Senior Catholic priest Monsignor David Cappo gives evidence at Father John Fleming defamation trial in South Australia Supreme Court
FATHER John Fleming “definitely” raised allegations he had been involved in a ménage-a-trois when he was interviewed by a senior Catholic priest, a court has heard.
FATHER John Fleming “definitely” raised allegations he had been involved in a ménage-a-trois when he was interviewed by a senior Catholic priest, a court has heard.
Monsignor David Cappo has provided the Supreme Court with handwritten notes of his 1995 interview with Fr Fleming, prompted by allegations of sexual misconduct towards a teenage girl.
He said that, almost 20 years after the interview, he still recalled Fr Fleming saying there were false rumours he had been “running a ménage-a-trois in my flat”.
“In fact, it’s one of the few terms I remember clearly for the reason that, as I was writing it, I didn’t really known how to spell it,” he said.
“So I was writing away, thinking ‘I’ve not got time to think about how to spell it’ because we were moving on to the next topic.
“(Afterwards) I needed to look it up in the dictionary to see exactly how it was spelled ... I don’t think I had used the term before in a written way.”
Fr Fleming’s lawsuit concerns 2008 Sunday Mail articles reporting allegations he was sexually involved with two women, “Jane” and “Jenny”, and a man, “Richard”.
He asserts the allegations contained in the articles were false and a “material cause” in the termination of his position with Catholic liberal arts institute Campion College.
The Sunday Mail is published by the same company as The Advertiser.
Last week, Fr Fleming denied having a ménage-a-trois with Jane and another girl when both were 13 years old. He further denied discussing such allegations with Monsignor Cappo, dubbing his recollection “absolutely wrong” and his report to church authorities “creative writing”.
Yesterday, Monsignor Cappo said the meeting with Fr Fleming was prompted by a complaint, from “Jenny”, about her history with the priest and his then-impending ordination. His talk with Jenny included her observation that “power”, “self-esteem” and “striving for acceptance and self-acceptance” were “issues” for Fr Fleming.
Monsignor Cappo said Fr Fleming had denied Jenny’s allegations and raised the ménage-a-trois rumour when asked if there was anything else the church should know.
He rejected Fr Fleming’s claim their discussion had centred on a rumour the priest had fathered a disabled child with a politician and put it up for adoption.
“No, no I definitely heard the term ‘ménage-a-trois’,” he said.
Paul Heyward-Smith, for Fr Fleming, said the dictionary defined ménage-a-trois as an ongoing relationship between a husband, a wife and a lover who shared the same house.
He put it to Monsignor Cappo that his client had been raising an older rumour, started by an elderly parishioner who lived across the road when Fr Fleming first started with the church. Monsignor Cappo said that was possible.
“When these allegations were put, as the discussion went on, it was clear that they were rumours and I treated them as such,” he said.
Monsignor Cappo said there had been no discussion of the ages of the people involved in the alleged ménage-a-trois and, had there been, he would “indeed” have pursued the topic further.
The trial, before Special Auxilliary Justice Malcolm Gray, continues.
