Paedophile priest Robert Claffey given extra year in jail after confessing to molesting more children in Ballarat
Former priest Robert Claffey has had another 15 months added to his sentence after confessing to molesting two young boys — one aged between 12 and 15, the other six or seven — in Ballarat during the 1980s.
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A priest who was once sent by the church to replace notorious paedophile Gerard Ridsdale has been handed an extra year in jail after confessing to molesting more children in Ballarat.
Robert Claffey, 76, “mocked the priestly authority” in a faith that he “pretended to practice” when he molested two young boys in Ballarat during the 1980s, one who was aged between 12 and 15, and the other boy who was aged six to seven.
The Catholic Church became aware of Claffey’s behaviour during the 1980s but moved him from “parish to parish” throughout western Victoria.
At one point, Claffey was installed by the church as a replacement for Victoria’s worst paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale at a coastal parish, where one child was abused by both men.
READ MORE: JUDGE HIGHAM’S FULL SENTENCING REMARKS HERE
Ridsdale has been in jail since 1994 and abused at least 65 children before his arrest in 1993.
Claffey was already serving a minimum of 13 years and four months’ jail for sexually abusing 12 boys and girls aged as young as five, between 1969 and 1992.
But he will now spend at least an extra 12 months on top of that sentence in jail following the fresh allegations, which he confessed to last week.
His lawyer had urged the court not to jail him for any longer, saying he’d been “vilified” and “hunted” for his crimes.
County Court Judge Paul Higham condemned Claffey’s “gross sense of entitlement”.
“You used the disguise of holy orders of the faith that you pretended to practise,” he said.
“Your priestly role provided you with various opportunities to access these children.
“You indulged your deviant desires and offended against them.” Judge Higham spoke of how the hands that celebrated the Holy Eucharist were the same hands that “defiled children”.
“Your offending not only grossly breached the trust placed in you … but it also mocked the priestly authority that you pretended to exercise.”
Judge Higham sentenced Claffey on Thursday to an extra one year and three months in jail on top of his current prison term, of which he must serve at least another 12 months.