AUSTRALIA
Illawarra Mercury
By Kate McIlwain
June 4, 2014
The high profile royal commission into child sexual abuse will soon turn its attention to Wollongong Catholic Diocese, as a public hearing examines allegations against a local priest stemming back to the 1990s.
On Wednesday, the commission announced it would look into the diocese’s response to allegations of sexual assault against then Father John Gerard Nestor, a priest cleared of indecently assaulting a 15-year-old altar boy but later defrocked by the Vatican.
The hearing, starting on June 24, will investigate the relationship between the Wollongong diocese and the Vatican concerning preventative and disciplinary actions taken in response to the allegations as well as ‘‘any other related matters’’.
Fr Nestor was a priest in the Wollongong diocese in 1991 when he was charged with the indecent assault of a teenage altar boy.
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