AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
Rachel Browne
Senior members of the Catholic Church were first informed a priest had molested young boys in 1984 but he continued to move around parishes in NSW for almost a decade before being suspended, a royal commission has heard.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is holding a public hearing into former priest John Joseph Farrell who was jailed for a minimum term of 18 years in May after being found guilty of a string of sexual offences against children.
When Farrell was confronted with the allegations, the commission heard he admitted to church officials “he had done something stupid”.
Ms Furness told the commission Farrell was treated by psychologist Gary Boyle, declaring himself “a new man” after one session. Dr Boyle found that, “Farrell did not present as a man with true paedophilia”, the commission heard.
Farrell was moved to Tamworth and then to Merrylands and Kenthurst in Sydney.
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