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	Acquittal for Priest on Child Sex Charges By Kim Arlington Sydney Morning Herald August 6, 2010 http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/acquittal-for-priest-on-child-sex-charges-20100805-11kt8.html The first of the St Stanislaus College child sex trials has ended with the acquittal of a former priest accused of indecently assaulting four students at the boarding school in Bathurst. James Patrick Jennings was found not guilty of molesting the boys while teaching at the school in 1960 and 1961. He was charged last year after police from Strike Force Belle investigated allegations of child sexual assault at St Stanislaus between 1960 and 1993. Nine other men have been charged with offences against more than 40 former students. Several trials are scheduled for the coming months. Mr Jennings pleaded not guilty to six counts of indecent assault, telling the District Court in Sydney he had no recollection of the boys he was charged with assaulting. Half a century has passed since the alleged incidents. Mr Jennings, who left the priesthood in 1976 and married, is now 77; the men who accused him are in their early 60s. The two-week trial heard allegations that Mr Jennings walked through the boys' dormitory at night and fondled their genitals. He allegedly asked one boy: ''Have you had a sex lecture?'' before exposing himself. In evidence, Mr Jennings denied the allegations ''absolutely''. After deliberating for a day, a jury yesterday found him not guilty of all charges. Mr Jennings's wife broke down in tears on hearing the verdicts. He declined to comment when leaving court. A former classmate of the four complainants, who cannot be named, gave evidence of seeing Mr Jennings sitting on the beds of two boys, one of whom revealed that Mr Jennings had touched him.''He was extremely upset,'' the witness said. ''He was crying uncontrollably.'' The witness recalled teachers and clergy picking on him after he reported the incident to the college principal, Joseph Keady, and was regularly caned. After he told one staff member what he had seen, he was locked in the dormitory and caned as his classmates listened outside, counting the strokes. There were 34 in all.
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