Defrocked Ballarat Priest to Face Court on String of Historical Child Sex Charges

By Melissa Cunningham
The Age
July 20, 2017

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/defrocked-ballarat-priest-to-face-court-on-string-of-historical-child-sex-charges-20170720-gxfa6x.html

Paul David Ryan has been charged with a string of child sex offences.

Former Ballarat priest Paul David Ryan will front a Melbourne court next month over a string of historical child sex offences.

The 68-year-old was charged this month with multiple offences against a number of alleged victims from across Victoria.

The charges include rape, indecent assault and sexual penetration of a child under 16 years old.

Detectives from Victoria Police's Sano taskforce, the squad set up to investigate historic child sexual abuse, are believed to be investigating Mr Ryan in the wake of evidence revealed in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The charges are believed to date back to the years between 1981 and 1985 when Mr Ryan was a priest and the alleged victims were students at Christian Brothers College in Warrnambool.

In December 2015, the commission was also told the Vatican had defrocked Ryan from the priesthood almost a decade after the Ballarat diocese requested he was removed.

Mr Ryan now lives in Western Australia.

He was summoned to appear at the Melbourne Magistrates Court on August 4.