PublishedAllen & Unwin, July 2013 |
ISBN9781743314029 |
FormatSoftcover, 280 pages |
Dimensions23.4cm × 15.3cm × 2.3cm |
Monsignor John Day died in 1978. He was arguably Australia's most prolific paedophile. His victims are counted in the hundreds. Yet when Day died, he was feted by Bishop Ronald Mulkearn as having 'faithfully fulfilled his ministry in God's name'. The Church had been well aware of Day's activities.
For years his crimes had been overlooked and tacitly endorsed. What is shocking is that Day committed his crimes with the knowledge and protection of senior members of the Victorian Police as well as the Clerk of the Courts, the most senior officer of the court in Mildura in the 1960s and '70s. Together the three men cast a shadow over the city that remains today. Denis Ryan, a young police detective from Melbourne, had transferred to Mildura in the early 1960s. By the tacit rules of the day, priests were not to be charged for any crime, short of murder in Victoria. The influence of the church both in the police force and within the office of public prosecutions was too strong. But Ryan was a good cop, and quickly gained the trust of the people of Mildura.
One by one the victims started coming forward; children who had been molested by Monsignor Day and sometimes shocked and disbelieving parents. Armed with a dozen or more signed statements, Ryan had sufficient evidence to lay charges. Then began his nightmare, as his every step towards bringing Day to justice was blocked by the Catholic church and then the Police Force. Ryan struggled for decades to have his story and those of Day's countless victims heard, but shamefully, this will be the first time this tragic tale is heard by the public. This is Ryan's story, told in his own words. It is also the story of the hundreds of Day's victims, many of whom are alive today, and are for the first time given a voice. After all this time, at least the truth can now be told.
