AUSTRALIA
The New Daily
In a new book, the Opposition Leader says his mother’s instincts saved he and his brother from “a monster”.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has revealed how he and his twin brother narrowly escaped the clutches of evil paedophile priest Kevin O’Donnell while growing up in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.
In his new book For The Common Good, Mr Shorten writes that O’Donnell approached the twins’ mother Ann in the mid-1970s to ask if her sons could become altar boys at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Oakleigh.
“Mum refused point blank,” Mr Shorten writes. “She didn’t like him. It was father Kevin O’Donnell, an evil paedophile who was later arrested and convicted for abusing children.”
“Mum’s instinct was very good,” Mr Shorten adds. “Through her actions, Rob and I avoided a monster.
“He went to jail, but only after he destroyed countless lives.”
O’Donnell was later jailed for indecently assaulting 11 boys and a girl, aged eight to 14, between 1946 and 1977. He died after his release from prison in 1997.
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