Elderly Child-predator Priest Jailed

Sky News
December 20, 2013

http://www.skynews.com.au/national/article.aspx?id=935934

An elderly NSW priest who sexually preyed on young girls for three decades has been jailed for at least four years.

Father Finian Egan, who 'escaped punishment for 50 years', will be 83 when he is eligible for parole, Judge Robyn Tupman ruled in the District Court in Sydney on Friday.

Egan, who sat with one hand on his face during the sentencing, made no reaction as it was handed down.

His victims stood and watched in silence as he was taken away to jail for the first time.

The Catholic priest sexually abused three girls between the ages of 10 and 17 while he worked in various dioceses in Sydney and the Central Coast in the 1960s, '70s and '80s.

Last month a jury found him guilty of rape and seven counts of indecent assault.

His three victims faced their tormentor in court earlier this week, with one telling him: 'May God have mercy on your soul, because I certainly don't.'

The women laid bare the guilt, shame, pain and fear they have lived with, with one now estranged from her Catholic mother who blamed her for not stopping the abuse.

Egan's first victim described how she kept the abuse secret for 50 years after initially confiding in a nun who then flogged her, forced her to drink castor oil and made her clean up her own vomit.

'It's unfortunate in the extreme her complaint was not taken seriously by those whose care she was under because it might have meant the other (victims) in this trial were spared the sexual attention of the offender,' Judge Tupman said.

After raping one of his victims - 'a naive good Catholic girl' - Egan took her to another priest for confession who ordered her to stop letting him touch her.

She tried to throw herself out of Egan's car immediately afterwards.

Each victim has contemplated suicide as a result of Egan's abuse, the court heard.

Setting a maximum term of eight years, Judge Tupman said Egan had engaged in a 'flagrant breach of trust' when he abused his victims, whose 'powerlessness and helplessness' were exacerbated by their vulnerability and his position of power.

She said his abuse of each girl was not limited to isolated incidents, but was a 'continuous course of conduct'.

He preyed on his first victim when she was aged 10 and 11 in a Catholic girls' home, repeatedly pulling her onto his lap and abusing her.

'Her troubled family asked for protection from the church but did not receive it,' Judge Tupman said.

His abuse of his second victim happened 'virtually under the unseeing eye of her mother', who trusted the young priest and viewed him as charismatic and charming.

The woman, who was in court for the sentencing, wept as Judge Tupman said Egan's abuse 'took away her childhood and innocence'.

Egan's third victim, Kellie Roche, said she was 'elated' at the sentence.

'He's in jail,' Ms Roche, who waived her right to anonymity, told reporters outside court.

'Four years no matter what.'

She said she was not surprised Egan had shown no remorse.

'He thinks he hasn't done anything wrong, still,' she said.

'(But) someone who is a danger to society is now off the streets.'

Egan, who suffers from a number of medical conditions, will be eligible for parole in December 2017.