This Broken Rites article summarises the court proceedings against John Joseph Farrell (also known as "Father F").
The court process continued from 2012 until he was sentenced in 2016.
Father Farrell targeted numerous children (mostly boys, plus some girls)
in northern New South Wales in the 1980s (and later in western Sydney
until 1992). On 2 May 2016 he was sentenced to a minimum of 18 years
jail for 62 of his crimes, committed against 12 of his victims. A
further 17 incidents were taken into account at sentencing, making a
total of 79 incidents. These were not Farrell's only victims — Farrell
is currently scheduled to appear in court again in 2017 regarding
several more children from the 1980s. And other children from the 1980s
have not yet spoken to the NSW Police detectives. This Broken Rites
article includes some additional charges which were laid against Farrell
in September 2016, to come up in court again in 2017.
