Send me to jail: The 70-year-old supernun prepared to do anything to help children in detention

IT took eight police officers to arrest Sister Jane Keogh, the 70-year-old Catholic nun putting her freedom on the line. Her only regret is that she wasn’t thrown in jail.

Supernun: ‘Send me to jail’

WHEN 70-year-old Catholic nun Sister Jane Keogh was arrested and led to a paddy wagon by eight federal police officers in Canberra yesterday, she wasn’t surprised. In fact she was disappointed the matter didn’t go further.

“I was thinking if I was charged and they offered me bail, I would say ‘could I go to jail instead’?” she told news.com.au.

Sister Keogh was among five protesters, three of them religious leaders, arrested yesterday at an MP’s office in Canberra protesting against the government’s treatment of children in detention centres with advocacy group Love Makes A Way.

The 70-year-old has been working with refugees for 12 years, when she began protesting as well as working directly with asylum seekers who were settling in Australia.

“I’ve been working in this area for a long time,” she said.

“I understand the trauma that children experience. I feel desperate. Sometimes I wake at night crying because I’m so upset. I’m prepared to do anything.”

In planning yesterday’s peaceful protest — a prayer vigil held inside Senator Zed Seselja’s Canberra office — Sister Keogh’s conviction was put to the test.

Australian Federal Police officers arrived at the office in the morning after the protest group had set up camp at about 8am and warned the group if their protest got out of hand, or if they wanted to stay past 5pm, they had to leave.

Reverend Roberta Hamilton, one of the five who had taken up a spot inside the office’s waiting area, told police they “would like a satisfactory answer to when the 798 children and their families will be released from immigration detention”.

The answer they received in writing from Sen Seselja was not satisfactory, Rev Hamilton said, and failed to address the plight of children in detention in Nauru and other locations.

And so the five, including Rev Hamilton and Sister Keogh stayed put and waited until around 6.30pm when police officers removed them from the building.

The group was arrested and led to the police vehicle outside where they were told they would be released immediately but could still be charged.

“Part of me would have preferred that I was charged then and there,” Sister Keogh said.

“We could be charged on summons, (the police) are going to decide what’s in the public interest. “I don’t think they want nuns and deans of churches to arrest us. They probably didn’t want to the publicity.

“Most people don’t want a criminal conviction, but if I go to jail for six months, I’m at an age that my job doesn’t depend on it. I’ve got people who look after my dogs.

“The refugees who I work with would probably miss me, but I’m 70 years old and I don’t want to die with Australia being so inhumane.”

So now we're arresting 70 yr old nuns for praying for release of kids from detention. Seriously #qanda #LoveMakesAWay pic.twitter.com/kpksJV1MwT

— Kon Karapanagiotidis (@Kon__K) November 10, 2014

Sister Keogh said she’s not willing to give up, nor are any of the members of Love Makes A Way, who are planning more peaceful protests.

More than 100 arrests have been made in the group’s protest this year.

#LoveMakesAWay is a movement of Christians seeking an end to Australia’s inhumane asylum seeker policies through prayer and nonviolent love in action.