BRISBANE (AUSTRALIA)
The Courier
August 3, 2019
By Jolyon Attwooll
The mother of one of Paul David Ryan’s victims has said she was “devastated” by the sentence imposed on the convicted paedophile this week.
Helen Watson, whose son Peter was abused while Ryan was working as a priest in Ararat, said she was dumbfounded when she left the sentencing hearing earlier this week.
Now aged 70, Ryan was sentenced to 26 months’ imprisonment at the County Court of Victoria, after pleading guilty to three charges involving the sexual abuse of children.
After dispensation for his guilty plea and time served, it means he could be entitled to apply for parole in just 13 months’ time.
Mrs Watson, who now lives in Beaufort, said she supported one of the three victims through the trial process.
Her own son Peter was abused while staying overnight at the Ararat presbytery in 1991. Ryan was never tried for the crime as Peter took his own life eight years later.
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