Adelaide priest a 'monster' - victim

A former victim has described a South Australian Catholic priest as a 'monster.' Photo / The Aucklander

A former Catholic priest who sexually abused teenage boys in South Australia was a terrifying monster, one of his victims says.

"He was a creep, like a snake," the victim of Charles Alfred Barnett, 69, wrote in an impact statement read in the District Court on Tuesday.

The victim says he does not want to go to heaven if it is "full of stale, smelly priests" who have abused children.

Barnett was in the court for sentencing submissions over sexual and indecent assaults on four occasions between 1977 and 1994.

The victim said Barnett was a monster and he had been too terrified to sleep when the priest stayed in his bedroom after befriending the Catholic farming family near Port Pirie.

Barnett was arrested in Indonesia in 2008 and returned to Australia after spending a year in custody.

His lawyer Stephen Ey told the court Barnett had paid a A$32,000 ($39,784) "downpayment" to get out of the squalid jail into home detention - but the money went missing.

Judge Paul Rice said it sounded like a bribe.

"If it walks like a duck ... let's call it a duck then."

Barnett apologised to the young men, their families, the church and their communities saying this "would never happen again".

Mr Ey said his client's behaviour could be partly explained by his own early sexual exploitation and that Barnett had not realised how wrong his acts were at the time.

Judge Rice said he did not believe the priest did not know sexual abuse of children was wrong.

Mr Ey said Barnett had lived in Indonesia since the mid 1990s, helping Indonesian families by way of atoning for his offending.

Prosecutor Kathy Rozaklis said there was an element of grooming in Barnett's behaviour as he used his position to gain the trust of families whose children he abused.

She called for Barnett's sentence to reflect the public's outrage and revulsion for the crimes.

Judge Rice will sentence Barnett on August 5.

- AAP