Broken Rites Australia supports victims
of church-related sex-abuse.

By a Broken Rites researcher

Broken Rites has researched the background of Father Charles Alfred Barnett, who worked as a Catholic priest in various parts of Australia for twenty years until the mid-1990s.

On 5 August 2010. Barnett was sentenced in South Australia for at least four years for sexual offences against boys in that state.

Broken Rites has discovered that Father Barnett also ministered in Queensland and New South Wales. His New South Wales activities included visits to St Stanislaus College boarding school in Bathurst. He made visits to the Kwinana parish in Perth, Western Australia. And he is also believed to have spent time in Melbourne, Victoria.

The South Australian courts can deal only with complaints about alleged incidents within that state. Anyone who wishes to discuss alleged incidents in other Australian states would need to have a chat with the police in those states.

Broken Rites research

He studied for the Catholic priesthood in the Vincentian order (also called the Congregation of the Mission), which has its Australian headquarters in Sydney. In the 1970s, the Vincentian order had about 45 priests in Australia. The Vincentians had one or two communal houses in each of Australia's five mainland states.

Charles Barnett was first listed in the annual Australian Catholic directory in the early 1970s, when his postal address was given as the Vincentian Community (where half a dozen Vincentian priests lived) in Eastwood, Sydney.

In the early 1970s he is believed to have spent time at the "Mary Immaculate" parish in Southport on Queensland's Gold Coast (in the Brisbane archdiocese). This parish was one that was normally staffed by the Vincentian order.

One family who remember Barnett from the 1970s say that they sometimes called him by his middle name as Father Alf Barnett.

South Australia

In the late 1970s, Barnett was listed as an assistant priest in a parish (St Teresa's) at Whyalla, a town in the western region of South Australia. This parish is part of the diocese of Port Pirie (the Catholic Church in South Australia is divided into two dioceses -- Adelaide and Port Pirie).

Barnett was still listed at Whyalla (still as an assistant) in the directories for 1981 and 1983. By 1981, the senior priest-in-charge at Whyalla was Father D. Eugene Hurley, who became the bishop of Port Pirie in 1998 (and later the Bishop of Darwin).

A former pupil at St John's College high school in Whyalla (for Years 7 and 8 in 1976-77) has told Broken Rites how he used to receive "home visits" by Father Charlie Barnett.

During the period of his Whyalla listings, Barnett was not necessarily confined to that town.

Former students of Rostrevor College (operated by the Christian Brothers), in Woodforde, Adelaide, say they remember Father Charlie Barnett in Adelaide in the 1970s.

New South Wales

Likewise, in the 1988 directory, the postal address of Rev. C. Barnett, CM, was listed in the index as care of the Vincentian Community at 5 Vincentia St, Marsfield, Sydney, but this edition gave no indication of what work he was doing or where.

A resident of Bathurst, in central-west New South Wales, says that, in the 1970s and '80s, Fr Charles Barnett used to visit (and have extensive stay-overs at) Bathurst's St Stanislaus College, which was staffed by Barnett's religious order, the Vincentian Fathers. Priests lived on the school premises.

Victoria

Military chaplain

Former Royal Australian Navy apprentices say that, in the mid-1980s, they remember Father Charlie Barnett as a Navy chaplain at the Navy's apprentice training base HMAS Nirimba at Quakers Hill, near Blacktown, west of Sydney.

Queensland

In the 1994 directory, Barnett was listed as the Parish Priest in charge of the "Mary Immaculate" parish at Southport, Queensland (where had had originally spent time as an assistant priest in the early 1970s).

Indonesia

By 2006, South Australian police had gathered substantial information about Barnett's offences in that state. At that time, Australia and Indonesia did not have a treaty for extraditing persons who were wanted by the police for alleged criminal offences. But this had changed by 2008 and Barnett became the first person to be extradited from Indonesia under a treaty with Australia.

In February 2008, Australian authorities applied in Indonesia (on behalf of South Australia Police) for Barnett's extradition to Australia. The application went to an Indonesian court, which heard details of the Australian allegations. The application was granted and Barnett was arrested by Indonesian police at his house in Depok, just south of Jakarta. He was then detained in custody in Jakarta throughout 2008, pending completion of the extradition process.

On Friday 13 February 2009, detectives from South Australia’s Sexual Crime Investigation Branch took custody of Barnett in Jakarta and took him back to South Australia, where he was placed in custody in Adelaide in order to face a series of court proceedings during 2009 under South Australian law.

The South Australian matters were investigated by the Sexual Crime Investigation Branch, South Australia Police, 30-46 Wright Street, Adelaide, South Australia 5000.

In court, September 2009

The lawyer said Barnett would plead not guilty to other charges of unlawful sexual intercourse and indecent assault at Port Pirie, Crystal Brook, Whyalla and Blackfriars.

The magistrate remanded Barnett in custody to appear in the South Australian District Court for further proceedings.

In court again, October 2009

Pre-sentence hearing, June 2010

Barnett's defence lawyer claimed that Barnett had not realised how wrong his acts were at the time when he offended against the boys

Judge Rice said he did not believe the priest did not know sexual abuse of children was wrong.

The defence lawyer said told the court how Barnett had lived in Indonesia since the mid-1990s. The lawyer said that, while Barnett was in custody in Indonesia, he paid a $32,000 "down-payment" to get out of the squalid jail into home detention - but the money went missing.

Judge Rice said this payment sounded like a bribe.

Prosecutor Kathy Rozaklis said there was an element of grooming in Barnett's behaviour as he used his position as a priest to gain the trust of families whose children he abused.

She called for Barnett's sentence to reflect the public's outrage and revulsion for the crimes.

In statements read to the court, Barnett's victims called him a despicable monster and spoke of feeling betrayed by the Catholic Church.

One victim wrote about Barnett: "He was a creep, like a snake." The victim said he had been too terrified to sleep when the priest stayed in his bedroom after befriending the Catholic farming family near Port Pirie (South Australia).

The victim stated that he does not want to go to heaven if it is "full of priests" who have abused children.

Judge Rice remanded Barnett in custody, with the sentencing details to be handed down on a later date.

Sentenced, August 2010

The judge told Barnett: "You knew what you were doing was legally and morally wrong, not the least because you were a Catholic priest."

The judge took into consideration Barnett’s guilty plea and the time that he had spent in custody in Indonesia. The judge imposed a jail term of six years and six months, with a non-parole period of four years. Both terms were back-dated to February 2009, when Charles Alfred Barnett was placed in custody in Australia.