AUSTRALIA
Bendigo Advertiser
JOANNE McCARTHY
19 Jul 2016
BRIAN Burston was distraught and desperate in July, 1992 when he wrote a letter about his wife and a priest to one of the Hunter region’s most senior Catholic clergymen.
Pauline Hanson’s future One Nation Senate colleague had three young children in 1992, his marriage was on the rocks and the man he blamed – the now convicted Catholic child sex offender priest David O’Hearn – was unmoved by appeals or anger.
“Through his deliberate deception, Father David O’Hearn has almost certainly put an end to my marriage,” Mr Burston wrote to the then Monsignor Allan Hart, in a letter warning that he “feared for others” because O’Hearn’s “words and actions are in total conflict with the teachings of our faith”.
Mr Burston and his former wife Yvonne now agree O’Hearn used his relationship with her – which was close but not sexual – as a cover for his child sex offending. He was just one of a number of Hunter paedophile priests, including Vince Ryan and Denis McAlinden, who used very public friendships with women to hide their crimes.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.