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Broken Rites Australia helps victims of church-related sex-abuse. By a Broken Rites researcherBroken Rites has prepared this summary of the court proceedings against Father John Sidney Denham, who has pleaded guilty to multiple child-sex offences after 40 years. Denham, a priest of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese in New South Wales, is in jail waiting to be told the length of his sentence. A judge will announce the sentence in early 2010. Originally, in court hearings in a magistrates court in late 2008 and early 2009, Denham had been charged with a total of 134 child-sex offences relating to 39 boys in various locations: in Sydney; in Newcastle; in the Hunter Valley; and on the New South Wales mid-north coast. The 134 charges, including buggery and multiple counts of indecent assault and sexual assault, spanned from 1968 to 1986. The earliest alleged offences occurred while Denham was training to be a priest. Many of the victims were molested while they were students at St Pius X High School at Adamstown in the city of Newcastle.
At the first of the magistrate's hearings, in August 2008, there was no application for bail and the magistrate remanded Denham in custody. At the subsequent hearings, Denham appeared by audio-video link from Sydney's Silverwater jail.
The magistrate committed Denham for sentence on 29 charges, including two counts of buggery and 27 counts of indecent assault. These 29 charges relate to 23 victims. In early 2010, a judge in the Sydney District Court will sentence Denham on these 29 charges, but the sentencing file will also include 29 other offences for which he is not being sentenced. This makes a total of 58 offences, relating to a total of 39 victims. When sentencing Denham on the first batch of 29 offences, the judge will also be aware of (and will take into account) the second batch of 29 offences in the file. After Denham's guilty plea on 8 July 2009, the Maitland-Newcastle diocese issued a public apology to Denham's victims. The apology came 40 years after the church recruited and trained Denham as a priest. Despite Denham's guilty plea, police interest in him is not necessarily finished. The detectives' investigating unit, Strikeforce Georgiana at Charlestown NSW, can be contacted by telephone on 02 4942 9999.
Pre-sentence hearingOn 15 December 2009 a one-day pre-sentence hearing was held in the Sydney District Court, where the court received submissions from the prosecution and the defence about what sort of sentence should be imposed.In court, Denham confirmed his guilty plea. Some of his victims, who were aged between 7 and 16 years of age when assaulted, were sitting in court for the hearing, now aged in their early to mid forties. Father Denham once had enormous supreme influence over the victims’ lives, but at the pre-sentence hearing he was reduced to wearing a prison-issued green tracksuit — a humiliating end. According to a submission by the prosecution, Denham's offences "showed a persistent and extended course of criminal conduct involving multiple victims and significant planning". The offences involved "gross abuse of the position the offender held as a priest and . . . as a teacher, and the trust he was accorded because of his position." The prosecution said that all of Denham's offences "were committed in circumstances where he made direct use of his position to gain access to his victims and, having abused the boys, he again relied upon his position to ensure that either no complaint was made, or if it was made that the child would not be believed." Prosecuting barrister Helen Wilson told the court that Denham's offences were a "gross abuse" of the trust placed in him by the church, the school and the boys' families. "The offender targeted boys who he knew were particularly vulnerable," she said. Ms Wilson said Denham had befriended some families so well, he had become like a second authority after their parents. The court heard a submission by one of Denham's former colleagues, Father Martin Wilson (a member of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart religious order). Denham had worked at the MSC order's Chevalier Resource Centre (in Sydney’s Kensington) in the late 1990s. Father Wilson said he had been aware that Denham had been accused of child-sex abuses in the 1980s, but was unaware of the details. Asked whether he was aware that Denham had been accused of engaging in oral sex with boys, Father Wilson said: "I didn't know that. I would never, from his work in the library and my interaction with him, suspect that's what he had done". Father Wilson said it would "be the right thing" for the Chevalier Resource Centre to re-employ Denham after he completes his prison term.
The judge's taskDuring the pre-sentence hearing, the judge made repeated reference to the seriousness of the conduct and referred also to the significant element of planning and grooming involved. She said, towards the end of the hearing, that the prison sentence would be substantial. Denham will get the maximum reduction for his pleas of guilty. However, there was no evidence of contrition, and that was remarked on by the judge.
The judge will consider the matter and all of the materials, including victims’ impact statements. A final hearing is scheduled for early 2010 when the judge will hand down the sentence and give detailed reasons for this sentence.
Civil caseThe Denham case is a landmark one because the church authorities had been warned, during Denham's career, that he was committing sexual crimes against children but the church authorities retained Denham in the priesthood, thereby inflicting him on additional victims. This means that Denham's victims will be able to mount a civil action against the church, demanding compensation for the victim's disrupted lives. Broken Rites knows of a number of victims who are planning such an action. Two legal firms have offered to help these victims to obtain justice.
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