AUSTRALIA
The Advetiser
Sean Fewster and Nigel Hunt
The Advertiser
FATHER John Fleming engaged in criminal, predatory, deceitful and morally reprehensible sexual behaviour with a minor while working as an Anglican priest, the Supreme Court has ruled.
On Wednesday, the court dismissed the now-Catholic priest’s defamation lawsuit, ruling The Advertiser and Sunday Mail’s reports about his illegal sexual misconduct were true.
Auxiliary Justice Malcolm Gray ruled the newspapers had made out their defence to Fr Fleming’s claims they had defamed him and caused him to lose a lucrative job with a Catholic college.
He said the newspapers’ imputations that Fr Fleming — one of Australia’s most prominent priests — “engaged in criminal sexual behaviour” during his time with the Anglican Church were substantially true.
He also said the articles truthfully conveyed imputations that Fr Fleming was engaged in “sexual misconduct, predatory sexual behaviour, morally reprehensible and deceitful conduct, an immoral, adulterous, homosexual affair, hypocrisy, abuse of trust, moral cowardice and false denial of sexual involvement.”
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