John Denham Told a Court He Had Remorse for Sexually Abusing 59 Boys, but a Judge Rejected the Claim

By Joanne McCarthy
Herald News
May 31, 2019

https://www.theherald.com.au/story/6192491/sadistic-catholic-priest-tells-bleeding-boy-victim-he-will-rot-in-hell/

Predator: A Hunter Catholic school year photo of priest John Sidney Denham in the late 1970s at St Pius X College, Adamstown.

THE sadistic Hunter Catholic priest whose crimes against children were the catalyst for a royal commission will spend longer in jail after he was convicted of sexually abusing a 59th victim.

John Sidney Denham, 76, left a young boy bleeding and sobbing after dragging him from a Taree Catholic primary school playground to a nearby presbytery and violently sexually assaulting him in the early 1980s.

Denham then silenced the terrified, traumatised boy, 11, with a warning that: "If you tell anyone, anyone at all, you'll be taken away from your parents, your parents will be thrown out of the church, you will go to hell and maybe be taken away from your parents forever and never see them again, and there will be more trouble."

Denham denied the crimes during a judge-alone trial in 2018 and said he had no memory of the victim.

It was "an entirely cynical basis upon which to prosecute a defence", said District Court Judge Phillip Mahony before finding Denham guilty of four offences, including buggery, and rejecting Denham's claim of remorse.

Denham "has not recognised the pain and suffering caused to the victim of these offences at all", said Judge Mahony in a decision on Thursday.

He sentenced Denham to a maximum 13 years jail, with a non-parole period of seven years and six months. But because the former Hunter priest is already in jail until at least January, 2028, and the crimes against his 59th victim occurred in the same period he committed other offences, he will spend at least another 18 months in jail for the latest convictions.

His earliest possible release date is July, 2029, with his full sentence not ending until January, 2035 when Denham is 92.

Legacy: The last photo of John Sidney Denham taken outside a court in 2008 before he was convicted of crimes against 59 Hunter, Sydney and Taree children.

Denham was first convicted of crimes against a boy in 2001. In 2010 he was convicted of crimes against another 39 boys, and in 2015 he was convicted of crimes against another 18 boys in the Hunter, Sydney and Taree areas.

Judge Mahony noted submissions from Denham's psychologist that he "regarded himself as a homosexual throughout his life", despite a vow of celibacy as a Catholic priest.

But he could not bring himself to admit being a lifelong sadistic predator of young boys.

Denham told the psychologist he "could not excuse his actions which he recognised were abhorrent" and said he "often prays for 'forgiveness'."

Judge Mahony found Denham's sexual assault of the boy involved a level of planning against a vulnerable child where there was a significant age, size and power imbalance. Denham was 40 at the time of the attack and a parish priest.

"The offender had isolated the victim in the playground, grabbed him and forcibly took him to the presbytery, under the pretence that the victim was in trouble," Judge Mahony said.

"It was clear from the victim's evidence that the victim was not consenting and that he was suffering intense pain, which the offender disregarded. It is clear that he suffered an injury to his anus and was bleeding as a result of the assault."

The impact on the victim's life was profound, the judge said.

His victim impact statement was "a poignant exposition of the impact of sexual abuse on a child".

"It set out in terms the very real impact upon a happy childhood, occasioned by such a terrifying criminal event which affected every aspect of the victim's life thereafter," Judge Mahony said.

"Particularly relevant was the threats made to the victim that he would be taken away from his family, that he would go to hell, and that his family would be driven out of the church. The latter threat was particularly telling, given that the victim's mother was a devout Catholic.

"The statement outlines the changes undergone by the victim, his spiral into alcohol and drug abuse as a very young person, and the psychological impact it has had on all of his relationships throughout his adult life."

Denham was first held in custody from August 14, 2008 and has remained in jail since that time.

The suicide of one of Denham's victims in 2012, Belmont North fireman John Pirona, was the catalyst for the campaign for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.