Sydney Priest Father Ed Sedevic, 72, Is Charged Re Child-porn

By Broken Rites
Broken Rites
November 16, 2013

http://brokenrites.org.au/drupal/node/251

Father Edward Sedevic, a 72-year-old Sydney Catholic priest now living in retirement at Lake Haven (north of Sydney), is facing charges in court relating to child pornography.

Father Sedevic's case was mentioned in court for a second time (in an administrative procedure) on 30 October 2013. The court re-scheduled the matter for a further mention later in 2013.

Father Sedevic, who has a family resource centre in Sydney named in his honour, originally appeared in Wyong Local Court (on the NSW central coast) on 4 September 2013. He faced three charges, including possessing child-abuse material and using a service to access child pornography.

This September 4 hearing was a preliminary procedure, in which documents were tabled in court for future attention. Detectives from the Child Exploitation Internet Unit (within the NSW Sex Crimes Squad) had gone to see Father Edward Sedevic at Lake Haven (near Wyong) on August 20. On August 27 the detectives charged him with having used a computer to access child pornography. This led to him appearing in court on September 4.

In court on September 4, Father Sedevic was not required indicate how he intends to plead. The court adjourned the matter for several weeks.

Magistrate Susan McIntyre ordered Father Sedevic to report to Wyong police three times a week.

The magistrate imposed bail conditions which include not accessing the internet under any circumstances, not communicating by any means with a person under 18, and not to be near schools, video arcades, playgrounds and pre-schools where children gather.

The September 4 court appearance was reported three days later in the Newcastle Herald newspaper. The newspaper says that, originally, at the September 4 hearing, Father Edward Sedevic successfully requested an order suppressing publication of his personal details but (the newspaper says) magistrate Susan McIntyre later revoked the non-publication order after a media application argued that other men on similar charges, including a former police officer, a prominent Sydney dance teacher and a radio personality, had been named in media reports.

On 30 Oct 2013 the matter returned to Wyong Local Court for a further administrative procedure. This tme, Fr Edward Sedevic was not required to appear. The court was told that Fr Sedevic now faces some additional counts of possessing child abuse material. The court adjourned the matter until the next step in the court process later in 2013.

Some background, researched by Broken Rites

Father Edward Sedevic's career as a priest has been spent in the Sydney region. Broken Rites has looked up his name in some of the old editions of the annual Australian Catholic directory. In the 1979 edition, for example, he was listed as an assistant priest at the Blacktown parish in western Sydney (this parish later became part of the newly-formed diocese of Parramatta).

In 1984 Fr Edward Sedevic was appointed in charge of the Mount Pritchard/Bonnyrigg parish (called the "Our Lady of Mount Carmel" parish) in south-western Sydney, where one of his assistant priests in 1985 was Father Brian Lucas. The Mount Pritchard parish (established in 1982) was also where another Sydney archdiocesan priest, Father John Usher, had one of his early appointments.

After the Parramatta diocese was hived off from the Sydney archdiocese in the late 1980s, the Mount Pritchard parish (including Father Ed Sedevic) remained in the Sydney archdiocese. Fr Sedevic was at Mount Pritchard parish until late 2000.

During Fr Edward Sedevic's years at the Mount Pritchard, this parish hosted the development of a Family Resource Centre for the Catholic Church's Centacare service. In 2001 a new building was opened for Centacare, and (according to an article in the Catholic Weekly, 8 April 2001) this building was named as "Sedevic Cottage". It was built with financial assistance from the Commonwealth Government.

In 2001, after leaving Mount Pritchard, Father Ed Sedevic was listed in the Australian Catholic directory as the parish priest in charge of St Joan of Arc parish at Haberfield (in Sydney's inner-west), where he remained for several years.

In recent years, the annual Australian Catholic Directory has listed Rev. Edward Sedevic in the Sydney archdiocese section under the heading "Supplementary Priests". This section includes a number of priests who no longer have a full-time parish appointment in Sydney (although, often, some might be available to provide assistance on a part-time basis).

The website of the Broken Bay diocese (north of Sydney) has described Father Edward Sedevic as a retired priest who is ‘‘generously available" to help the Warnervale parish (near Lake Haven) "on a regular basis’’.