AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

December 23, 2015

A Catholic priest who defended Cardinal George Pell at the child abuse royal commission last week was the subject of a historical sexual abuse claim.

ABC TV reported on Wednesday that an apology and $75,000 compensation was given to survivor John Roach in 2012 after the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne accepted Father John Walshe had sexually abused him in 1982.

Mr Roach told the ABC he was an 18-year-old first-year seminarian when he met the recently ordained Father Walshe, then in his early 20s, at the Corpus Christi College in Clayton.

“One night he invited me up to his room, which was not uncommon,” Mr Roach said.

“We had a fair bit of port to drink — I was very unfamiliar with drinking — and I woke up in his bed and he was abusing me.

“I left as quickly as…