AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail (UK)
By JOSH HANRAHAN FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA and AAP
A priest known as the ‘tickle monster’ will spend the next 18 years in jail after he was convicted of sexually assaulting dozens of children from the 1960s to early 1990s.
Robert Patrick Claffey, a former priest of the Ballarat diocese in Victoria’s west, used his position of power as a religious figure to abuse children over the three decades.
But the 73-year-old’s sustained abuse came to an end this week when he was jailed for 18 years and four months – with a minimum of 13 years and four months – one of the harshest penalties handed down to a paedophile.
Judge Felicity Hampel called Claffey’s abuse ‘shameful’ and said the fact he could act with impunity for such a long period spoke volumes of the power he exerted over his victims.
Claffey’s nickname was created firstly because he was always ‘tickling’ and touching children, while the ‘monster’ was what came next.
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Australia’s worst Paedophile Priests:
Gerald Francis Ridsdale: Australia’s worst paedophile is believed to have abused 1000 children and will be in prison until he is 87.
Frank Klep: A priest and school principal, Klep was 70 when he was jailed for 10 and a half years for abusing 28 schoolboys in the 1970s and 1980s.
David Edwin Rapson: Will be 73 when his sentence expires if he serves the full 12 and a half years he was given.
Robert Charles Best: Was 70 when he was jailed for 15 years for 27 vile crimes against 11 boys.
John Joseph Farrell: A NSW priest, was jailed for 29 years for 79 offences against 12 children.
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