AUSTRALIA
Telegraph
JANET FIFE-YEOMANS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH DECEMBER 16, 2013
HE called himself ”Fed Brown” while he was leading a cult-like group of teenagers, the royal commission into child sex abuse has been told.
But his real name is Father Frank Derriman and, in his white cap and dark glasses, he was outside his suburban home in Melbourne last week as the commission listened to his history of abuse.
Derriman, 77, is still officially an ordained Catholic priest despite serving four months behind bars for indecent assault in 1998. The church did nothing about having him defrocked when he was convicted.
Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge conceded at the commission that this was an ”oversight” and revealed it was extremely difficult to remove a priest who had abandoned the ministry without his consent – even if the priest had criminal convictions and had married, as had Derriman.
The Archbishop said that in late 2011 moves finally began with the Vatican to have Derriman struck off.
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