NEW ZEALAND
Stuff
TALIA SHADWELL AND SHANE COWLISHAW
Four troubled Catholic schoolgirls each visited their priest’s rooms, alone, seeking guidance.
What Peter Hercock did to the pupils of Sacred Heart in Lower Hutt instead left them feeling ashamed.
On Monday, the women broke their silence to expose the former priest for sexual abuse going back decades.
Three had complained to the Wellington archdiocese in the early 2000s. The church investigated and paid them settlements after Hercock confessed – but it did not tell police.
The trio and one other victim ultimately did, and on Monday in Wellington District Court, Hercock was sentenced to six years and seven months’ jail after admitting the sexual offending against all four.
He stared blankly ahead as each read out statements in court, including Ann-Marie Shelley, whom he began grooming in 1971.
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