Former Priest Found Guilty of Raping 13-year-old Girl Who Confided in Him She Was Abused by Father

By Elizabeth Byrne
ABC News
April 27, 2018

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-27/former-anglican-priest-found-guilty-of-rape-indecency-charges/9704816

Former Anglican priest John Philip Aitchison, 67, has been found guilty of five charges of rape and eight acts of indecency against a 13-year-old girl in Canberra in the 1980s.

Aitchison sat with his eyes closed in the ACT Supreme Court as the jury delivered their verdicts.

The victim had given graphic evidence of a series of assaults, including the first that occurred in a Canberra church after she had finished violin practice.

The woman said Aitcheson had urged her to look into the corner and pray that she might see her pet dog that had died.

She said during the assault he had repeatedly muttered "please God forgive me".

Prosecutor Trent Hickey told the court Aitchison had a sexual interest in children, calling evidence from two men who said they were molested by him when they were young.

"This shows his sexual interest in children he met through church or music and his willingness to act on that," Mr Hickey said.

But the man's lawyer James Lawton argued the evidence about the two boys went against the woman's allegations.

Mr Lawton said his client was homosexual and his interest was in boys.

"Not girls, not teenage girls," he said.

Victim told priest she was abused by her father

Questions were also raised about why the woman had taken so long to report the allegations to authorities.

But Mr Hickey said that was partly because she was afraid.

He said the first offences occurred after the woman disclosed to Aitchison that she had been sexually abused by her father.

Mr Hickey told the jury she was then abused by the one person she told.

"No one wants to believe that a priest and family friend would do that to a child," he said.

"But you can hear from her evidence that it did."

The jury found Aitchison guilty of 13 charges.

Justice Michael Elkaim revoked his bail ahead of sentencing in August.