Brother John Joseph Farrell

John Joseph Farrell was born 7 July 1953 and is currently 67 years old. He was ordained as a Catholic priest on 21 September 1981 and has worked as a parish priest most of his religious life in New South Wales in towns including Armidale, Moree, Tamworth, and Merrylands (Sydney). Brother John Farrell completed his theological training at the St Columba’s College Springwooed and St Patrick’s College Manly between 1974 to 1980. He was subsequently ordained as a Deacon of the Catholic Church on 28 November 1980 and as a priest on 28 September 1981. He undertook an appointment as a Deacon in the Moree Diocese between May and July 1981, and commenced the role of Assistant Priest of the Moree Diocese on 11 November 1981. He continued working in the Moree Diocese until 31 July 1984, when he was transferred as a priest to the St Nicholas’s parish in Tamworth, within the Diocese of Armidale.

In the late 1980s, allegations of child sexual abuse were made against Brother John Farrell during his time as assistant priest at Moree. He was consequently charged but the charges were dismissed by a magistrate in early 1988. The Bishop of Armidale at the time, Henry Joseph Kennedy (Diocese of Armidale), had sent him for psychological treatment and he was then loaned to the Diocese of Parramatta. In 2016, however, Brother Farrell was found guilty in the NSW District Court in relation to 79 offences, 62 were dealt with as substantive offences and 17 were taken into account ultimately on a Form 1. The offences related to sexual assaults within the Diocese of Moree including indecent assaults and sexual intercourse without consent. The offences related to 12 complainants (three girls and nine boys) and were committed over a nine-year period between December 1979 and December 1988. Of the various male victims, all were altar boys aged between 10 and 12 at the time of the offending. Brother Farrell was sentenced to 29 years in jail with a minimum term of 18 years.

In 2018, Brother John Joseph Farrell faced again the NSW District Court in Sydney regarding additional offences committed by him between November 1981 and December 1983 at Moree and Narrabri when he was a priest working primarily at St Francis Xavier Catholic Church at Moree. He was found guilty by a jury of offences against three altar boys and was sentenced to an additional nine years and six months with a non-parole period of five years and six months. The 2018 jail sentence overlapped somewhat with the 2016 sentence. Brother Farrell will now be eligible for parole in December 2036 at the age of 81.

It should be noted that The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse scrutinised the Diocese of Armidale and the Diocese of Parramatta in ‘Case Study 44: Catholic Church authorities in Armidale and Parramatta’ in relation to their response over the behaviour and allegations of child sexual abuse by Brother John Joseph Farrell who spent a considerable amount of time in both dioceses. The public has not been given access to the report yet.

We invite former victims of Brother John Joseph Farrell to tell us confidentially what information they may have, and we will explain what options are available to help with these cases.

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