January 26, 2005 From: A CATHOLIC priest who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a parishioner was yesterday sentenced to jail - for four seconds.
Father Terence Norman Goodall was convicted for twice assaulting the man, a member of his parish at Gymea in southern Sydney. District Court judge Philip Bell sentenced Goodall "to the rising of the court" - which amounted to the four seconds it took to complete the hearing - despite Judge Bell agreeing the now-retired priest had abused the "trust and authority" of his position.
It came a day after a career criminal's jail sentence was reduced by two months after a judge ruled he had suffered "considerable angst" after he was shot by a police officer.
Explaining yesterday's sentencing, Judge Bell said: "To the rising of the court is technically a sentence of loss of liberty. That is, it is a term of imprisonment. As this court will immediately rise ... the period of being in custody will literally be for a few seconds only.
"Despite its status as a term of custody, [it] is generally regarded as one of the most lenient penalties available to the sentencer."
He concluded: "Terence Norman Goodall, of the offence to which you have pleaded guilty ... you are convicted and sentenced to the rising of the court, for which purposes the court now rises."
The actual sentence was the four seconds it took Judge Bell to say: "to the rising of the court, for which purposes the court now rises."
Judge Bell imposed the sentence, allowing Goodall, 64, to avoid "the stigma and personal trauma of detention in a cell", rather than place him on a good behaviour bond, which he said was not necessary.
The victim told The Daily Telegraph he had hoped for justice from the courts after the church took no action against Goodall. After the assaults in January 1982, the victim, then 29, reported the matter within days to then-auxiliary bishop Patrick Murphy of the Archdiocese of Sydney and again in 2002 to Archbishop of Sydney George Pell.
"What this priest did was destroy my trust in faith - it has helped to destroy my life," the victim, now aged 51, said from his northern NSW home.
"I just think the leniency of the penalty is a disgrace ... this is an absolute failure for me as the victim - I just don't know how the ordinary human being today can get any justice.
"This [abuse] did happen to me, the priest did plead guilty."
The court heard the victim was a "devout Catholic" when Goodall invited him to a candle-lit dinner at the presbytery after mass in 1982.
He was fondled at Oak Park pool, Cronulla, when the pair later went swimming, then attacked again at the presbytery. "The victim felt afraid and embarrassed [and] believed he did not have the physical or emotional power to push the offender off him," a statement of facts tendered to court read.
Because the assault occurred in 1982, Goodall was charged under laws, repealed in 1984, which outlawed homosexuality regardless of consent.
Judge Bell said the offender was unlikely to reoffend and had good prospects of rehabilitation.
