AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites
By a Broken Rites researcher (article posted 11 July 2014)
A seminary student, Paul Lane, committed child-sex crimes in the 1970s while he was training to become a Catholic priest in New South Wales. He eventually dropped out of the seminary. Forty years later, on 7 July 2014, one of his victims obtained justice by getting Lane convicted in court.
In Newcastle Local Court, Lane (aged 67 and living in Ashfield, Sydney, in 2014) was charged with four of incidents of indecent assault, committed against a 14-year-old boy in the Maitland parish in early 1975. [Broken Rites will refer to this boy as “Basil” – not his real name.] Lane agreed to plead guilty to two of the charges, and therefore the other two charges were dropped.
According to court documents, Lane was studying for the priesthood in the early 1970s at a Sydney seminary, aged in his mid to late twenties. When he was advanced in his training, Lane spent some time in the Maitland diocese, north of Sydney, gaining experience in parish work. Initially he stayed as a guest in the bishop’s house, where several other priests also lived, servicing the cathedral parish.
A senior priest from the cathedral parish took Lane to Basil’s house to introduce Lane to Basil’s family, who then invited Lane to visit them for meals. Lane took a special interest in 14-year-old son Basil. When Lane dropped out of his seminary course, this family offered to accommodate him in their home. As good Catholics, the parents trusted Lane having access to their young son.
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