Priest Didn't Hear Accusation of Priests Doing 'Filthy Things' to Children

By Elle Watson
Maitland Mercury
July 29, 2013

http://www.maitlandmercury.com.au/story/1668571/priest-didnt-hear-accusation-of-priests-doing-filthy-things-to-children/?cs=171

INQUIRY: Catholic priest Father Bob Searle says he did not hear child sex abuse victim AH yelling that priests had done "filthy things" to children.

A former Nelson Bay priest has denied telling whistleblower Peter Fox that a sexual abuse victim accused priests of doing "filthy things" to children in the 1990s.

Charlestown priest Father Bob Searle was working as the Nelson Bay parish priest in the late 1990s when he said a drunk parishioner came to the presbytery about 7.30pm and yelled: "Nobody loves me". 

The man, known as AH who was abused by paedophile priest James Fletcher, read a statutory declaration to the commission of inquiry into alleged cover-ups of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church last week. 

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, who's claims of a church cover-up sparked the inquiry, has previously told Commissioner Margaret Cunneen that Father Searle told him AH was drunk and yelling about priests doing "filthy things" to young boys. 

Father Searle this morning told the inquiry he was "definite" he never heard those words or told Chief Inspector Fox that he did. 

"He [AH] didn't use those words ... The only words I recall him saying is nobody loves me," Father Searle said.

The inquiry continues.