AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites
By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 11 July 2015 )
A Catholic priest, Father Robert Claffey, indecently assaulted two boys after their sister died in a road accident, a court was told. The priest started visiting the boys’ house after the accident to “comfort” them at bed-time.
Father Robert Patrick Claffey was a priest of the Ballarat Diocese in western Victoria. He pleaded guilty in Ballarat Magistrates Court on 18 February 1998 to having indecently assaulted the two boys, brothers aged 12 and 13, by touching their bodies on several occasions in 1978 while the boys were in bed.
Neither brother knew that the other had been molested by Fr Bob Claffey until they discussed the matter in their twenties.
The boys were part of a devout Catholic family, which was friendly with Father (later Archbishop) George Pell and Father (later Bishop) Peter Connors.
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