justice: Claire Jurd, front left, with daughter Claire-Anne and sons Roman and Peter. Photo: Robert Chappel 030712RCD06
THE name of the person commissioned to undertake an independent review of the Father F case and the terms of reference of the inquiry will be released next week.
The Catholic Bishop of Armidale, the Most Reverend Michael Kennedy, released a one paragraph statement on Thursday evening in response to inquiries relating to the review he had announced last week.
"It is expected that the name of the independent person and terms of reference should be released by early next week," the statement said.
Meanwhile, the mother of one of Father F's victims said the family had not talked to police or a legal representative since the actions of the former priest and the church's response to the molestation allegations were aired on the Four Corners program on ABC-TV on July 2.
Claire Jurd said she had not sought legal advice about what to do next but was waiting to see the result of the independent inquiry launched by Bishop Kennedy.
Mrs Jurd said the matter was further clouded because charges laid in 1987 against Father F went to a committal hearing which was dismissed by the magistrate because he thought her son, Damian, was not as credible a witness as the priest.
Mrs Jurd said she believed the same charges could not be brought against Father F.
"I don't know whether I can (get charges laid) - after you've had a committal inquiry, you can't be charged twice (with the same offence)," she said.
"I really couldn't see why I would (get the same charges laid) because Damian's case was a committal hearing and they dismissed it. Until an inquiry (is held) into what the priest knew ... I don't think there's anything I can do."
Mrs Jurd said maybe she could have charges of perjury and lying brought against the priest, because she alleges he held back information on boys' names during a meeting with three senior priests about the alleged sexual abuse of several boys.
"He did name Damian as one of them," she said.
It was laughable that the three priests had not taken the information to police because they claimed they didn't know who the victims were: they knew at least one of the victim's names - Damian's, Mrs Jurd said.
If the independant Catholic Church's inquiry failed to come up with a satisfactory conclusion, another independent inquiry should be held, she said.
Father F cannot be named for legal reasons.
He is a defrocked Catholic priest who allegedly sexually abused boys in the early 1980s in Moree, Four Corners reported.
Arrested in 1987, Father F was brought before the court but the matter was dismissed by a magistrate because he judged the alleged victim, Damian Jurd, 15, as a witness whose credibility could not match that of the priest.
"Everything Damian said was good evidence but (the magistrate) still believed the word of a priest over Damian," Mrs Jurd told The Leader.
In the early 1980s, Father F had allegedly fondled Damian's genitals on a car trip from Moree to Narrabri.
"On the way, he started fondling Damian - and did really bad things to him in the presbytery," Mrs Jurd alleged.
During a shooting trip near Narrabri a day later, "he interfered with him then, too", Mrs Jurd alleged.
Damian had a medical examination done three years after the alleged abuse "and he still had anal scarring", Mrs Jurd said.
The doctor who conducted the exam rang Mrs Jurd the day after the Four Corners report and said he still had Damian's file and would be happy to let the family access it for a court case.
Damian committeed suicide in 2011 at the age of 28.
Since the Four Corners report aired, at least two other men had come forward with allegations, including a man who was interviewed on Ray Hadley's show on Radio 2GB earlier this week.
Mrs Jurd also said her son Peter, who is studying at the University of New England in Armidale, had been told by a bouncer at a hotel in Armidale that his brother had also allegedly been molested by Father F.
Mrs Jurd was happy the media and others were pursuing the story and talking to the church.
"That something is happening now is really, really good," Mrs Jurd said. "I hope it continues: you think if it's not in the news it might all peter out."
A Sydney solicitor, Darren Kane, who knew Damian, wrote to Bishop Kennedy on Tuesday (July 10) saying that he believed Mrs Jurd and her husband Max should be allowed to be present at the independant inquiry.
"He's given them seven days to reply and, if they don't reply, he's going to hand the letter to Four Corners," Mrs Jurd said.
Damian did receive "in excess of $100,000" in a civil case a decade after the 1987 case, Mrs Jurd said.
Katrina Lee, director, Catholic Communications, Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, said "reports in the media referring to an internal investigation were ... incorrect.
"There will be an independent investigation with an external investigator - the details of which will, I understand, be announced in the near future," Ms Lee said.
"The Archdiocese of Sydney has consistently said it will co-operate with the investigation.
"To avoid pre-empting the work of the independent investigation announced by the Bishop of Armidale any further comments should be directed to the diocese of Armidale."