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  Adelaide Pedophile Priest Jailed Again

Sydney Morning Herald
February 2, 2011

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/adelaide-pedophile-priest-jailed-again-20110202-1ad3o.html

A pedophile priest already jailed twice for child sex offences faces the prospect of dying in prison after being ordered to serve an extra nine years for more abuse.

Wilfred Edwin Dennis came before the South Australian District Court on Wednesday to be sentenced for offences against boys involved in an Anglican Church youth group in Adelaide's north in the 1970s.

The boys were aged between 14 and 16 at the time while Dennis, now 75, was in his early 40s.

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Judge Paul Rice said Dennis had already served a jail sentence in the 1970s for similar offences against altar boys and it was remarkable that the Anglican Church allowed him to return to his duties.

Dennis was also jailed for 20 months in April last year for other historical sex offences against young boys in his care.

Judge Rice said he was mindful that, given the man's age and failing health, any sentence he imposed could result in Dennis never being released.

But he said the victims had come under the priest's care and protection for spiritual guidance, not to be preyed upon and abused.

"Your course of conduct has had a profound effect on the victims," the judge told him.

"You breached their trust, the trust of their parents and the Anglican Church."

Judge Rice ordered Dennis serve a nine-year sentence and extended the man's existing 12-month non-parole period to six years.

He decided against declaring Dennis a serious repeat offender, a move which would have left him open to a longer prison term, despite finding that he qualified for such a declaration.

Dennis will be aged 80 before he can hope to be released.

 
 

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