AUSTRALIA/NEW GUINEA
7 News
ABC
BY PAPUA NEW GUINEA CORRESPONDENT LIAM COCHRANE
October 9, 2014
An elderly Australian priest accused of sexually abusing boys in the 1960s has been rushed to hospital in Papua New Guinea after a suspected drug overdose.
It came just hours after Father Roger Mount was made aware of plans to deport him to Australia.
Father Mount has denied the allegations of abuse, but has also ignored a 2011 suspension from PNG’s Catholic Church by simply refusing to leave his rural parish and overstaying his visa.
The Archbishop of Papua New Guinea, John Ribat, announced Father Mount was to be removed from the parish and deported after the Catholic Church in Australia paid out yet another compensation claim to one of his alleged victims this week.
The ABC tried to speak to Father Mount about the accusations, but he refused to leave the locked church.
Dorcas Ledo lives next door to the church and said, hours after this interaction, Father Mount’s driver delivered the daily newspaper with its front page headline “Paedophilia claim rocks church”.
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