AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites
By a Broken Rites researcher (article posted 18 February 2015)
Richard John McPhillamy has been a prominent layman in Catholic Church affairs in the diocese of Bathurst, in central-west New South Wales. He was formerly listed as an “acolyte”, assisting in various matters at Bathurst’s Cathedral of St Michael and St John. Also, he worked as an assistant dormitory master at St Stanislaus College — a Bathurst boarding school for boys. In 2011 he was jailed for committing sexual crimes against two of the boys who were under his control. In February 2015 he was convicted again regarding a third boy.
On 13 February 2015, McPhillamy appeared before Judge King in the District Court, in Sydney’s Downing Centre, after a jury returned a finding of guilty on six charges relating to this third boy. These incidents occurred in the 1990s. The jury found McPhillamy guilty of:
* two counts of aggravated indecency (victim under 16 and under authority of the offender),
* two counts of aggravated indecent assault (victim under the age of 16 years), and
* two counts of sexual intercourse (person 10 and under 16 – under authority – strictly indictable).
McPhillamy was refused bail and he was remanded in custody for sentence proceedings, scheduled for May 2015, when the judge will begin by hearing submissions from the prosecutor and the defence lawyer about what kind of sentence should be imposed on McPhillamy. The judge will later announce the details of the sentence.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.