New bid to have pair extradited

Men claiming sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic clergymen at a Christchurch boarding school want an appeal fast-tracked to get two former teachers extradited to New Zealand to face charges.

Brother Rodger Moloney, 71, and Father Raymond Garchow, 59, from the St John of God Order, together face 32 sex abuse charges against boys at Marylands School for the disabled in the 1970s.

Last month, Bernard Kevin McGrath, 58, was jailed for five years for repeated abuse of boys while he was a brother teaching at the school.

New Zealand authorities sought the extradition of Moloney and Garchow from Australia, but after they had waited a year, Australian Federal Court judge Rodney Madgwick rejected their bid last month.

Justice Madgwick said differences in the New Zealand and Australian legal systems, and the length of time since the alleged crimes, would make it difficult for the men to get a fair trial.

Moloney and Garchow, who have had prostate and throat cancer respectively, reportedly suffered severe depression after their arrests in 2003.

After discussion with authorities pursuing the case in New Zealand, the Solicitor-General has decided to seek an appeal against the federal court ruling. The appeal will be lodged by the Director of Public Prosecutions in Sydney.

New Zealand authorities have not commented on the appeal.

But Ken Clearwater, who has represented many of the alleged victims through the Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse Trust, said it came as a relief to many of those who say Moloney and Garchow abused them.

"They are all over the moon. When the [extradition] was first turned down, many of them were quite depressed and quite shattered. Now they are swinging back into having hope again."

Mr Clearwater said the alleged victims would struggle with another long delay and wanted to see the appeal heard as soon as possible.

"It has taken four years to get McGrath to trial. We don't want another four years. I will certainly be keeping the pressure on [the authorities]."

Mr Clearwater said he had written to Prime Minister Helen Clark, asking her to intervene in order to get the pair extradited, but had heard nothing back.

"The Government still needs to get involved. They were in charge of the school in a lot of ways. A lot of the kids were put there by the Department of Social Welfare or because they were state wards."

No timeframe has yet been set for the appeal.