Catholic priest and former police chaplain John Patrick Casey has been found not guilty of 16 charges relating to the sexual abuse of children in northern New South Wales in the mid 1980s.
A jury did not deliver a verdict on 11 other charges relating to the same offences.
The Director of Public Prosecutions has until September 21 to decide if those matters will be pursued.
Casey was accused of molesting three boys on four separate occasions when each were staying with him at the Mallanganee Presbytery, west of Casino.
The 68-year-old was a police chaplain up until the day of his arrest in 2015 and was also involved in the Mary Help of Christians Primary School in his capacity as Parish Priest at Mary Help Christians Catholic Church in Sawtell.
He was immediately stood down from the school when the allegations came to light.
On the same night of the July 2015 arrest, he was due to read a homily at a commemorative service for police senior constables Robert Spears and Peter Addison, who were killed in the line of duty at Crescent Head 20 years ago.
Casey pleaded not guilty to 27 offences, relating to 18 allegations of child sexual abuse.
The alleged victims, two of them brothers, said the offences happened in the 1980s in the Lismore Diocese, but were not reported to police until 2015.
At the end of the trial, Judge Jennifer English told the jury of eight men and four women that almost 30 years had lapsed between the time of the alleged offences and when formal complaints were made to police.
“It is important that you appreciate fully the effect of the delay on the ability of the accused to defend himself,” she said.
“The delay means that evidence relied on by the crown cannot be as fully tested as it may otherwise have been.
“Had the accused learned of the accusations earlier … he may have been able to find witnesses or contradictory evidence to support his case.
“[But] the delay does not necessarily indicate that the evidence is false.”
The crown prosecutor had earlier urged the jury to use common sense when considering what he described as a compelling case of misconduct.
“For 30 years there has been a veil of silence,” he said.
“That lifted when [the complainants] spoke to you.
“The crown contends that Mr Casey has a capacity to identify artistic beauty in a beautiful object, but in respect to young boys that is a thing he is prepared to act on in a criminal manner.”
Defence barrister Charles Waterstreet refuted those allegations, telling the jury not to be “swept up by the current whims of hysteria” surrounding the issue.
“There is a temptation in everyone to act as an avenging angel,” he said.
“It is a truism that children lie, but so do inner children – sometimes not even deliberately.”
A jury in Lismore has retired to consider its verdict in the trial of a Catholic priest accused of child sexual abuse offences.
John Patrick Casey had been a police chaplain for two decades before he was arrested in July last year and charged with 27 counts relating to 18 allegations of child sexual abuse.
The 68-year-old is accused of molesting three boys on four separate occasions when each was staying with him at the Mallanganee Presbytery, west of Casino in northern New South Wales, in the mid 1980s.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges in the Lismore District Court.
Judge Jennifer English told the jury of eight men and four women that almost 30 years had lapsed between the time of the alleged offences and when formal complaints were made to police.
“It is important that you appreciate fully the effect of the delay on the ability of the accused to defend himself,” she said.
“The delay means that evidence relied on by the Crown cannot be as fully tested as it may otherwise have been.
“Had the accused learned of the accusations earlier … he may have been able to find witnesses or contradictory evidence to support his case.
“[But] the delay does not necessarily indicate that the evidence is false.”
Original source: https://www.theinquiry.ca/wordpress/rc-scandal/other-countries/australia-and-new-zealand/catholic-priest-john-casey-found-not-guilty-of-16-child-abuse-charges-related-articles/