Former Catholic Priest Russell Robert Walker Sentenced to Five Years in Jail for Abusing Boys

The ABC News
November 12, 2013

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-12/former-catholic-priest-sentenced-jail/5085686

A former Catholic priest has been sentenced to five years in jail for abusing two 14-year-old boys more than 30 years ago.

Russell Robert Walker was at two parishes in Melbourne's south-east when the offences occurred.

He was arrested after one of his victims, who cannot be identified, went to the police in November 2011.

The Victorian County Court was told Walker began indecently assaulting the two altar boys within a year of joining the priesthood in 1976.

He gave one victim alcohol before abusing him and, on another occasion, indecently assaulted the boy on a bench.

Walker told the second boy he loved him and abused the boy more than half a dozen times.

That boy's mother told Melbourne's then Catholic Archbishop, Frank Little, about the abuse but the court heard Walker was then transferred to another parish, where he abused the boy two more times.

Judge Felicity Hampel said the royal commission into child abuse should examine the case.

Walker, 64, left priestly duties in his 30s, but has never been defrocked. He will be eligible for parole in 2016.