Jennifer Ingham Was Kept for Sex by Catholic Church Predator Father Paul Brown

By Janet Fife-Yeomans
The Telegraph
December 11, 2013

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/jennifer-ingham-was-kept-for-sex-by-catholic-church-predator-father-paul-brown/story-fni0cx12-1226781054113

Jennifer Ingham leaving the hearing after giving evidence

Justice Peter McClellan addresses The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse earlier this week

JENNIFER Ingham was a vulnerable 16-year-old schoolgirl suffering bulimia when her parish priest, Father Paul Rex Brown, sexually assaulted her - but that was only the start.

When she left school, the Lismore priest got her a job as a waitress in Sydney and arranged for them to meet at the Sydney University Motel in Glebe for sex.

He even paid for her to fly up to stay at his home at St Joseph's Parish Church at Tweed Heads where the sex continued, Ms Ingham told the royal commission into child sex abuse yesterday.

Father Brown was removed from his office in 1986 because he drank too much and has since died - but the priest who Ms Ingham claims to have told about her sexual abuse, and who cried over it, is still very much alive and denying he even knew her, the commission was told.

Business consultant Ms Ingham, 51, is the latest victim to tell her harrowing story of abuse and failure at the hands of the Catholic Church.

Wiping tears from her eyes, she said she was abused by Father Brown from 1978 to 1982, during which time she tried to kill herself a number of times.

 

HUSH FUND: CATHOLIC CHURCH PAID TO KEEP ABUSE QUIET

 

CATHOLIC PRIEST RAN 'CHARLIE BROWN'-LIKE CULT

 

NO APOLOGY FROM CATHOLIC CHURCH OVER SEX ABUSE

It was not until 1990, after counselling, that she was able to confront the church.

Among the clerics at a 1990 meeting was Father Frank Mulcahy, who was a friend of her father's. The two men had been to private boarding school together. She said he later attended her family home over a two-year period to give Holy Communion to her father when he was too ill to go to church.

"At the meeting, when I told the clerics about my abuse, Father Mulcahy cried,'' Mrs Ingham told the commission.

"He told me he knew that I was being sexually abused at the time, that I had been unwell with bulimia and spent time in a psychiatric hospital.''

She claimed Father Mulcahy told her the names of two other girls who "he knew were abused by Father Brown''.

The commission is examining the operation of the church's Towards Healing program. Ms Ingham said when she decided to go through the process, she told the church one of the things she wanted out of it was to meet Father Mulcahy to challenge him on why he did nothing to stop the abuse by Father Brown when he knew it was happening.

However, nothing was done about her allegations and she was told Father Mulcahy "doesn't remember me at all".

Father Mulcahy's barrister, Stephen Keim, who had earlier failed to have the man's name suppressed, said his client denied ever meeting Ms Ingham.

Through the Towards Healing process, Ms Ingham received $265,000 compensation plus legal costs but said the disparity in what victims received was "beyond unfair". The royal commission's hearings continue.

CATHOLIC COFFERS CRAMMED WITH CASH Janet Fife-Yeomans

FOR the Catholic Church, charity does begin at home.

The vast wealth of the church in Australia has been revealed in the royal commission with the Brisbane archdiocese alone holding $30 million in cash.

Then there are its properties and a development fund which last year had a surplus of $22 million.

Yet Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge said they were not even one of the "fat cat" dioceses.

Despite the huge sums of money, the royal commission was told that since 1970, the Brisbane archdiocese had paid out only $2.5 million to victims of abuse by its members. Of that, $1.7 million was covered by insurance so it had cost the church just $760,000.

In addition, the church had a $500,000 "asset management fund" which was earmarked specifically for settling child abuse claims.

Schoolteacher Joan Isaacs, who was sexually and mentally abused by Brisbane priest Father Frank Derriman, received just $30,000 in an out-of-court settlement.

Archbishop Coleridge said he supported the establishment of a national compensation fund already flagged by the country's archbishops to which people like Mrs Isaacs would be able to return to seek further compensation.

He said the church's Towards Healing process, which is being examined by the royal commission, had been set up "on the run".

"This whole tsunami blew up out of nowhere," Archbishop Coleridge said of the revelations of sexual abuse. "Bishops and major supporters were like rabbits caught in a spotlight.''