A FORMER Mildura man took part in “most serious and disturbing” offending when he sexually abused three boys while serving as a priest four decades ago, a court has been told.

The County Court of Victoria was this week told that Paul David Ryan was in a position of trust when he attacked each victim at church or a religious retreat.

The court was told Ryan was aged between 32 and 44 when the offending took place at Warrnambool and Ararat. The male victims were aged 17, 15 and 14.

The offending by Ryan, now 70, began in 1981 when he asked an altar boy from St Joseph’s Christian Brothers College, Warrnambool, to remove his robe, school uniform and underwear on the pretext of seeing how the robe fitted without the boy’s uniform.

As the priest was arranging the boy’s robe, he reached down with his hand and touched the teenager’s genital area over the robe.

The victim told the priest his mother would be waiting as a means of leaving the room and he never returned training as an altar boy and never assisted in Mass.  He did not report the offending until 2016, when he told his mother.

The second incident related to a three-day retreat Ryan attended in 1985 with Christian Brothers College students.

On the first day of the retreat, the 17-year-old victim was in a group of students in a session discussing “families” when he fell asleep in the corner of the room. When he awoke, his pants and underwear had been pulled down and Ryan sexually assaulted the boy while holding him down with one hand.

The court was told the victim first reported the assault when he was an adult to Catholic Diocese of Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns, who told him “don’t go to the police, I’ll deal with it”.

The court was told the victim did not hear anything further from the church.

On a third occasion, Ryan was working as an assistant priest at the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Ararat in 1992 when he engaged in a game of “strip poker” with a 14-year-old boy.

While wearing only his underwear, Ryan knelt down in front of the victim and rested his hand on the boy’s genitals.

Ryan pulled the boy’s pants down, pushed him on to a bed and tried to kiss him before the victim pushed him away and quickly left.

About 2002, the victim told his sister and wife what happened.

The court was told Ryan, who was educated in Mildura at Catholic primary and secondary schools, succeeded at school academically and was involved in after-school sports.

After passing his final year at secondary school, Ryan said he wanted to train for the ministry, which caused a major rift between him and his parents.

In sentencing this week, County Court Judge Susan Pullen said Ryan had displayed an inherent abuse of power on vulnerable victims.

Ryan, who pleaded guilty to one charge each of indecent assault, sexual penetration of a person between 16 and 18 and indecent act with a child under 16, was sentenced to a total effective sentence of two years and two months with a non-parole period of 17 months. He has already spent 135 days in custody.

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