Stuff
May 20 2004

Priest raped more than dozen women, MPs told
NZPA

A woman says a predatory priest who raped her and at least 13 others has escaped punishment and continues to offend due to weak laws.

The woman told Parliament's law and order committee yesterday that at the end of the 1960s and early 1970s she had been a troubled adolescent and needed help. She was sent to the priest who was the school counsellor.

"Throughout my college years a relationship of trust was established between us," she said in a written submission.

"I was unable to see that it was not about trust, but about him engaging in the process of grooming me for his future sexual offending against me.

"He waited until after I was old enough to leave school before he raped me – he got me drunk, there was no consent."

She told MPs that the priest continued to prey upon her.

"He later raped me when I was an adult and living in a refuge with my twin babies and five year old after my marriage has ended.

"I told no one of these offences, because I expected no one to believe that a priest could do this."

In the last few years, the woman had confronted the Catholic church and made a statement to the police.

"Because of various provisions in the Crimes Act 1961, this man cannot be questioned or prosecuted, despite the fact that I have uncovered the existence of at least 13 other of his victims," she said

The woman appeared before the committee in support of widening legislation to protect vulnerable people from sexual predators.

She believed that if current proposals to change the law had been there 30 ago the priest would be behind bars.

"Had some of the proposals contained within the Crimes Amendment Bill already been codified in law, this predator, who police suspect may still be offending against vulnerable young people, would now be in jail."

The woman said laws covering men who took advantage of impaired and vulnerable people for sex should be further strengthened.

The law currently prohibits "sexual intercourse with a severely subnormal woman or girl".

The proposals now before the committee would make it an offence punishable by 10 years in jail to have "exploitative sexual connection of a person with significant impairment".

The woman said that law should be further tightened.

Her submission said significant impairment should also include psychological and developmental impairment.

This would stop the exploitation of young people in a counsellor client relationship.

"If the client is at an important developmental stage such as adolescence when she/he seeks counselling, and the counsellor has intentions of sexual exploitation, that counsellor will deliberately cultivate ways in which to keep the client stuck in a pre-adult state of arrested development."

The law should be changes to cover all people vulnerable to sexual exploitation, the woman said.