AUSTRALIA
ABC News
By Andy Park
Former Armidale Catholic priest John Joseph Farrell has been charged with nine counts of child sexual abuse.
The charges relate to alleged assaults against two boys, one at Gunnedah in 1975, about 85 kilometres west of Tamworth in northern New South Wales, and the other at Narrabri in 1983, about 175 kilometres north-west of Tamworth.
Farrell, 62, was charged with four counts of sexual intercourse without consent, four counts of indecent assault, and buggery.
Some of the ex-officio indictments were first laid 28 years ago, but the judge dismissed the account of one of the alleged victims, Damian Jurd, in favour of Farrell at a committal hearing.
Mr Jurd later took his own life.
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