THE Hunter Catholic priest whose crimes against children contributed to the establishment of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has lost an appeal against the length of his jail sentence.
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John Sidney Denham, 73, argued Sydney District Court Judge Helen Syme’s minimum jail sentence in 2015 of 19 years and five months for Denham’s offences against 57 victims was “plainly unjust” and gave insufficient weight to his lack of offences since 1986.
Denham argued Judge Syme also erred in finding his crimes at St Pius X, Adamstown were aggravated because they were “part of a planned or organised criminal activity” that included the late school principal and priest, Tom Brennan.
The Court of Appeal on Friday rejected Denham’s arguments. He was guilty of 109 mostly cruel and violent offences at “the very high end of the scale” of child sex abuse, it found.
Denham’s earliest release date is 2028. The suicide of one of his victims in 2012 led to the campaign for a royal commission.
