Aaron Bunch Journalist with Australian Associated Press | Collection of published work | + 61 484 008 119 | abunch@aap.com.au
Qld ex-priest on trial for abusing student
The trial of a former Catholic priest accused of indecently dealing with a student at an exclusive Brisbane boy’s school continues.
March 5, 2019
A former Catholic priest has denied intimately touching a Brisbane schoolboy he repeatedly coerced into stripping nude for photos.
Michael Ambrose Endicott, 75, pleaded not guilty to eight historical charges of indecently dealing with a child under 12 and a child under 16 while he was a teacher at Villanova College.
The alleged abuse began on a school hiking trip in 1975, his Brisbane District trial was told on Monday.
Crown prosecutor Russell Clutterbuck told the jury Endicott asked the boy to take off his clothes and pose for photographs after taking him to a secluded area along a creek.
Three years later, Endicott again coerced the boy to strip naked and pose for photographs after luring him into the school’s flag tower.
The alleged abuse became sexual in 1980 when Endicott is accused of touching the boy’s genitals during an excursion to the Augustine Retreat in Clayfield, Brisbane.
After photographing the boy, the defendant dropped to his knees and pulled the boy close before touching the boy sexually, the prosecutor said.
The following year at a school sports afternoon, the priest took the boy, who was then a teenager, into a change room and told him to strip to his underwear, Mr Clutterbuck said.
“He then told him to strip completely naked and took photos of him while he was in the shower with water running … and drying off.”
The five-day trial continues on Tuesday.