AUSTRALIA
The Australian
Jared Owens
From:The Australian
July 28, 2012
CARDINAL George Pell last night issued a statement condemning child sex abuse, following the apparent suicide of a 45-year-old man who was repeatedly abused as a teenager by a priest.
Police yesterday discovered John Pirona’s remains in his car at Tomago, outside Newcastle, five days after he left a note for his wife, Tracey, and disappeared.
Mr Pirona, a firefighter, was repeatedly assaulted by a priest, who cannot be named for legal reasons, in 1979, when he was aged 13.
The NSW courts have established he was sexually assaulted years after the school’s principal and Maitland-Newcastle bishop Leo Clarke, now deceased, became aware the priest had assaulted other boys.
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