Documents show the Catholic church publicly thanked a priest for his service, despite knowing he was a serial predator of young boys. A church investigator's report from 2017 says Father Cornelius O'Brien committed a litany of offending in various parishes in Canterbury in the 1960s and 1970s. One of his victims is Christchurch chef George Russell, who is demanding the church open its books on the priest, so his other victims can seek help. O'Brien, who died in 2012, was convicted of indecency with a boy in Christchurch in 1976. In 2007, a church newsletter included O'Brien's name in a list of priests it said had "gloriously blessed" the diocese by leaving their 'native lands' to serve in New Zealand. George Russell told RNZ reporter Phil Pennington in 1972 when he was 12 he was forced to perform a sexual act on O'Brien in the presbytery.

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By the Morning Report
Published by Radio New Zealand
17 September 2018