AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
February 21, 2016
Tim Barlass
Senior writer
The victim of a paedophile priest told a court that the then Cardinal of the Sydney archdiocese and a high-ranking bishop allowed the perpetrator to move on to other parishes despite knowing he had sexually abused a young boy.
Reading from his victim impact statement at the Downing Centre court on Friday the one time altar boy, now grown up, struggled to control his emotions as he told how the assault had ruined his life.
“I heard the names of these so-called leaders during the trial, namely Cardinal James Freeman and Bishop Edward Kelly,” he said. “I never had any contact with them but their decisions have impacted on my life,” he said.
“[They] knew that he had sexually abused a young boy and all they did was move him from parish to parish to give him new young boys to manipulate and abuse without having any restraints put on him.
“Instead they promoted him to being youth leader and parish priest to make it easier for him to get into situations where he would be left alone in one-to-one contact with young boys.”
Father Robert Flaherty, aged 72, sat in the dock with both hands resting on the handle of a walking stick but showed no reaction to the statement or that of a second victim read on his behalf by his sister.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.