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Father Francis Mulcahy Denies He Cried for Child Sex Abuse Victim Jennifer Ingham

By Janet Fife-Yeomans
Telegraph
December 13, 2013

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/father-francis-mulcahy-denies-he-cried-for-child-sex-abuse-victim-jennifer-ingham/story-fni0cx12-1226781610654

Jennifer Ingham pictured leaving the hearing after giving evidence yesterday. Picture: Sam Ruttyn Source: News Limited

Jennifer Ingham at 21. Source: Supplied

A PRIEST alleged to have cried when told by a victim that she had been sexually abused as a child by a member of the clergy said he had not shed a tear since he was a boy.

"Not even when my mother and father died," Father Francis Mulcahy told the royal commission into child sex abuse yesterday.

An emotional Jennifer Ingham, who was sexually abused for four years by a Catholic colleague of Father Mulcahy, has told the commission he was one of the first people she told.

But yesterday he was called as a witness and denied knowing her or having been at such a meeting.

Ms Ingham, 51, said Father Mulcahy, who was in her dad's class at a Catholic boarding school, was at a meeting of senior clergy in 1990 at Lismore when she got up the courage to confront the church and tell of her years of abuse by the late Father Rex Brown.

She said yesterday that it was important to her that Father Mulcahy was there because he was a "good man, a familiar man" who made her feel safe.

Witness Father Francis Mulcahy after giving evidence at the Royal Commission / Picture: Cameron Richardson Source: News Limited

She said he had cried and told her he knew of two other girls, both of whom went to school with her, who had also been abused by Father Brown.

Her ex-husband Colin Riches told the commission that he had been at that 1990 meeting as had Father Mulcahy.

And the director of the Catholic Church's professional standards office in Queensland, Patrick Mullins, said that when he was arranging for Ms Ingham to go through the church's Towards Healing process, one of the outcomes she wanted was a meeting with Father Mulcahy to ask him why he took no action in 1990.

Ms Ingham said she had regularly waited on Father Mulcahy's table at Lisomore's popular restaurant Paupiettes in 1983 and 1984 and that he had dined there with Father Brown.

The commission was also shown evidence her name was on the "prayer list" of sick people in 2008 at the Alstonville church, where Father Mulcahy was based from 1991 until last year.

But Father Mulcahy told a very different story.

"If the subject of abuse by another Catholic priest had been brought to my attention, I would have remembered such a meeting," he said.

He said Father Brown was an alcoholic and he would never have dined with him "in a fit".

He said his secretary dealt with names on the prayer list. "The only thing I would say was 'make sure that if they are dead, take them out'," he said.

Shown a photograph of Ms Ingham at the time she worked at the restaurant, he said he did not recall her.

He said he had never discussed her during the two or three years he went monthly to her parents' house to give her sick father communion.

CATHOLIC CHURCH PUT ON NOTICE Janet Fife-Yeomans

THE Catholic Church should stop scoring legal points to block every sexual abuse claim brought against it in the civil courts, the legal adviser to the Archbishop of Brisbane said yesterday.

Solicitor Patrick Mullins told the royal commission the church's actions in the courts were inconsistent with its aims to be fair and compassionate towards victims.

Mr Mullins, the former director of the church's professional standards in Queensland, said he hoped the church would look with "new eyes" at its legal response towards victims.

He said he did not think using the so-called Ellis defence or the statute of limitation laws were fair.

The church has become notorious for using the statute of limitation laws, which vary between states and limit the time a case can be brought from the time of the actual harm.

In the case of people who were sexually abused as children, by the time they feel they can talk about it it's too late to sue the church.

The church also hides behind what has become known as the Ellis defence, a NSW Court of Appeal ruling that the church does not exist as a legal entity capable of being sued.

It is believed there has not been a single court judgment against the Catholic Church anywhere in Australia, although numerous cases had been settled.

"But I am just a small cog in the Catholic wheel, a lay person," Mr Mullins said, emphasising those were just his personal opinions.

He said it was regrettable that the vitally important role of Towards Healing to provide pastoral care had been overshadowed by the negotiation for compensation that involved lawyers and Catholic Church Insurance.

 

 

 

 

 




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