Abuse Royal Commission: Frank Ryan asked victim’s father not to go to police, The Australian (September 13, 2016)

Abuse Royal Commission: Frank Ryan asked victim’s father not to go to police

The father of a boy who was sexually abused by a Catholic priest was asked by a senior cleric not to go to police and told that to do so might be harmful to his child.

Giving evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse this morning, the boy’s mother, Karolyn Graham, said she “was horrified and felt intimidated by the church” as a result.

Her son, Michael McGroder, told the commission he was sexually abused by his parish priest when he was serving as an altar boy in Moree, northern NSW, in 1984.

The priest, John Farrell, was jailed earlier this year for sexual offences against 12 child victims.

Ms Graham told the commission her husband met with Monsignor Frank Ryan, who was then the vicar general of the Armidale diocese, in April 1984 to disclose his son’s abuse.

“During this meeting, Monsignor Ryan asked him not to go to the police as it would be traumatic for Michael and the family, and asked him whether we wanted to see our boy on a witness stand being torn to pieces,” Ms Graham said.

“Monsignor Ryan told him that Father Farrell said to him that he ‘loved the boys, he didn’t mean to do them any harm, he only fondled their genitals and it was his way of showing affection’,” she told the commission.

Several senior church officials, including the Armidale bishop Henry Kennedy, were warned Farrell was abusing children over the years, the commission has heard, but the priest was not reported to the police as a result.

Another of his victims told the commission Farrell sexually abused him inside a church, including raping him on a pew behind the altar.

“While Father Farrell was pressed against me, he leaned close into my ear and said in a clear, whispered voice ‘If you tell anyone about this, I will kill you and your family’,” said the man, who cannot be named.

Monsignor Ryan moved Farrell from the Moree parish, and he eventually ended up in the Parramatta diocese of Sydney, the commission has heard.

“I would like to see ... that the Catholic Church is made more accountable for their actions. They should not be allowed to continue to try to resolve problems internally,” Ms Graham said.

“They must ... Modernise and become accountable to the law of the land, instead of the law of the church,” she said.