Neville Joseph Creen’s 23rd victim could uncover new era of potential child sex abuse
He’s one of Queensland’s most prolific paedophile priests who has ruined the lives of more than 20 children, but a revelation from his past threatens to potentially uncover a whole new era of sinister ways.
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He’s one of Queensland’s most prolific paedophile priests who has ruined the lives of more than 20 children, but a revelation from his past threatens to potentially uncover a whole new era of sinister ways.
Neville Joseph Creen, a historical sexual abuser once within the Catholic Church, this week pleaded guilty to sexually abusing his 23rd victim – a five-year-old girl he met in 1969.
The latest victim was allegedly preyed upon four years before Creen’s earliest known reign of abuse on 22 children in Mount Isa in the early 1970s and 80s.
The new admission cracks open a period of abuse which has been buried for more than five decades, and the possibility that the monster who destroyed the lives of so many North Queensland schoolchildren has more skeletons in his closet.
Townsville Catholic Diocese Bishop Tim Harris said the new revelation opened up potential for even more victims.
“I am really horrified at the scale of this man’s criminal activity as I read the cases that we have had, and there are others that are coming forward,” Bishop Harris said.
“He’s obviously a deeply, deeply sick man … I don’t rule anything in or anything out (with Creen).”
Creen, now 81, was a scripture co-ordinator to six state schools in Mount Isa when he abused 22 children from 1973 to 1981.
He was a well-known and once well-respected man of the Catholic Church – a pillar in his community.
Creen used his position in the church, and in the schools, to infiltrate his way into families across the remote city, infecting them and taking his victims one by one.
He was opportunistic in his offending, but also completely brazen, unremorseful and cunning.
From lingering hugs and unwanted touching, to blatant sexual abuse in shower blocks or on school camps, Creen’s offending had no bounds.
He got away with it for years as the rest of the community turned a blind eye to a man who was meant to be the mouthpiece of God.
The victims, aged between five and 13 when their abuse began, endured eight years of horror at the hands of Creen before he moved to Townsville in 1981.
But years earlier, it’s now been revealed Creen ruined the life of another.
He started abusing a little girl while living and working in Charters Towers in 1969 – four years before the Mount Isa abuse began.
Creen recently pleaded guilty to four new charges relating to the victim, including indecent treatment of a girl under 16 and maintaining unlawful relationship with a child.
The Courier-Mail can reveal the abuse started on October 31, 1969 after Creen met the Townsville girl through her family, school and church.
She was six when the abuse allegedly began. He was in his late 20s. Creen didn’t stop until she was 15 years old.
Bishop Harris’s right-hand man, Townsville Diocese Safeguarding Culture and Practice manager Craig Brereton said the most concerning aspect of Creen’s offending was that it had no limits.
“We don’t know when these crimes actually commenced,” Mr Brereton said.
“I’ve had people come forward to me about Neville and they’ve initially not wanted to go to police … but nonetheless they’ve come forward.
“A lot of times they spoke up to people in their family who didn’t believe them and in some cases they were ostracised because of shame and guilt.
“If that was the environment, then I assume there’s more (victims) to come.
“Now it’s about how we support these people to come forward and be heard and supported.”
CREEN’S DEMISE
After moving to Townsville, Creen was the Parish Priest at Sacred Heart Cathedral in 1981 and Holy Spirit Parish Priest in 1982.
His career continued across Australia, becoming the full-time chaplain at Lavarack Army Barracks in 1984, then moving to Sydney and Duntroon before leaving the army in 1992.
He returned to Townsville where he was Parish Priest, but the whispers of his past in Mount Isa came knocking in 1994.
On March 25, 1994, Bishop Raymond Benjamin referred information he had received to the Diocesan Special Issues Delegate regarding allegations of sexual abuse against Creen.
The information had come from a Christian Brother who had been contacted by the father of a victim.
The following day Creen was interviewed by the Diocesan Special Issues Delegate and file notes held by the church indicate Creen made admissions to molesting a couple of girls 15 years earlier.
The victim the Bishop had become aware of was not one of the girls he mentioned during that interview.
The Bishop stood Creen down and he was packed up and sent away to a “retreat house” in Sydney. He would spend the next four years there before asking to return to Townsville- a request that was refused by Bishop Benjamin.
Creen applied to be removed from the church in 1997. His request was granted by Rome in 1998 and he left the church in disgrace and lived his life in private.
But in 2000, police came knocking.
In his first trial in 2003, Creen was found guilty of abusing 18 children between 1973 and 1981. He would spend a measly 14 months of a three-and-a-half-year sentence in prison.
In his second trial, Creen was found guilty of abusing a further two girls during the same time period, with no more time to be served.
In November 2020, Creen pleaded guilty to offences against two girls and did not go back behind bars.
His current matter is still processing through the courts.
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