AUSTRALIA
The Guardian
Australian Associated Press
Thursday 14 April 2016
A senior Catholic nun, alarmed that a priest had boys in his bedroom, told a Melbourne archbishop about rumours he was sexually abusing boys. Nothing was done.
Boys would climb through a window to get to the bedroom of Gardenvale parish priest Ronald Pickering, the Star of the Sea college superior told the congregation leader of Victoria’s Presentation Sisters order, Sr Marie Therese Harold, in 1978.
“I recall thinking that having boys in a priest’s bedroom was alarming and that it should be reported,” Harold told the child sex abuse royal commission on Thursday.
Around the same time the Gardenvale parish curate, Leslie Harper, also told Harold he was suspicious of Pickering and believed boys were being sexually abused, her statement said.
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