Clergy Child Molesters (127) — References/Archive/Blog

Priest on the run

 
   The Bulletin (Australia), http://bulletin. ninemsn.com. au/bulletin/ site/articleIDs/ 78EA657BB21 E13C2CA2571 B800 17D49F , by Paul Daley, dated August 8, 2006 (seen on internet Aug 03, probably displayed Aug 02)
   Luke Quilligan spent much of his short life in a drug haze trying to forget the abuse he said he suffered from his priest teacher. The accused, Father Julian Fox, now lives in Rome, refusing to accept the charges - or to return to Australia. Paul Daley reports. [... ]
   Bathed in the milky mid-afternoon sunlight of a clear August day, we sit at one of many outdoor tables that punctuate, in defiance of our Canberra winters, the latte and boutique district of Kingston, but this seasonal glory is lost on RAAF Squadron Leader Mark Quilligan.
   His mobile chirps. He listens, nodding intently.
   "It's OK, mate, I understand. Yes, I promise. I'll be there. I'll see you soon. Of course, Luke," he responds. "And Luke I ... love you. I love you."
   Tears stain his cheeks as the call ends. Face in hands, Quilligan sobs. People stare.
   Questions are superfluous.
   "My baby brother, Luke. He's dying. Any day now. He's scared," he volunteers. "You wouldn't believe this guy's life." [...]
   ... Father Julian Fox. The accused.
   Luke had accused Fox of raping him six times while he was at Rupertswood, a private boys' school in Sunbury, Victoria, run by the Catholic order of Salesians of Don Bosco. Rupertswood was an infamous haven for several pedophile priests in the late 1970s and early '80s.
   Fox strenuously denies the crimes. But his refusal to face his accuser, or return so detectives can interview him, casts, in the words of his Australian superior Father Frank Maloney, "a shadow" over his innocence. Maloney wants Fox - a talented linguist who rose to become head of the Australian order before fleeing overseas in the late '90s - to return.
   But Fox has vowed to stay in Rome. His order maintains he's a virtual prisoner in the Salesians' nondescript headquarters on the Via della Pisana on Rome's semi-industrial outskirts, where, since about late 2003, he has worked in the Salesians' international communications office. The Salesians could, of course, send him home.
   That they choose to extend his sanctuary is as confounding as the claim that he leads a spartan life and rarely leaves the Rome headquarters. This year alone he has visited Warsaw and Nairobi. Trips to Germany, India and elsewhere are planned.
   "I requested the return of Father Julian Fox from Rome in about March 2005, via the Salesian order in Australia," says Detective Sergeant John Raglus of the Victoria Police Sexual Crimes squad. "The request was passed on to him and it was made clear to me that he had no intention of returning to Australia." [...]
   "He and Sue went on a heroin haze holiday with the Salesians' hush money," Margaret Quilligan says matter-of-factly. "Fancy giving a heroin addict $30,000 cash."
   In fact the total was $36,000. But $6000 was deducted: expenses accrued by Luke and his wife while they stayed in a suburban motel while being psychologically evaluated for the settlement process.
   The Bulletin has obtained the deed of settlement - which was negotiated through the Catholic Church's Towards Healing process - which specifically outlines the allegations against Fox. The document, signed by Luke Quilligan and his mother, specifies the settlement is made "with an express denial of liability and solely for the purpose of avoiding litigation".
   Fox had already gone overseas - first to Fiji and then, in 2003, to Rome.
   Luke Quilligan's mother and brothers don't much care how you judge him. He cheated them and stole from their homes. They paid his drug dealers and tried to look after his children while he robbed and did serious jail time. Between his 20th and his 40th birthday, Quilligan spent 15 years inside. [...]

28 • WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 2, 2006                                                                 THE WEST AUSTRALIAN
  [Picture] Accused: Three of the monks - Walter Christley, William Hughes and Hugh Fallon - appear in court.    Picture: Associated Press  

Monks charged over US monastery sex assault claim

 
AUSTIN: Four monks have pleaded not guilty to charges that a boy was sexually assaulted at an Eastern Orthodox Christian monastery in Texas, US officials say.
   The four monks, plus another serving a 10-year jail sentence for indecency with a minor, were charged after a young man claimed he had been assaulted at the Christ of the Hills Monastery, beginning in 1993 when he was a teenager. Three appeared in court in Johnson City on Monday and entered not guilty pleas to charges of sexual assault of a child and organised criminal activity.
   Monastery founder Samuel Greene, 61, Walter Christley, 45, Hugh Fallon, 40, and William Hughes, 55, are accused with Jonathan Hitt, 45. He was convicted in 1999 of indecency with a 14-year-old novice monk. Hitt reportedly had not entered a plea.
   Greene pleaded guilty six years ago to indecency with the same novice monk from the Hitt case and was sentenced to 10 years probation.
   Prosecutors said charges also were possible with regard to an attraction that drew visitors to the monastery - an image of the Virgin Mary that had been said to cry tears of myrrh, seen as a sign of divine intervention. #

Catholic care home abuse claims could cost millions

 
   The Yorkshire Post Today, www.yorkshire today.co.uk/ ViewArticle2. aspx?SectionID= 55&ArticleID= 1666698 , Exclusive, by Rob Waugh, rob.waugh@ypn.co.uk , August 02, 2006
   BRITAIN: A FORMER Catholic children's home is facing one of the biggest sexual abuse compensation claims of its kind the country has seen, with 140 men suing for damages likely to run into millions of pounds.
   The organisations responsible for running the St William's Community Home in Market Weighton, East Yorkshire, are being held responsible for allowing a brutal regime to run unchecked for nearly 30 years, during which time countless acts of severe sexual and physical abuse were inflicted on some of the region's most deprived and damaged children.
   It is understood to be the country's biggest child abuse case centring on a single location. Many of the claimants' cases involve alleged rape which can carry compensation of upwards of £50,000.
   Last night, the solicitor co-ordinating the legal action said it was less about money than the claimants receiving recognition for the horrendous treatment they endured.
   David Greenwood, a lawyer specialising in child abuse at Wakefield-based Jordans Solicitors, said: "The enormity of the case means there are a large number of men whose lives have been blighted by what happened at St William's. Money won't change that but it will provide recognition of what they had to go through at the home.
   "Physical abuse was widespread. It was rare for boys to go through the St William's system without being subjected to cruel punishment. But it appears that certain members of staff there selected boys for sexual abuse as well - often under the threat of violence or worse punishment."
   The action will be taken against two organisations which came under the direction of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Middlesbrough, the Catholic Child Welfare Society and the Middlesbrough Diocesan Rescue Society, and three branches of the De La Salle Brothers, a Catholic order of lay teachers, which managed the home on a day-to-day basis between the early 1960s and 1992.
   The home, which received emotionally and behaviourally-disturbed boys referred from local authorities, was then closed when the scale of the abuse first became apparent. Around 2,000 children and 500 staff had been through its doors.
   The former principal of the home, Brother James Carragher, is currently serving 14 years in prison after being convicted in 2004 of systematically abusing boys at the home between 1968 and 1992. He had already been given a seven-year term in 1993 for other offences of serious sexual abuse at the home.
   Sentencing him at the second trial, the judge said it had been "as bad a case of gross breach of trust as one can imagine." Det Supt Richard Kerman, the experienced officer who led the inquiry, described Carragher as the "most evil man he had ever met."
   The claimants, who were aged between 10 and 16 when they lived at the home, are now based all over the country though the majority live in the Hull and Middlesbrough areas.
   But many of the witnesses at Carragher's trial - and many of the claimants - are in prison serving lengthy terms for serious offences themselves.
   Mr Greenwood said: "Almost half are in prison. Although many came from poor, difficult backgrounds and could have ended up committing offences anyway, there are still a disproportionate number in prison. Abuse played a part in damaging young people's lives.
   "The claimants I see are grown men. Often they are in tears giving statements, often they are reluctant to come forward in the first place because of feelings of shame and worries about how their families are going to react to them.
   "The level of detail is such that in my view there are very few false claims - and that's a view shared by the police."
   One bone of contention remains the lack of an apology from either the Diocese of Middlesbrough or De La Salle for what happened at the home.
   Last night, a spokesman for the diocese said it would "not be appropriate for the diocese to apologise because it would be going over the head of the people who were in day-to-day management of the project."
   He added that the impending legal case also made it difficult to issue any apology because of the connotations it may carry in deciding liability.
   The spokesman did say: "Without prejudicing the cases, those activities alleged to have taken place are to be regretted very much and there is an awareness that the young men involved have been significantly affected. The number of cases is very high... the matter will have to be worked out in court."
   The De La Salle Brothers, based in Oxford, said they had been advised not to comment by their lawyers. #