Fr Michael Glennon: ‘just wantonly evil’ - Were you a Victim?
Of the Catholic Church’s many paedophiles, one of the most notorious was Father Michael Glennon. Glennon left a legacy of life-long pain and suffering for his victims and their families against whom he offended in Victoria in the 1970s to 1999. In recent years many survivors have come forward and courageously told what happened to them as children at the hands of Michael Glennon.
Glennon was a priest and a karate teacher and owned a property called Karaglen near Lancefield where he ran regular youth camps. He also started the Peaceful Hand Youth Foundation in the 1970s, potentially another guise to involve himself with children. Glennon was admitted to priesthood in 1971 and was appointed assistant priest at St Monica’s in Moonee Ponds, then St Gabrielle’s in Reservoir.
We have heard testimony from multiple witnesses of the extent to which Glennon used the community’s Catholic faith to gain the trust of parents and thereby have access to their children. The mother of one victim in a trial of Glennon many years later talked of how convincing Glennon was and told the court ‘if you can’t trust a priest, who can you trust?’. When Glennon was convicted in 2003, Judge Williams said of Glennon ‘you, using the guise of your priesthood, would ingratiate yourself into the families’ and ‘would engage and allure the children with your undoubted charisma’. So effective was Glennon’s presentation of himself as an honourable, trustworthy man of God, that many families sent their children with him on camps and left them overnight at his house, trusting that they would be safe. He performed their weddings and mass, baptisms and funerals. Glennon made himself an integral part of the lives of the families whose children he abused.
Glennon was also known for his involvement in the Victorian Aboriginal community, using his understanding of Aboriginal culture to work his way into the trust of adults in the community. He exploited that same knowledge of Aboriginal myths to facilitate his abuse of children: he would frighten the boys on camp into using the toilet attached to his bedroom, the other toilet block ostensibly being haunted by evil spirits. In some instances, Glennon used the pretence of initiations into manhood as a cover for sexual offending against young boys.
The Criminal Trials of Michael Glennon
Allegations of his criminal conduct arose as early as 1978, when Glennon was convicted for sexually assaulting a ten year old girl in 1977. He had encouraged her to sleep in his car with him while on camp at Karaglen and sexually assaulted her there. He was sentenced to two years but only served seven months. Whilst on parole from this first conviction he offended against another teenage girl. When accused of this offense Glennon claimed that he couldn’t have done it because he was a priest. We know that in the following few years Glennon offended against many other children.
In 1985 Glennon was charged with several counts of sexual assault against 5 boys and one girl. In an unfortunate twist, as the trial was pending, radio personality Derryn Hinch made widespread broadcasts about Glennon’s prior conviction, hoping to warn people away from Glennon. The publicity was held to have prejudiced the jury. A mistrial was declared, Derryn Hinch spent 12 days in prison for contempt of court, and Glennon walked free. By subverting the criminal justice system, Derryn Hinch unwittingly enabled Glennon to go on offending for another six years.
The damage of Hinch’s publicity was still lingering in 1991 when, finally convicted of more child sex offenses, Glennon successfully argued that a fair trial by jury was impossible. He gained one last period of freedom between November 1991 and May 1992 when the State Prosecution Office successfully appealed to the High Court. Glennon’s seven year sentence was reinstated.
Glennon was again convicted in 2003 of numerous counts of sexual assault and rape of children. Glennon died in gaol in Victoria in early 2014, just nine days after another 10 sexual assault charges were laid against him.
In the sentencing remarks following the 2003 convictions, Judge Williams stated that Glennon was ‘in that quite small minority of offenders who are just wantonly evil’. Judge Willams noted that Glennon pleaded not guilty to all his charges, besides the 1978 charge, forcing his victims to go through the ‘awful ordeal’ of trail and that he showed no ‘sorrow, remorse, regret or concern for [his] hapless victims’.
The Response of the Catholic Church
Equally disturbing as Glennon’s relentless and shameless offending, is the response of the Catholic Church. Following his first conviction for sexual assault of a minor, the Catholic Church removed Glennon from his parish in Reservoir. They did nothing further to extinguish his capacity to put himself forward as a priest for a further six years. In this time he continued performing religious rites and offending against the children he came in contact with. In 1984, the Church accepted Glennon’s resignation, which he put forward himself, and withdrew his faculty to perform most religious functions. However, Glennon continued to present himself as a priest for many more years. He introduced himself as ‘Father Michael’. He conducted baptisms, funerals and weddings and held private mass regularly. He was often seen wearing the ‘dog collar’ and robes of a priest. In was not until 1999, a full 21 years after Glennon was first convicted of child sex abuse, and following conviction on many more counts of rape and sexual assault, that he was formally laicised (defrocked) by the Catholic Church.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Allegations of Child Sexual Abuse produced Case Study 35, a report into the responses of the Archdiocese of Melbourne to accusations against priests. The report details the repeated failure of the Archdiocese to respond appropriately when priests were accused of sexual assault. In many instances the complaints were not recorded, the priests were not sanctioned and in some cases they continued in their appointment as priest long after their offending was known to those in authority within the Catholic Church. In fact, priests who offended against children were sometimes simply moved to other parishes, were sent overseas to ‘study’ or ‘rest’ until complaints had blown over, and sometimes continued to received pensions for years after the Church was aware of allegations of sexual abuse of children. Michael Glennon’s continued status as a priest is an example of the leniency, secrecy and denial that the Church extended to paedophile priests within their diocese.
Angela Sdrinis Legal is currently acting for four survivors of childhood sexual abuse by Glennon. Numerous others have made witness statements. If you are a survivor of abuse by Glennon or have information about his offending and activities during the 1970s and 1980s, we would be interested to hear from you. We believe the extent of his offending against children will never be entirely known but we deeply appreciate the courage of those survivors who decide to come forward.
By Elke Nicholson
Solicitor at Angela Sdrinis Legal