AUSTRALIA
The Australian
AAP
November 12, 2013
MELBOURNE’S Catholic archdiocese actively protected a paedophile priest by moving him to a different parish, where he continued to abuse a boy, a judge says.
Russell Robert Walker, 64, was a parish priest when he repeatedly abused two altar boys in the 1970s, despite Melbourne’s then-archbishop Frank Little being warned by one victim’s mother.
Jailing Walker for five years today, Victorian County Court Judge Felicity Hampel said the church’s response to the warning was scandalous.
“Although you’re not to be punished for the institutional response, what happened was scandalous,” she said.
“This boy was not the only victim of clerical abuse in the Melbourne archdiocese, nor the only victim whose welfare was ignored while the church took active steps to protect the priest and itself.”
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