Child sex abuse claims dismissed after street drive, by Dan Box, Australian (September 13, 2016)

A senior Catholic cleric was warned that a priest was sexually abusing Aboriginal boys, but he dismissed the allegations as “nothing to be concerned about” after driving down the main street of the town involved, a royal commission has heard.

The cleric, the late Frank Ryan, also received repeated warnings about another pedophile priest, John Farrell, but asked one of his victim’s parents not to go to police, saying that doing so might harm the child.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard yesterday that both priests were subsequently convicted of sexually abusing children.

The commission, which is investigating the church’s response to Farrell’s crimes, has heard several senior officials, including at least one bishop, were aware of allegations against him decades before he was jailed.

One of Farrell’s victims yesterday told the commission he went to Ryan in 1981 after Farrell assaulted him inside a church in Moree, northern NSW, and was told “It’s OK, I’ll sort it out”.

The following day, Farrell raped him on a pew behind the altar and whispered “If you tell anyone about this, I will kill you and your family”, said the man, who cannot be named.

Another local priest, Bernard Flood, yesterday said Ryan, the former vicar-general of Armidale in NSW, was also told of separate allegations of “sexual assaults by a priest in Walgett against Aboriginal lads”. Ryan told him “he had driven down the main street of Walgett and there was nothing to be concerned about”, the commission heard.

Karolyn Graham, the mother of one of Farrell’s victims, yesterday told the commission she “was horrified and felt intimidated” after her husband met Ryan in 1984 to disclose their 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,” she said.

Ryan moved Farrell from the Moree parish, and he eventually ended up in Parramatta.