A FORMER Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing three young altar boys in regional NSW in the 1980s has been found guilty of 10 child sex offences in a Sydney court.
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John Joseph Farrell, also known as “Father F”, was tried for 17 offences he was accused of committing against the boys, aged 11 and 12, between 1980 and 1984.
Fairfax Media can reveal his identity after Judge Peter Zahra lifted a suppression order late yesterday, which had covered his name for more than two-and-a-half years.
Late yesterday, after two-and-a-half days of deliberations, a jury found Farrell guilty on 10 counts and not guilty on the other seven charges.
The court heard Farrell, who is no longer a priest, has already pleaded guilty to 40 other child sex offences and is awaiting sentencing for those crimes.
Farrell was remanded into custody by a Supreme Court judge last year and remains bail refused, following the verdicts.
During the trial at Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court, Crown prosecutor Bryan Rowe outlined a series of alleged incidents in which Farrell groped, molested, raped or forced oral sex on the boys.
He said one of the boys was the victim of 11 separate offences, including repeated indecent assaults during trips to a local swimming pool.
But Farrell denied that any of the incidents occurred when he stepped into the witness box.
“I never asked him to go into the cellar,” the accused said of one incident in which he allegedly ordered an altar boy to go down into a cellar underneath the church altar and then forced him to participate in oral sex.
The former priest also denied a string of other allegations, including that he grabbed and attempted to stroke the penis of a young boy at the swimming pool, that he forced another to participate in oral sex in the presbytery, and that he raped the same boy in the priest’s bedroom.
Farrell was tried on 17 charges when the trial began in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court on February 2.
However, last week the 12- member jury was directed by Judge Zahra to find the accused not guilty on two counts on the indictment before the court.
Farrell is expected to appear in court for his sentencing hearing, which has been scheduled for April 8 before Judge Zahra.
Farrell was first charged in 2012 by investigators from Strike Force Glenroe – an operation set up by detectives from the Sex Crimes Squad and local detectives in 2012 – to investigate claims of alleged sexual abuse.
