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  St Stanislau Catholic Leader Released without Charge

By Gemma Jones
Daily Telegraph
December 17, 2008

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24811122-5001021,00.html

AUSTRALIA — THE leader of the Catholic order in control of St Stanislaus College in Bathurst was yesterday released without charge after being arrested and questioned by police over a paedophile investigation.

Father Greg Cooney, 60, was freed pending further police inquiries but another priest who is still on the board of the school was charged with eight offences.

Father Phil Robson, 61, from the Vincentian order in Marsfield, was charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child, intent to have sexual intercourse with a child and three counts of aggravated indecent assault.

Current St Stanislaus principal John Edwards said the congregation would now decide upon Father Robson's future.

Mr Edwards said Father Cooney, who was a science teacher at the school from 1989 to 1992 and returned as chaplain for two years in the late 1990s, visited the college up to three times a year and "enjoyed a fine reputation at the school".

Father Cooney's lawyer Greg Walsh said the priest had been out of the country at the time of the alleged offences that police were investigating and that officers had made a grave error.

Police yesterday said allegations of sexual abuse, culminating in more than 100 charges, spanned almost three decades from 1963 to 1992.

There are 16 alleged victims, aged between 10 and 15 at the time of the offences, and more than 100 witness statements.

Two search warrants have been executed in country towns and computer equipment seized.



Father Robson and four other men facing charges are due to appear in Downing Centre Local Court on Friday.

 
 

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