Police Quiet over Pedophile's Flight

7 News
November 26, 2012

au.news.yahoo.com/latest/a/-/latest/15476339/police-quiet-over-pedophiles-flight/

Police on both sides of the Tasman are staying quiet about how a former Catholic brother accused of sexually abusing children in Australia fled after tardy extradition attempts to bring him back from New Zealand.

St John of God ex-brother Bernard Kevin McGrath, who served two years in a New Zealand jail for sexually abusing boys, had 252 abuse charges laid against him in Newcastle court on June 27.

But the convicted pedophile flew out of Christchurch on the advice of a friend to Sri Lanka, with which Australia has no extradition treaty, Fairfax Media said.

NSW police wouldn't comment on their investigation, telling media that "speculation may jeopardise current lines of inquiry", nor confirm if they were investigating McGrath.

New Zealand police also wouldn't comment, Radio New Zealand reported.

Neither police force would confirm whether McGrath left New Zealand before or after the charges were laid.

McGrath, 65, is alleged to have repeatedly raped, molested and abused dozens of young boys at church-run institutions in the Newcastle-Maitland diocese during the late 1970s and '80s.

He served jail time in New Zealand in 2008 for child sex offences at a Christchurch school in the 1970s, after which he was paroled.

A Royal Commission into how claims of child sex abuse were dealt with in religious organisations, non-profit bodies, schools and state agencies has been announced in Australia.