A paedophile priest who lived in Geelong before being jailed in 2016 will serve at least an extra year in prison for sexually abusing two boys.
County Court Judge Paul Higham today sentenced Robert Patrick Claffey to an additional 15 months’ jail after he pleaded guilty to four counts of indecent assault.
In extending the sentence Judge Higham described the offending as a “brazen” betrayal of trust that “had a lifelong, traumatic impact” upon Claffey’s victims.
The 76-year-old had already been serving a minimum 13 years and four months in prison for sexually abusing 12 children as young as five, between 1969 and 1992.
Claffey moved to his parents’ house in Geelong in August 1992 after the Portland parish removed him from priesthood, according to advocacy group Broken Rites.
He last week pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting a teenager and a six or seven-year-old boy during the 1980s.
The offences included touching the boys’ genitals, kissing them on the mouth and other incidents of more serious molestation.
Claffey told one of the boys prior to an offence that their time together was like a confessional and that telling others about it would be a “sin”, the court heard.
At Geelong County Court in 2016 Judge Felicity Hampel sentenced Claffey to 18 years and four months’ jail with a non-parole period of 13 years and four months.
Today Judge Higham sentenced Claffey to an additional two years and 10 months in prison for the four offences.
He ordered Claffey serve 15 months on top of the original sentence, meaning he could spend up to 19 years and seven months in jail.
Judge Higham imposed a new non-parole period of 14 years and four months, meaning Claffey could be out of prison at age 88 in 2031.
On 8 July Claffey submitted a signed, one-sentence apology to his victims.
“To (names redacted) and your families, I would like to sincerely apologise to you for the harm and hurt that my actions have caused to you all,” it read.
In the 1990s Claffey became sole carer for both of his parents who each succumbed to dementia and died by 2002. He also lost his sight from a rare form of glaucoma.
