The Bishop of Townsville has described former Mount Isa priest Neville Creen as "rotten to the core".
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Bishop Tim Harris made the statement to the Townsville Bulletin after the disgraced former Mount Isa priest Neville Creen was jailed for historical abuse of two girls during the 1970s and 80s.
Neville Joseph Creen, 80, was sentenced in Beenleigh District Court in November to serve three months of a 15-month sentence, which would then be suspended for two years.
He pleaded guilty to an additional seven charges, six of indecent treatment of girls under the age of 14 and one of indecent treatment of females.
His sentence was reduced because he had previously been sentenced twice in 2003 and 2004
After these two cases several more victims contacted the police leading to the 2020 prosecution.
In the first two court cases Creen admitted that he touched young girls sexually when he ministered at the Good Shepherd parish at Mount Isa in the 1970s. The girls, aged between five and 13, were pupils at Catholic schools..
In 2003 Creen was sentenced to three-and-a-half years' jail for 34 sexual offences against 18 young girls, to be suspended after serving 14 months.and in 2004 he pleaded guilty regarding another two.
Creen ministered in Mount Isa between June 1973 and December 1981.
Creen was still listed as a priest of the Townsville diocese in the annual Australian Catholic directory of 1996, but his name vanished from the 1997 directory and from subsequent editions.
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