Two days before Christmas, former priest Guy Hartcher allegedly arrived at a suburban street in Sydney’s west to meet a 14-year-old boy he had been grooming for sex.
The 78-year-old faced court on Wednesday morning, charged with using a carriage service to send indecent material to a person under the age of 16 and procuring them for sex.
Retired Sydney priest Guy Hartcher (right) with his defence lawyer Greg Walsh.Credit: Nikki Short
Keeping his head down, he walked into Burwood Local Court wearing a mask, burnt-orange jumper and black hat.
Court documents allege Hartcher groomed the boy online over seven days in the lead-up to Christmas.
He is accused of sending the boy – whom police claim he knew was under the age of 16 – indecent material and procuring him for sex.
However, the boy was “a fictitious recipient”, as police had been posing as the teen.
Facebook had allegedly alerted the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children in the US to an account that was sharing child abuse material abroad.
Hartcher was arrested on a suburban street allegedly after grooming a child for sex.Credit: Nikki Short
NSW Police was notified and detectives proceeded to communicate with Hartcher, purporting to be a child.
They allege Hartcher shared sexually explicit photographs and discussed sexual acts he wanted to do with the boy.
Hartcher had allegedly planned to meet the boy at Pendle Hill in Sydney’s west at 12.15pm on December 23, but was stopped on the street by police, arrested and taken to Granville Police Station.
He was later granted bail at Parramatta Local Court on a $10,000 surety.
Guy Hartcher as he was arrested at Pendle Hill in Sydney.Credit: NSW Police
Under his bail conditions, Hartcher must report daily to Eastwood Police Station, not be with or contact anyone under the age of 16 and is not to go within 500 metres of any school or childcare centre.
He must also not own or possess any mobile phone unless for making medical or legal appointments, and surrender his phone to police for inspection when requested.
The matter was briefly heard at Burwood Local Court on Wednesday, when magistrate Robyn Denes set the next court date of March 5.
Leaving court, Hartcher bowed his head and stayed silent as journalists asked if he was an online predator.
According to Kelso Lawyers, which specialises in helping survivors of institutionalised child sex abuse, Hartcher was a long-time member of the Vincentian Fathers and Brothers, also known as the Congregation of the Mission.
In 1971, he secured a teaching job at St Stanislaus College in Bathurst at 24 years old, after training to become a Vincentian priest.
He then studied at the Catholic University in Washington DC and spent time in the 1970s and 1980s at the Holy Cross College in Dunedin, New Zealand.
In the 1994 Australian Catholic Directory, he was listed as the rector of the Catholic Church’s St Francis Xavier Seminary in Adelaide.
Hartcher has been retired for the past decade and living in Ashfield in Sydney’s inner west.
He has not yet entered pleas to the charges.
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