Another priest is behind bars as a result of complaints received
in the lead up to the 2014 Royal Commission into Institutional
Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
James Joseph Cunneen has been found guilty in
Parramatta District Court of 10 counts of
indecent assault against six teenage boys in New South Wales in
the late 1980s.
Originally charged with 10 child sex offences against eight
teenagers, a jury found James Cunneen guilty for acts committed
against six of them.
Molested, even in their sleep
During the trial, the court heard the former Catholic priest
molested the boys in different places and situations, including
while they were sleeping.
The boys were all friends at a Marist Brothers school in Sydney,
and attended the Holy Name of Mary Parish where Father Cunneen was
a priest between 1987-1989. The court heard he befriended the boys
after they lost one of their friends in a tragic accident.
