AUSTRALIA
The Tablet (UK)

13 January 2016 | by Mark Brolly

British priest received pension while avoiding authorities for alleged sexual abuse of 16 children

A suspected paedophile priest, British-born Ronald Pickering, reportedly received almost AU$200,000 (£97,000) from the Archdiocese of Melbourne for almost a decade after he evaded Australian authorities in 1993 and fled to his homeland, where he died in 2009.

The Sunday Age newspaper in Melbourne reported on 10 January that Pickering, who is believed to have abused at least 16 children but never faced justice, was one of a number of abusive priests who received pension, housing and private medical insurance benefits while victims received one-off payments of $31,000 to $37,000 under the church’s Melbourne Response redress scheme.

The paper said parishioners had unwittingly been partly funding the assistance through their donations into church collection plates, which they believed went towards the local church or…