AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
June 26, 2014
Rachel Browne
Social Affairs Reporter
A disgraced clergyman claimed it was ”common practice” for priests to sleep with boys when he was under investigation by Catholic Church assessors as part of the Towards Healing process.
The Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard that defrocked Wollongong priest John Nestor denied that sharing a bed with teenage boys was inappropriate.
Mr Nestor was convicted of sexually molesting a 15-year-old altar boy in 1996 but later acquitted on appeal. He is not expected to appear at the hearing, which is examining how the Catholic Church deals with cases in which convictions have not been made against priests accused of wrongdoing.
In a 1998 letter read out to the royal commission on Wednesday, Mr Nestor told Catholic Church investigators he had done nothing wrong by sharing a bed with the boys.
”I deny inappropriate behaviour, in the circumstances,” he wrote.
”This allegation must be considered in the context of common practice of other priests at the time.”
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