AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites
A Sydney judge has released the name of a former Catholic priest, John Joseph Farrell (sometimes known as ‘Father F’), who will be sentenced for 50 sexual crimes against children in northern New South Wales. Farrell, now aged 61, has previously pleaded guilty to 40 of these offences. On 16 February 2016 a jury found him guilty of ten additional offences.
Farrell was tried for 17 offences he was accused of committing against three boys, aged 11 and 12, between 1980 and 1984. After two-and-a-half days of deliberations, a jury found Farrell guilty on 10 counts and not guilty on seven other charges.
After the jury’s verdict, Judge Peter Zahra lifted a suppression order, which had covered his Farrell’s for more than two-and-a-half years.
The court was told that Farrell has already pleaded guilty to 40 other child sex offences and is already in custody, awaiting sentencing for those crimes.
During the February 2016 trial at Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court, Crown prosecutor Bryan Rowe outlined a series of alleged incidents in which Farrell groped, molested, raped or forced oral sex on the boys.
He said one of the boys was the victim of 11 separate offences, including repeated indecent assaults during trips to a local swimming pool. Farrell contested all of these charges.
Farrell was tried on 17 charges when the trial began in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court on February 2. After several days of evidence, Judge Zahra directed the 12- member jury to find the accused man not guilty on two counts on the indictment before the court.
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