Sydney judge jails priest, says celibacy vow ‘cruel’

A SYDNEY judge has condemned the vow of chastity as a “cruel requirement” as he sentenced a Catholic priest to at least six months in jail for grooming a girl for sex.

The parish priest was arrested last August when he went to the Parramatta Stadium car park to meet a person he believed was a 13-year-old girl he had been chatting with for three weeks on the internet.

Father Robert MacGregor Fuller had used a webcam to broadcast himself masturbating to “Katie,” who was in fact an undercover detective.

Fuller, 54, had served for six years at All Saints church in Liverpool, in south-west Sydney.

He was handed a maximum jail sentence of 18 months, with a non-parole period of six months, after pleading guilty in Parramatta District Court.

Handing down his sentence, Justice Hughes said Fuller had been sexually frustrated after a life of celibacy. He described the vow of chastity as “agonizing” and “cruel”.

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