AUSTRALIA
Courier-Mail
RASHIDA YOSUFZAI AAP DECEMBER 19, 2014
A FORMER priest who was provided with a character reference by Tony Abbott while he stood trial for sexually abusing an altar boy had further complaints made against him.
A REPORT by the royal commission into child abuse said those complaints justified “serious reservations and concern” about the danger John Gerard Nestor posed to children and his suitability for ministry.
Nestor was a priest in the Wollongong diocese in NSW when he was charged and convicted of indecently assaulting a 15-year-old altar boy in 1996.
Mr Abbott, then a parliamentary secretary in the Howard government, described Nestor as a “beacon of humanity” in a character reference provided for his former seminary colleague.
Nestor was later acquitted on appeal.
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