AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites
By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 23 January 2015)
Broken Rites has helped to obtain justice for victims of an Australian paedophile Catholic priest, Father John Sidney Denham. This priest got away with his crimes for four decades, while his superiors and colleagues looked the other way. Finally, Broken Rites helped to expose Denham, resulting in him being jailed in July 2010 and again in January 2015.
Broken Rites began researching Father John Denham in the late 1990s. Broken Rites ascertained that Denham (born on 8 September 1942) was recruited in the 1960s as a trainee priest for the Newcastle-Maitland Diocese, north of Sydney. As a trainee and later as a priest, he officially belonged to this diocese, and it is usual for diocesan priests to spend their whole career in one diocese. (The Catholic Church in the state of New South Wales is divided into eleven dioceses.)
As a trainee priest, Denham was a danger to children from Day One. According to statements made in court, some of Denham’s child-sex crimes were committed during his period of training.
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