AUSTRALIA
9 News
AAP
The Catholic leader who invited pedophile priest John Farrell into his diocese didn’t believe Farrell posed a risk to children because sex abuse charges against him had been dismissed, a royal commission heard.
Former Parramatta Bishop Bede Heather told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse he’d thought Farrell was innocent because the charges, which involved one boy, were dismissed at a committal hearing in 1988.
He invited Farrell to work at the Merrylands parish in November 1989 after Farrell was forced out of the St Nicholas Church in Tamworth due to persistent child sex allegations.
The now-retired Bishop Heather admitted his failure to make careful inquiries into Farrell’s past had led to one of the greatest mistakes of his life.
“I have to say it weighs heavily on my conscience that I’ve known … one child was abused as a result of my giving permission to Father Farrell to work in our diocese,” Bishop Heather said.
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