Lismore Jury Considers Verdict in Trial of Catholic Priest on Child Sexual Abuse Charges
By Bruce MacKenzie
A jury in Lismore has retired to consider its verdict in the trial of a Catholic priest accused of child sexual abuse offences. John Patrick Casey had been a police chaplain for two decades before he was arrested in July last year and charged with 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. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges in the Lismore District Court. Judge Jennifer English told the jury of eight men and four women that almost 30 years had lapsed between the time of the alleged offences and when formal complaints were made to police. "It is important that you appreciate fully the effect of the delay on the ability of the accused to defend himself," she said. "The delay means that evidence relied on by the Crown cannot be as fully tested as it may otherwise have been. "Had the accused learned of the accusations earlier … he may have been able to find witnesses or contradictory evidence to support his case. "[But] the delay does not necessarily indicate that the evidence is false."
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