July 2020 Update: David Joseph Perrett passed away on the 2nd July while awaiting trial for his offences. He had denied over 100 charges of child sexual abuse from over 40 complainants, who were aged between 3 and their teens when they were abused.
Father David Joseph Perrett spent his thirty-year career as a Catholic priest in the Armidale Diocese. This Diocese allowed Perrett to move around parishes, allegedly abusing up to forty children (mostly boys). This horrific behaviour allegedly occurred right under their noses without anyone knowing.
Perrett spent time in Walcha, Moree, Guyra, Walgett and Boggabri.
Nothing happened.
Because the Catholic Church could do no wrong.
It’s the same Catholic Diocese, based in Armidale, that sheltered Father John Joseph Farrell, who is doing a 29-year jail sentence.
The charges against Perrett include buggery, carnal knowledge of a child under 10, aggravated sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. The prosecutor has told the Court that some of Perrett’s charges are so serious that he could spend the rest of his life in jail if convicted.
In court on 29 October 2018, additional charges were filed in Perrett’s case. A court has ordered that Perrett must remain in custody while prosecutors continue compiling the documentation for his charges.
He faced court again in November 2019. This time there were 139 charges and the number of victims had risen to forty. Perrett was wheeled into Court in a wheelchair. The 82-year-old looked frail. He was so deaf he had to use a hearing loop in the courtroom. He pleaded not guilty to all charges. A full trial will waste up to twelve weeks of the court’s time and force all of his victims to suffer the trauma of cross-examination in the witness box.
