Church funded abuser’s three-year fight not to be extradited to NZ

AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND
Stuff

MEGAN NEIL

A Catholic order’s leader dropped to his knees and begged a brother to face child sex abuse charges in New Zealand yet still paid to take the extradition battle as far as Australia’s highest court.

Brother Timothy Graham believes his predecessor as provincial of the Australian Hospitaller Order of St John of God should not have funded the three-year extradition fight.

The issue caused great controversy, Brother Graham told the Australian child sex abuse royal commission on Wednesday.

St John of God’s Brother Rodger Moloney and Father Raymond John Garchow were eventually extradited to New Zealand to face charges they sexually abused boys at Christchurch special school Marylands in the 1970s, after the High Court refused their special leave application in 2006.

Moloney was jailed in 2008 for two years and nine months for offences against five boys, while the case against Garchow did not proceed due to his and a complainant’s ill health.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.