Looking back at November 9, 1993
The Catholic priest at the centre of allegations of the sexual abuse of boys resigned his position at St Brigid's, Gwynneville.
Father Peter Comensoli had initially stood down from his position late last month pending a church inquiry into the allegations revealed by the Illawarra Mercury a day earlier.
In that original news report, six Wollongong men accused Comensoli and former Edmund Rice College principal Brother Michael Evans of sexual abuse and harassment.
The allegations related to the men's time at Edmund Rice in the early 1980s and included Comensoli and Evans plying them with alcohol before the abuse took place.
In the case of Comensoli, that included watching pornographic movies and then wrestling with the boys to allow him to grope them.
When approached by the Mercury to answer to the allegations, Comensoli refused to comment.
On November 9, the Mercury reported his resignation and that he was getting counselling to deal with the "stress" of the allegations.
"I understand Fr Comensoli is seeking a therapist recommended by the church," said Fr John Usher, part of the panel investigating Comensoli and Evans.
"I'm not in a position to elaborate on the extent of the therapy but if Peter has a problem as disclosed in the articles in the paper, the therapy would be dealing with that primarily and also dealing with his stress over the whole thing.
"I believe he is in pretty bad shape."
He'd be in far worse shape come October 1994 when he was jailed for 18 months after being found guilty of abusing two altar boys, aged 11 and 17 at the time.
It was only after he was found guilty that he offered an apology for offences committed up to 15 years earlier. Though that apology was issued via a fax from his solicitors' office, rather than delivered in person.
His victims said the church bore some responsibility.
"There are a lot of people within the Catholic Church that have got things to answer," their statement read.
As for Evans, he committed suicide in Rockhampton - where he was living at the time - in December 1994, just a day after a Wollongong detective travelled north with an arrest warrant charging him with the indecent assault of a student at Edmund Rice.
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Glen Humphries
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
