"Father F" Is Found Guilty - and His Name Is John Joseph Farrell

Broken Rites
February 17, 2016

http://www.brokenrites.org.au/drupal/node/393

A Sydney judge has released the name of a former Catholic priest, John Joseph Farrell (sometimes known as 'Father F'), who will be sentenced for 50 sexual crimes against children in northern New South Wales. Farrell, now aged 61, has previously pleaded guilty to 40 of these offences. On 16 February 2016 a jury found him guilty of ten additional offences.

Farrell was tried for 17 offences he was accused of committing against three boys, aged 11 and 12, between 1980 and 1984. After two-and-a-half days of deliberations, a jury found Farrell guilty on 10 counts and not guilty on seven other charges.

After the jury's verdict, Judge Peter Zahra lifted a suppression order, which had covered his Farrell's for more than two-and-a-half years.

The court was told that Farrell has already pleaded guilty to 40 other child sex offences and is already in custody, awaiting sentencing for those crimes.

During the February 2016 trial at Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court, Crown prosecutor Bryan Rowe outlined a series of alleged incidents in which Farrell groped, molested, raped or forced oral sex on the boys.

He said one of the boys was the victim of 11 separate offences, including repeated indecent assaults during trips to a local swimming pool. Farrell contested all of these charges.

Farrell was tried on 17 charges when the trial began in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court on February 2. After several days of evidence, Judge Zahra directed the 12- member jury to find the accused man not guilty on two counts on the indictment before the court.

Farrell is expected to appear in court for his sentencing hearing, which has been scheduled for April 8 before Judge Zahra.

Farrell was first charged in 2012 by investigators from Strike Force Glenroe – an operation set up by detectives from the Sex Crimes Squad and local detectives in 2012 – to investigate claims of alleged sexual abuse.

The above article was posted by a Broken Rites researcher on 17 February 2016.

Here is the previous Broken Rites article, dated 4 April 2016, before the man's name was released:-

A Catholic priest repeatedly sexually abused three young altar boys in a parish in regional New South Wales in the 1980s, including raping one child at the church's altar, a Sydney court has heard. The man (now aged 61), who cannot be named at present for legal reasons, is being tried for 17 offences allegedly committed against these boys, aged 11 and 12, between 1980 and 1984. The court was told that the man, who is no longer a priest, has already pleaded guilty to 40 other child sex offences and is already in custody awaiting sentencing for those crimes. This case is a complex one, and further details will emerge at a later stage in the judicial process.

A jury trial began in the Sydney District Court on 2 February 2016 regarding three of the man's victims. The jury trial is necessary because he is pleading not guilty regarding these three victims, all from the same parish. Eleven of the 17 charges relate to one of these three victims.

This court case had its first detailed public mention on Fairfax Media websites on Tuesday evening, 2 February 2016 and, next morning, in the printed edition of the Sydney Morning Herald and Fairfax's regional printed newspapers in New South Wales (for example, it was the main item on the front page of the Armidale Express and Tamworth's Northern Daily Leader and it also appeared in the Moree Champion).

The following paragraphs are from the Fairfax Media article (by court reporter Paul Bibby):

In his opening to the ex-priest's trial in the Downing Centre District Court on Tuesday, Crown prosecutor Bryan Rowe outlined a series of alleged incidents in which the accused groped, molested, raped or forced oral sex on the boys.

He said one of the boys was the victim of 11 separate offences, including repeated indecent assaults during trips to a local swimming pool.

On one such trip in the first half of 1982 the then priest pinned the boy against the side of the pool with his belly and put his hands down the child's pants.

"Here comes the magpie," the priest allegedly told his victim while groping his penis.

When the boy protested, saying "I have to get out", the alleged perpetrator allegedly replied "You'll be right".

Some months later, during another excursion, the accused said he was taking the boy back to the presbytery for an ice-cream.

But when they got there, the accused allegedly took the boy into his bedroom, forced him face down onto the bed and anally raped him.

Mr Rowe said that on another occasion the priest bent one of his other young victims over the altar of the church and raped him.

A number of the other alleged indecent assaults against the victims took place in the priest's car and in church itself, including in a cellar under the altar or the sacristy.

He then set out some of the 40 other sex abuse incidents against six victims, which the accused has admitted to, telling the jury that these amounted to "tendency evidence" against him.

The ex-priest's barrister Matt Johnson asked the jury to keep an open mind about the 17 charges his client was on trial for even though he was facing sentencing for other similar crimes.

"You wouldn't be human if you were not initially affected by what you have heard," Mr Johnson said.

"But at the start of this day when you took an oath you made a promise to this court to make a judgment based on the evidence before you.

"I ask you on behalf of my client and the justice system more generally that you not allow what you have heard to allow you to prejudge this matter."