AUSTRALIA
The Australian
The father of a boy who was sexually abused by a Catholic priest was asked by a senior cleric not to go to police and told that to do so might be harmful to his child.
Giving evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse this morning, the boy’s mother, Karolyn Graham, said she “was horrified and felt intimidated by the church” as a result.
Her son, Michael McGroder, told the commission he was sexually abused by his parish priest when he was serving as an altar boy in Moree, northern NSW, in 1984.
The priest, John Farrell, was jailed earlier this year for sexual offences against 12 child victims.
Ms Graham told the commission her husband met with Monsignor Frank Ryan, who was then the vicar general of the Armidale diocese, in April 1984 to disclose his son’s abuse.
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