Catholic brother jailed over child sex abuse

A CATHOLIC brother has been jailed and an Anglican vicar set free but with his career and reputation ruined in a busy morning for judges dealing with perverted clergy.

A CATHOLIC brother has been jailed and an Anglican vicar set free, but with his career and reputation ruined in a busy morning for judges dealing with perverted clergy.

Former De La Salle brother Frank Keating was this morning sentenced to five years and three months, with a minimum jail term of three years, for indecently assaulting eight students during the 1970s.

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“Your moves to other schools simply facilitated your predatory sexual abuse of children,” Victorian County Court judge Gregory Lyon said.

About an hour later on the floor below County County Judge Phillip Coish sentenced once highly-respected Sunshine vicar Philip Murphy for engaging in vile online fantasies about the vile abuse of children.

Murphy used apps including Grindr while fantasising with other men about sexually abusing young boys between December 2016 and February the following year.

Former Sunshine vicar Philip John Murphy arrives the Victorian County Court. Picture: AAP/David Crosling

The conversations were found on Murphy’s computer which was seized by Australian Border Force officers when he returned from Hong Kong last year.

In the seized conversations, Murphy discussed with other men bringing boys to Australia to abuse. One man bragged about abusing his own sons.

Judge Coish said Murphy was sacked as soon as his offending came to light but because no actual children were abused, the offending was at the “lower end of the scale”.

But Judge Coish said the conduct had to be denounced — citing authorities which said online sexual fantasies risked “normalising” child sexual abuse.

“The conversations were grossly offensive and deeply disturbing,” Judge Coish said.

Murphy was formally jailed for 12 months but let loose on a $500 recognisance order.
He will remain free as long as he agrees to being supervised by sex offender specialists for 12 months and completing a sex-offender rehabilitation course.

Murphy, who spent years working with the disadvantaged, hopes to retrain as a language teacher.

with AAP

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Originally published as Catholic brother jailed over child sex abuse