no SANE person would take children to church

Christian Camping trips led to abuse

BY DAN PROUDMAN

A MAN has told the Peter Brock committal hearing that he watched on as the Catholic priest allegedly indecently assaulted a teenage boy following a naked game of cards in the 1970s.

The man, himself a teenager at the time, also told Newcastle Local Court yesterday of waking up in bed with Brock while on a trip away, to see the clergyman looking at him and masturbating.


Peter Julian Brock, 63, faced the third day of a committal hearing into 22 child sex offences he is alleged to have committed against the two boys in the 1970s.


He has not been required to enter a plea.


The court had earlier heard from one of the alleged victims who said he had been repeatedly abused by Brock over several years, including being stripped naked while playing cards in a "counselling room" of a Hunter presbytery before being assaulted.


Yesterday, magistrate Elaine Truscott heard from the second alleged victim, who told of playing the card game "strip jack naked" at a private residence with Brock and other boys.


He told the court of one occasion where he watched as another boy stripped naked before Brock put his head between the boy's legs.


"[Another boy] and I tried to stop Peter going any further with that game," the witness said.


He said he was left "flabbergasted" after waking up on a trip away to allegedly see Brock masturbating next to him.


The man told the court Brock later spoke to him about the incident, telling him "I'm just human too . . . or something along those lines".


He also spoke of camping trips where Brock encouraged boys to "skinny dip".


Under cross-examination, the man said he did not tell anyone about any of the incidents until he was approached by police more than 30 years later.


The court heard yesterday from a woman who said she could now remember her son suggesting in the 1970s that he was being abused, but she failed to act.


The woman said she could not remember slapping the boy across the face and telling him not to "make comments like that about priests".


The committal hearing has been adjourned until December 3.

http://www.theherald.com.au