Student priest Paul Pavlou, 59, was sentenced to 10 years for raping his dying friend’s 12-year-old son.
The child sexual abuse began when Mr Pavlou made a seemingly kind offer to help his best friend when he was dying three jobs and his wife worked three jobs to help support their six children.
The abuse happened three times in 2003 and 2004, when the family looked to Mr Pavlou as a person of trust. The Victorian court heard that after the attacks, Mr Pavlou would tell the victim that he loved him and that he was a “child of God”.
The victim reported the crimes 13 years later, however Mr Pavlou initially claimed that he could not remember the molestation. The victim states that he still cries himself to sleep because of the abuse he suffered.
Judge Greg Lyon said the acts “deserve utter condemnation.”
“Your abuse of [the] family’s trust and your callousness in taking advantage of their dire situation in order to meet your lascivious and depraved desires is utterly disgraceful. Your supposed calling as a priest can only be seen as a part of this whole sham,” he said.
“It says something of your ability to delude yourself that you were able to take your ordination vows knowing you had committed these horrendous offences.”
Following his ordination, Mr Pavlou was charged with molesting an alter boy and possessing child pornography which was found on his computer. He told the police that he had accidentally downloaded the images and that he had been set up by the alar boy.
Mr Pavlou has already served 203 days in custody and needs to serve a minimum of seven years before being eligible for parole.
He will also be on the sex offender’s list for the rest of his life.
