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Father John Fleming’s Inappropriate Relationships ‘wrong Whichever Way You Cut It’, Court Hears

Herald Sun
October 17, 2014

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/father-john-flemings-inappropriate-relationships-wrong-whichever-way-you-cut-it-court-hears/story-fnii5yv7-1227094406414

Father John Fleming outside the Supreme Court.

FATHER John Fleming’s alleged inappropriate relationship with a male parishioner and “prurient” interest in two teenage girls was “wrong whichever way you cut it”, a court has heard.

Lawyers for the Sunday Mail today told the Supreme Court their evidence against the prominent priest was a “contextual tsunami” that would “break” over his years of denials.

Andrew Harris, QC, for the newspaper — published by the same company as The Advertiser — said his client’s defence centred on the evidence of the girls and the man.

“This case is about three unconnected people who each thought they were the only ones to be involved sexually with Fr Fleming,” he said.

“Each of these three people will tell a story about Fr Fleming taking advantage of them and about the impact this has had on their lives.

“(One of them) effectively assumed the role of providing an outlet for his sexual urges ... she thought her calling was to be a sexual outlet for a priest who was 15 years older than her.”

Fr Fleming has ministered for both the Anglican and Catholic Churches in his 45-year career, and was a staple of Adelaide radio, television and newspapers in the 1970s and 1980s.

His lawsuit concerns over a series of 2008 articles reporting allegations he was sexually involved with two women, “Jane” and “Jenny”, and the man, “Richard”.

He asserts the allegations contained in the articles were false and a “material cause” in the termination of his position with Catholic liberal arts institute Campion College.

Last week, Fr Fleming denied allegations he had a three-way sexual encounter with Jane and another girl when both were 13 years old.

He further denied discussing those allegations with Monsignor Cappo in the mid-1990s — Monsignor Cappo is expected to give evidence during the trial.

He also denied asking Richard to tell Catholic authorities there was “never penetration” between them because it threatened his then-impending ordination as a priest of that faith.

Fr Fleming has denied claims he had told Richard that, without penetration, sex acts between males were “just two blokes mucking around”.

He has also said Anglican deacon Reverend Allan Courtney is “absolutely wrong” in his recollection that he had asked Fr Fleming to cease his alleged conduct toward Richard.

Yesterday, he agreed he had once received a letter from Jane saying “I love you” but considered it “of no great moment” and neither replied to nor encouraged such expressions.

Today, Mr Harris said Fr Fleming’s relationship with Richard started before either man was married and continued after their respective wedding days.

He said the priest “never wanted to have to meet the Richard allegations” and had “done everything he could” to avoid doing so.

“It was a gross betrayal of his pastoral obligations to Richard ... it was dishonest and adulterous with respect to the both of them,” he said.

Mr Harris said another witness — himself an Anglican priest — would give evidence Fr Fleming had, in the 1970s, commented on each of them marrying a girl from the alleged menage-a-trois.

“An observation like that ... it doesn’t matter whether it’s the swinging 70s or 2014, it’s wrong whichever way you cut it,” he said.

“What it indicates is an inappropriate and prurient interest in teenage girls by a man in his late 20s.”

Giving evidence, Richard — whom The Advertiser has chosen not to name — said he came to know Fr Fleming when the priest ran youth-oriented Anglican services in Adelaide.

“He was highly charismatic, very engaging and larger-than-life ... I mean, he was a media celebrity,” he said.

“I think, for myself in particular but others as well, we were somewhat in awe of him ... he was someone we looked up to and admired.”

Richard said that, in late 1973 or early 1974, he began to experience homosexual desires and, thinking it “was a sin”, sought counselling from Fr Fleming.

“We talked around the issue a bit ... he did want to explore who I found sexually attractive,” he said.

Richard said Fr Fleming would on occasion tease him about his sexuality, saying he “looked like an embarrassed lover” around men he had confessed to liking.

He said that the priest had once playfully kicked him in the buttocks with a bare foot and “stood there smiling with a cheesy grin”.

“Fairly early after the 1974 Federal Election, I conveyed to Fr Fleming that I found him sexually attractive ... he did not sort of say much about that,” he said.

Richard said that, on a subsequent occasion, Fr Fleming had changed out of clerical robes and into “shortie pyjamas” in front of him.

“It just didn’t feel right ... it seemed like a deliberate act,” he said.

“I found it confusing but also I did then have fantasies about having something more sexual going on with him, yes.”

He said that came to pass on a later occasion when Fr Fleming again disrobed in his presence and told him to “get my gear off”.

“I had never been with a man before (that occasion),” Richard said.

“I said ‘what are we really doing here?’ and he said ‘it’s a couple of blokes mucking around’.

“As I was leaving he said ‘now both of us have got this out of our systems, this never needs to happen again — not a word of this to anybody’.”

Richard said the incident, and the sexual encounters that followed, left him feeling “flattered” by Fr Fleming’s attention but also confused as to the morality of their actions.

He said Fr Fleming compared their activities to the Biblical stories of David and Jonathan whose friendship was, according to some scholars, also a homosexual relationship.

However, he said Fr Fleming did not link those stories to the works of Cambridge scholar Norman Pittinger, as the priest has claimed he did.

“On every occasion (of sexual contact), Fr John would say ‘this is the last time we will do this, not a word about this to anybody’,” he said.

“He suggested to me that, based on the experiences between us I was not homosexual because I did not ejaculate.

“He said I should encourage the heterosexual side of me and he didn’t think I was gay ... that I should find a girlfriend and get married.”

The trial, before Special Auxiliary Justice Malcolm Gray, continues next week.

 

 

 

 

 




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