AUSTRALIA
Perth Now
PAUL ANDERSON NEWS LIMITED OCTOBER 16, 2013
AN experienced judge wiped away tears in court today as the victim of a sexually depraved Catholic priest explained how being sexually abused by a trusted church figure had devastated his life.
In an eloquent and moving victim statement read to the County Court, the victim, now a businessman aged in his early 50s, laid bare the full impact of sexual abuse.
His account moved Judge Felicity Hampel, who reached for a tissue and wiped away apparent tears.
The victim, who cannot be identified, read his statement to the court via video link from a separate room during the plea hearing of former southeast suburban parish priest Russell Robert Walker.
Walker, aged between 27 and 31 at the time of his repeated offending, abused two boys over a four-year period in the 1970s – despite an archbishop being warned about him.
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