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Paedophile priest pleads guilty to more rapes

Convicted pedophile Louis Daniels.

Convicted pedophile Louis Daniels. Photo: AAP

A former Anglican priest jailed twice for sexually abusing almost a dozen children has pleaded guilty to the historical rape and assault of two more boys.

Louis Victor Daniels, 75, appeared in the Supreme Court of Tasmania in Hobart on Monday, where he admitted to two counts of persistent abuse of a young person in the 1970s and ’80s.

Daniels, who held senior positions in the church, regularly abused one boy at Church of England Boys’ Society camps when he was a prominent leader.

Daniels raped the second boy at his home and forced to him perform sex acts on him, including when he drove him home from boys’ society meetings.

After the rape, he told the boy it was a “secret and because he was a priest no one would believe [you]”.

The first survivor, now in his 50s, told the court he experienced flashbacks and intrusive thoughts multiple times a day.

The man said Daniels used charm to manipulate his parents, and he has never been able to talk to them about the abuse.

“It was hard to believe that a man held in his esteem … was a predator of children,” he said.

“I find myself enraged by stories of clerical abuse. The invisible weight I carry never leaves me.”

The second survivor said he has self-harmed and turned to drinking to “numb his life”, describing his faith in the church as “ruined”.

“It is something that will never go away, like a scab that will never heal. As a bloke it is embarrassing to admit what happened to me,” he said in a statement read to the court.

“When I see anyone connected with religion, I have no respect for them.”

Daniels, who was charged and extradited from Canberra to Tasmania in 2018 and granted bail, was remanded in custody and will be sentenced in late April.

His lawyer Cameron Scott said faith remained a staple of his life and he attends church under supervision and not at times when children are present.

Daniels, who left the priesthood in the mid-1990s, was sentenced to 12 months’ jail in 1999 for abusing a 15-year-old boy seven years earlier.

He was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years’ jail in 2005 for abusing 10 children between 1974 and 1993.

-AAP

Lifeline 131 114

Kids Helpline 1800 551 800 (for people aged five to 25)

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