AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

LOUISE HALL May 23, 2012

A retired Catholic priest and a one-time close personal friend of the Attorney-General, Greg Smith, has appeared in court over the alleged sexual abuse of four children in the 1970s and ’80s.

Father Finian Egan, 77, appeared in Ryde Local Court this morning to face 16 charges of indecent assault and one charge of rape while he was a priest in Sydney and the central coast.

He has not entered a plea.