- Saturday, 21 November 2009
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Litigation is a machine which you go into as a pig and come out as a sausage - Ambrose Bierce, allegedly
Priest used webcam to groom Aussie detectives
AN AUSSIE HIGH TECH Catholic Priest has been arrested after allegedly attempting to groom detectives who were masquerading as a 13 year old girl.
Apparently Father Robert Fuller, 54, used a webcam as part of his Internet campaign so it is not clear how he failed to spot the difference between a teenaged girl and some rather older coppers.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Inspector Blue Knacker of the Parramatta yard seized laptops, online documents, photographs and a mobile phone from the presbytery at All Saints Catholic Parish on George Street in Sydney, all of which they believe were being used by Fuller.
The Church overlooks three schools. Fuller has been a parish priest for three decades standing, having been assigned to three different flocks in his tenure.
During five of the online conversations Fuller activated his web camera and his face was snapped by investigators.
Police arrested Father Fuller in a car park at Parramatta, in western Sydney, at 12.30pm on Thursday.
Of course the Roman Catholic church is doing its best to assist in the case. It has offered to prevent Fuller from re-offending while out on bail by having another priest live with him. Yep, we're sure that will help.
While other paedophiles go to jail awaiting trial, the church has offered to stump up $25,000 surety on Father Fuller's behalf. While waiting for his day in court Father Fuller will live in a holiday apartment owned by the Church. Apparently it does not have Internet access.
Magistrates apparently believed that the Church's word on no more offending by Fuller before he goes to trial would be good enough.
But he had to surrender his passport, just in case he thinks to take up a new job in another parish overseas, which is the normal way the Church seems to deal with suspected cases of paedophilia. µ
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I think that Parramatta Inspector Blue Knacker is having a lend of you.
The Priest is a moron though.
"Apparently Father Robert Fuller, 54, used a webcam as part of his Internet campaign so it is not clear how he failed to spot the difference between a teenaged girl and some rather older coppers."
They use actresses (who are of a decent age) and dress them up to look as young as possible. There was an interesting article a few years back on it.
Maybe the police aren't that stupid, but I wouldn't say the same for commenters who didn't realize that was a joke :)
you don't go to jail for pedophilia. Not to mention that an adult male 'grooming' a 13 year old girl is pretty far away from pedophile behaviour; She's not even a child, only a minor.
...I don't think people place enough importance on grooming children these days. Cleanliness is next to godliness, you know.
That priest is bad news, and the Church doesn't need priests like that. Still, if we are serious about protecting children, then we should do a lot more as a society. We need public censorship from violence and pornography, to protect our children.
anyone who leaves their kids in church unsupervised is asking for trouble!
Unless "grooming" has a different meaning in Australian English, I don't understand what the actual crime is. But it's stranger than that. How does one groom via webcam?!
So, unless "grooming" has a meaning of which I am unaware, this priest is being accused of helping little Sally fix her hair or do her make-up via the internet. And, while strange, it shouldn't be a crime. I know here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania it isn't.
The media have made a big deal about pedophile priests, as if there is somehow the identity of the molester makes the crime worse. Sorry, folks; the sexual exploitation of children is messed up enough, irrespective of the offender's profession.
And for goodness sake, people, stop these false generalizations. So some priests are pedophiles...that means you punish the priests. If some bishops wrongly try to cover it up, punish them, too. But stop abstracting from their and making baseless accusations against the whole Church. It's both immoral and intellectually weak.
Mr. Farrell, the Roman Catholic Church has endured for almost two thousand years. It's faced evil from both within and without. It feeds the hungry, clothes the poor, heals the sick, and tends to the spiritual needs of billions. What have you done?
mr huh? - the things you attribute to the church are performed by its minions. the church has endured for 2000 years by shedding blood in the name of its deity and yet it teaches that it is evil to do so! durrr..
it also discourages personal responsibility, discourages people from challenging authority, takes money from its congregation while its senior management live in obscene luxury! i could go on but im bored now.
wake up and smell the &£$@!!!