Former Altar Boy Sexually Abused by Nsw Catholic Priest Said He ‘feels Guilty He Didn’t Kill Him’

Daily Telegraph
August 31, 2016

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/former-altar-boy-sexually-abused-by-nsw-catholic-priest-said-he-feels-guilty-he-didnt-kill-him/news-story/cb96edf51013c2e3d17b62143e3f6a29

A FORMER altar boy who was sexually abused by a NSW Catholic priest after every practice session says he feels guilty that he didn’t kill the paedophile as a child, an inquiry has heard.

Gerard McDonald was in Year 5 in 1975 when he suffered sickening abuse at the hands of Newcastle’s Father Vincent Ryan.

In a statement today to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Mr McDonald said Ryan, who would drop altar boys home from St Joseph’s at Merewether, abused him in his car in front of his house.

Commissioners Robert Fitzgerald, Justice Peter McClellan and Bob Atkinson arrive at the opening day of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse's public hearing into the Catholic Church authorities in Maitland-Newcastle. Picture: AAP Image/Jeremy Piper

Counsel Assisting Stephen Free gives the opening remarks into the hearing. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Mr McDonald said he couldn’t believe it when Ryan, who also performed oral sex on him and a group of boys in the church vestry, conducted a service at his high school two years after the abuse started.

“All I could think about was running to my mate’s parents’ place and grabbing the two biggest knives he had and killing Father Ryan,” he told the royal commission.

“I feel guilty I didn’t do it and he went on to abuse other boys.”

Ryan was allowed to stay in the ministry for two decades after the first abuse allegations but has since been convicted of offences relating to 35 victims.

Mr McDonald said Ryan told him “They won’t believe you, because I’m a priest” during the abuse.

He said the priest would take his glasses off before abusing him in the car.

“I came to dread him taking off those glasses,” he said in a statement to media outside the hearing being held in Newcastle, which is expected to run for eight days.

“Vincent Gerard Ryan was the monster of Merewether.”

The royal commission is examining how the Catholic diocese dealt with the allegations of child sexual abuse. Picture: AAP Image/Jeremy Piper

The royal commission is examining how the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic diocese dealt with allegations of child sexual abuse.

In a video statement released ahead of the public hearing, the diocese’s current bishop, Bill Wright, said he expected the hearing to include disturbing details and heavy criticism of the church.

The royal commission has heard 158 people have substantiated complaints against 31 offenders linked to the diocese, which has paid $25.7 million in compensation.

The hearing continues.