AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald
[with poll]
BY JOANNE MCCARTHY
26 Jul, 2012
ON Saturday night Tracey Pirona hugged her husband as she has done many times before, and reassured him: ‘‘We’ll get through this.’’
On Sunday morning she found the letter she had feared for years, and rang police.
John Pirona, 45, of Belmont North, a victim of one of the Hunter’s most notorious paedophile priests, has not been seen or heard from since then.
‘‘The longer this goes on the worse I feel about what the outcome’s going to be,’’ Mrs Pirona said.
Mr Pirona’s letter, with the final words ‘‘Too much pain’’, leaves no doubt the pain is the sexual abuse he suffered at a Catholic high school and the ugly secrets the church knew, but did nothing to stop.
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