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	Priest Sex Abuse Case 'Unfortunate' Brisbane Times November 6, 2008 http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/queensland/priest-sex-abuse-case-unfortunate/2008/11/06/1225561016034.html A Catholic priest and former teacher has been jailed for sexually abusing two young girls in the 1980s and 1990s. Michael Francis Reis, 66, pleaded guilty to seven counts of indecent treatment of girls under 16 in Brisbane's District Court this morning. The abuse occurred in Brisbane between 1983 and 1985 and in Caboolture from 1992 to 1995. Reis molested the girls by touching them on their breasts and genitals but did not involve sexual penetration, placing his offences at the "lower end of the scale", Judge Kerry O'Brien said at a sentencing hearing today. "It is...an unfortunate situation that a man of such otherwise good character and achievement should have lapsed in the manner that brings you today before this court," Judge O'Brien said. Reis, who formerly worked at Downlands College in Toowoomba and Victoria's Monivae College, had shown "genuine remorse" for what he had done, the judge noted. "Nevertheless, the seriousness of your conduct is aggravated by its repetition (and) by the fact that there were two girls," he said. "These were two young girls in the formative years of their life." Judge O'Brien took into account Reis' early guilty plea, which meant his victims didn't have to give evidence before the court, and positive references by members of the community including other teachers, priests and former students. Reis had also made efforts at rehabilitation and had been assessed as unlikely to reoffend, Judge O'Brien said. The court heard the victims inititially went to the Catholic Church with their complaints and received counselling in 1999. But they waited nearly 10 years before going to police, who arresed Reis in January this year. He was sentenced to 18 months' jail for each offence, to be served concurrently, but the sentence will be suspended after six months.
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