ARARAT (AUSTRALIA)
Australian Broadcasting Corporation - ABC [Sydney, Australia]
May 5, 2021
By Jackson Peck
[Photo above: Former Catholic priest, Paul David Ryan, photographed in the 1980s. (Supplied)]
A former Victorian catholic priest jailed for sexually assaulting three boys could soon be extradited to the US on fresh sexual assault charges.
Key points:
- Paul David Ryan has been charged with sexual assault in the US state of Virginia
- The defrocked Catholic priest was jailed in Victoria in 2019 for sexually assaulting three boys
- Ryan was sent to Virginia in 1976 for “treatment” after church authorities became concerned about his sexual activity
The Attorney-General of the US state of Virginia has announced two charges against defrocked priest Paul David Ryan for allegedly sexually assaulting a minor in that state in 1979 and 1980.
Ryan, who’s in his 70s, was jailed in Victoria in 2019 for a minimum of 17 months after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting three boys across Ararat, Warrnambool and Lower Plenty between 1981 and 1992.
Catholic authorities sent him to the US for “treatment” following his ordination in 1976 after they became concerned about his sexual activity.
It’s alleged Ryan sexually assaulted the minor while working as a priest at the Star of the Sea Parish, and the affiliated Star of the Sea School, in Virginia Beach.
According to charges filed by the Attorney-General of Virginia Mark Herring, Ryan took the victim on a ski trip “under the pretence of a church-sanctioned outing”.
Ryan was identified through an investigation into clergy abuse in Virginia.
A spokesperson from the Federal Attorney-General’s department refused to comment saying the “Australian Government did not comment on legal proceedings in foreign countries”