AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph
Royal Commission hears from victim: Priest told me to say three Hail Marys after abuse’
EMILY MOULTON THE DAILY TELEGRAPH APRIL 30, 2014
WHEN Ted Delaney finally found the courage to reveal he was being sexually abused, he didn’t receive help – he was simply told to say three Hail Marys.
The priest attached to Bindoon boys home, who took the confessional, Father William, didn’t care a crime had been committed against a young boy, all he wanted to know was had the former resident been a willing participant.
“When I was about 13 years old, I went to confession and fessed to Father William that Brother Parker was sexually abusing me,” Mr Delaney told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse today.
“I didn’t use those exact words, but I think I said something like ‘I wish to confess that one of the brothers is having sex with me and he is treating me like a woman’.
“Father William asked me who, and I said Brother Parker. Father William said ‘Did you participate?’ and I said ‘No’. Father William told me to say three Hail Marys and pray and I would be forgiven.”
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