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Accusations of Abuse in Institutions

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The Dominion Post
January 21, 2004

Ex-priest bailed on child sex charges


A former Catholic priest extradited from Britain on child sex charges has been bailed in Upper Hutt District Court.

Alan Woodcock, formerly of Upper Hutt, faces 34 charges, involving 11 boys, dating back more than 20 years.

Woodcock, tall and thin and wearing a grey sweater and dark trousers, stood impassively in the dock yesterday as Judge Jill Moss remanded him on bail to reappear for a pre-depositions hearing on February 4.

He did not speak and was not asked to enter a plea.

He would not comment as he was led by police between the court and Upper Hutt police station before and after the hearing.

The 55-year-old was escorted back to New Zealand on Saturday and was held in police cells till yesterday morning.

He lived in Britain from the late 1980s till the High Court there ruled in November that he must return to New Zealand to face trial.

Woodcock faces charges of indecently assaulting boys at Silverstream, Upper Hutt, and Palmerston North between 1982 and 1985 while working as a teacher.

Judge Moss said that, after talking to Woodcock, his family and police she had no reason not to grant bail.

He had been on bail in Britain for more than a year, where there was "no cause for concern". He was not likely to flee and would not try to contact witnesses, she said.

Judge Moss suppressed the terms of bail, to "underscore that despite the severity of charges" Woodcock was entitled to privacy, protection and the presumption of innocence till it was proven otherwise.

Tony Rickard-Simms appeared at the hearing for Woodcock.