and you have caused pain and you have to accept that."
   Attorney-General Jim McGinty said he had taken the residents' concerns to the Police Minister to ensure that children in the area were protected from Lilly. #