← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Stigmata
Thread ID: 17748 | Posts: 4 | Started: 2005-04-13
2005-04-13 12:04 | User Profile
[color=#003366]Priest jailed for 10 years [/color][font=Verdana, arial][size=1][color=#666666]Tuesday, 12 April 2005[/color][/size][/font]
[font=verdana,arial][size=2]A Hunter Valley Catholic priest has been jailed for 10 years for sex offences against a teenage boy in a case that was a "gross and inexcusable breach of trust", according to a Sydney judge.
Fr James Patrick Fletcher "ingratiated" himself with the victim's family and the victim to place himself in a position to take advantage of a vulnerable teenager for his own sexual gratification, Judge Graham Armitage told Sydney District Court yesterday.
Judge Armitage delivered a cumulative 10-year jail term with a seven-and-a-half year non parole period to Fr Fletcher, 64, who was found guilty of nine offences including eight counts of having homosexual intercourse with a child aged between 10 and 18 and one count of committing an aggravated act of indecency on a child when he appeared in East Maitland District Court on December 7, 2004.
The offences happened during a three-year period in the early 1990s when the victim was aged 13 to 15 in various locations in the Hunter Valley.
Fr Fletcher will be eligible for parole on June 4, 2012.
The sentence drew an emotional response from members of the victim's family outside the court, but the victim's mother told the Maitland Mercury that "no sentence would make it right for us".
She described her son, now 28, as an "extraordinarily brave person to come forward".
"No amount of time in prison for this man can restore the joy in faith that was embraced and has now been lost by the victim, his family and the wider Catholic communities of our extended family," she said.
She thanked Detective Sergeant Peter Fox who headed the investigation into the matter and the Director of Public Prosecution for their respect and professionalism.
"The facts in this case were horrendous," Det Fox, who attended the court despite being on holidays, said.
"It is a testimony to the victim's attitude in this case that all he wanted was for (Fr Fletcher) to acknowlege what he had done and to hear him say sorry."
But Fr Fletcher continued to maintain his innocence in the face of "some of the most compelling evidence" Judge Armitage had heard.
Indeed, Fr Fletcher's refusal to admit to the crimes distinguished his case from those of other pedophiles including Hunter Valley priest Fr Vince Ryan and Robert "Dolly" Dunn.
"The significant difference to this case and some of the others is that not only did Fr Fletcher plead not guilty, but he continues to maintain his innocence in the face of some of the most compelling evidence in a case like this," Judge Armitage said.
"(The victim) appeared to be a down-to-earth young man who was completely truthful."
The impact on the victim was "immediate and long-lasting".
But he said he found "special circumstances arising from (Fr Fletcher's) age, health condition and the fact he had no previous convictions."
Fr Fletcher leaned on the dock for support and remained impassive during the sentencing.
He has lodged an appeal against his conviction.
[/size][/font] [url="http://maitland.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?class=news&subclass=local&category=general%20news&story_id=385061&y=2005&m=4"]http://maitland.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?class=news&subclass=local&category=general%20news&story_id=385061&y=2005&m=4[/url]
2005-04-13 12:10 | User Profile
This case is without a doubt inexcusable and disgusting.
However I sense that you have an anti-Catholic agenda on this board, given that you have posted several Catholic-priest-paedophilia items in the last week, including one on the day of the Pope's funeral. I think that the abuse scandals that have occurred in the Catholic Church are a disgrace, however the church has taken steps to deal with them. Perverts unfortunately exist in all walks of life and your constant hammering on the Catholic-paedophile meme is starting to grate.
2005-04-13 12:14 | User Profile
Cuts both ways...
[url]http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1521131,00.html[/url]
[QUOTE]**Former Nazi arrested in Argentina for child abuse ** By Jenny Booth, Times Online
A former Nazi who fled to South America and became the charismatic leader of a religious sect has been arrested in Argentina on charges of child abuse and torture.
Paul Schaefer, 83, was seized in the town of Tortuguitas, 18 miles west of Buenos Aires, along with six people described as his security team, Argentine police said.
He has been hiding for eight years, ever since a warrant for his arrest on paedophile charges was issued in Chile in August 1996. He was convicted in his absence in November 2004 along with 22 other cult members.
A former corporal and medic in Hitler's army, Mr Schaefer fled Germany to Chile in 1961 to avoid child sexual abuse charges in his homeland.
He founded a self-sufficient German enclave called Colonia Dignidad, in the mountains 200 miles south of the Chilean capital, Santiago.
Surrounded by barricades, barbed wire and electric fences, he and his flock of German immigrants adhered to a strict discipline and remained cut off from the rest of Chilean life.
But the secrets of life in the remote community started to spill out in 1996, when a number of former residents testified that Mr Schaefer systematically abused the colony’s young children, many of whom were taken from the parents at birth.
The Chilean authorities also want to question Mr Schaefer in connection with torture during the rule of the right-wing dicatator President Augusto Pinochet, between 1973 and 1990.
Investigators say that a number of political prisoners, including Alvaro Vallejos Villagran, a former leftist leader who was arrested by Pinochet agents in May 1974, vanished after being sent to Colonia Dignidad.
A former member of Pinochet’s secret police has given evidence that he knew Senor Vallejos Villagran was taken alive to Dignidad.
Police also want to question Mr Schaefer about the disappearance of Boris Weisfeiler, an American Jewish mathematics professor of Russian origin, in 1985.
Investigators believe that Mr Weisfeiler was picked up by a military border patrol while he was backpacking in the region on suspicion of being a spy, and dropped off at Dignidad.
Mr Weisfeiler’s sister Olga said that there were reports by Dignidad residents of seeing him alive up to two years later.
The Argentine Police Commissioner, Alejandro Dinisio, said that Mr Schaefer carried no identification documents and refused to speak at the time of his arrest. He added that police had been on his trail for six months.[/QUOTE]
2005-04-13 13:04 | User Profile
Roddy,
I wouldn't be so sure this Stigmata character is a Nazi.