AUSTRALIA
7 News
Genevieve Gannon – AAP on October 6, 2016
The children of Ballarat called him the tickle monster.
Tickle, because he was always tickling and touching them, and monster because of what followed.
Robert Patrick Claffey, 73, a priest and predator, abused children under the cloak of religious care for three decades.
He was suspended in the 1980s after the father of one of his 12 victims reported him to the Bishop of Ballarat, Ronald Mulkearns, but in 1991 was appointed to the parish of Portland.
He had offended again within a year, preying on a nine-year-old boy.
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