Jurors Told "Veil of Silence" Lifted during Trial of Catholic Priest on Child Sex Charges
ABC News
A jury has been told a veil of silence lasting 30 years has been lifted during the trial of a Catholic priest accused of child sex offences. John Patrick Casey had been a police chaplain for two decades before he was arrested in July last year and charged on 27 counts relating to 18 allegations of child sexual abuse. The 68-year-old is accused of molesting three boys on four separate occasions when each was staying with him at the Mallanganee Presbytery, west of Casino in northern New South Wales, in the mid 1980s. Mr Casey, who has been on bail, pleaded not guilty to the charges, when he appeared in the Lismore District Court for the trial that began on July 16. The crown prosecutor on Friday told the jury to use commonsense when considering what he described as a compelling case of misconduct. "For 30 years there has been a veil of silence," he said. "That lifted when [the complainants] spoke to you. "The crown contends that Mr Casey has a capacity to identify artistic beauty in a beautiful object, but in respect to young boys that is a thing he is prepared to act on in a criminal manner." Defence barrister Charles Waterstreet refuted those allegations, telling the jury not to be "swept up by the current whims of hysteria" surrounding the issue. "There is a temptation in everyone to act as an avenging angel," he said. "It is a truism that children lie, but so do inner children — sometimes not even deliberately. "If something is going to explain your hurt, excuse you from responsibility, you embrace it," he said. The jury is expected to retire to consider a verdict next week.
|
.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.