The Melbourne Herald Sun carried these recent stories on June 1 2008

 

 

Melbourne Herald Sun: $500 'insult' to victim

 

 

 

 

 

 

TFYQA comment:

 

 

Got a lazy $500? Are you a religious priest? Feel like a bit of sexual assault or perhaps a bit of rape? Can you express remorse? Visit Shepparton and prey on their women there! Enjoy the best that Shepparton can offer, some great coffee outlets as well. Take in the sights and finish your day with a quick sexual assault or a rape or 2 or 3. Shepparton appears set to become the retirement and recreational mecca for pedophile priests and sexual abusers after the recent decision in the Shepparton County Court before Justice Frank Shelton.

 

Some of the worst criminals of our time have said they have at times had "some remorse". This County Court Justice is obviously in need of some form of assistance and should be removed immediately as his ability to represent either Justice or Law by his decision is in serious doubt. The Justice appears to have elevated himself to a status of being one of the most influential and out of touch public pedophile priest enablers our country has produced.

 

Not only has this decision taken Australian justice back into the dark ages and clearly puts us on a par with the justice systems of third world dictatorships it has shown the absolute human indifference some in our legal system have when it comes to sentencing repeat sexual offenders.

 

This is another in a sorry sage of the legal indifference and the so often seen leniency when it comes to sentencing pedophile and sexually abusive priests of whatever denomination in this country. 

 

Perhaps the Justice could also have ordered that the priest be moved on to another parish! 

 

 

Just how many Australians of all persuasions has this Justice offended? A repeat sexual offender priest fined $500 and admits to another 5 sexual assaults! Does this value the sexual assault of women in the eyes of this Shepparton Justice at about $83.30 per assault?

 

Will the State Government retract its statement that Victoria had the the toughest criminal provisions and sentencing arrangements for sex offenders in the country?

 

Rape and sexual abuse is a criminal offence, there are no mitigating circumstances because of the abusers position within a religious clergy. The man has been found to be a sexual criminal and should be dealt with by the law in that manner. The fact that he is a Catholic priest should not be an influential factor in sentencing as it so obviously has in this case.

Related: Clergy sexual abuse crisis. The Pope and The Prime Minister 

 

 

 

Full article text

 

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23789279-661,00.html

James Campbell

 

June 01, 2008 12:50am

 

A PRIEST convicted of the indecent assault of a teenage girl has been fined only $500.

The Catholic Church acknowledged Father Adelrick D'Cruz abused five other girls from the same extended family, but then asked if they minded if he held a mass for their relative.

D'Cruz, of Clayton South, was convicted on May 22 of indecent assault.

He admitted attacking a 17-year-old girl who sought his help when he was a priest in Victoria's northeast in 1984.

The teenager went to St Joseph's Church, in Benalla, to ask for help because she missed her bus home.

D'Cruz, then in his mid-50s, indecently assaulted her.

In sentencing him at Shepparton County Court, Justice Frank Shelton said the crime was a "gross breach of trust and a complete negation of your vocation as a Catholic priest". But he said D'Cruz had "some remorse".

Justice Shelton fined him $500 and imposed a two-year good behaviour bond.

The decision has been criticised as an insult to the girl and other sex abuse victims.

Dr Caroline Taylor, a Ballarat University expert on child sex abuse, said the fine was "ludicrous".

D'Cruz is listed in the Catholic directory for Sandhurst, but Bishop Joseph Grech, the church's most senior representative in the diocese,said he had been suspended.

Bishop Grech admitted this week he had apologised in 2006 over alleged attacks on five girls in the 1970s and 1980s.

But a meeting with the victims ended in acrimony when the bishop asked if they objected to D'Cruz saying mass at an aunt's 80thbirthday. Bishop Grech said he was just trying to gauge their feelings.

"I was just asking how they felt about it," he said.

The father of two of the victims said he was appalled.

"They had just said they thought the guy was a pedophile, but then they wanted to let him say mass at a family gathering," he said.

 

 

The State Government said yesterday Victoria had the toughest criminal provisions and sentencing arrangements for sex offenders in the country.

 

 

 

Full article text 

 

 

HUNDREDS of protesters have demanded the overturning of laws that hide the identities of convicted pedophiles.

A"name and shame" protest yesterday at Parliament House also railed against judges and the State Government for being too lenient.

The rally was organised in protest against recent court decisions to suppress the names of pedophiles released from prison.

Shirley Irwin, mother of murdered sisters Colleen and Laura, tearfully addressed the crowd and called for tougher sentences.

Mrs Irwin's daughters were killed by William John Watkins, who was shot dead by a policeman in WA while on the run from the law last year.

Watkins, a convicted rapist, had convictions dating back more than 20 years, and lived next door to the Irwin sisters.

"It's time the innocent public get back our rights and are protected by the justice system," Mrs Irwin said.

"To put these repulsive and vile predators who hurt our children and loved ones back into society without our knowledge about who they are and where they live is an act of criminal neglect.

"You are not protecting us, you are only protecting the monsters. They don't deserve it. We do."

3AW Broadcaster Derryn Hinch publicly named two pedophiles whose identity has been suppressed.

The names Hinch read to the crowd cannot be reported for legal reasons.

"It is madness. It is absolute madness that you cannot know who these people are," Hinch said.

"All we are asking is that convicted, repeat rapists and child sex offenders not have their names suppressed."

The State Government said yesterday Victoria had the toughest criminal provisions and sentencing arrangements for sex offenders in the country.

"Any matter to do with suppression orders and availability of information, these are determined by the courts," Environment Minister Gavin Jennings said.