Michael Charles Glennon (13 May 1944 – 1 January 2014) was a convicted Australian

child molester Child sexual abuse (CSA), also called child molestation, is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include engaging in sexual activities with a child (whether ...

and former

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priest, the subject of one of the most notorious clergy sex abuse cases in Australia. Glennon ran a youth camp in

Lancefield Lancefield is a town in the Shire of Macedon Ranges local government area in Victoria, Australia north of the state capital, Melbourne and had a population of 2,743 at the 2021 census. History The area was used by the indigenous aborigin ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, where most of the abuse took place. Glennon was convicted of sexually abusing 15 children in court cases spanning 25 years and was serving a 33½ year prison term with a non-parole period of 26½ years. Republished by the

Poynter Institute The Poynter Institute for Media Studies is a non-profit journalism school and research organization in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. The school is the owner of the ''Tampa Bay Times'' newspaper and the International Fact-Checking Netwo ...

. Glennon died in prison on 1 January 2014, aged 69.

Life

Glennon was born in Preston, a

working-class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...

suburb of

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, one of 10 siblings. In 1971, he was ordained to the priesthood and was an assistant priest at St Monica's in

Moonee Ponds Moonee Ponds is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Moonee Valley local government area. Moonee Ponds recorded a population of 16,224 at the 20 ...

, where he and his Labrador retriever were popular with "hundreds" of children. He soon launched his youth camp, Karaglen, on 16

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...

s of

bushland In Australia, bushland is a blanket term for land which supports remnant vegetation or land which is disturbed but still retains a predominance of the original floristics and structure. Human survival in bushland has a whole mythology evolving ...

outside of Lancefield. Over the years, it would grow from tents to a few huts and a hall with a private bedroom for Glennon. Billed as the Peaceful Hand Youth Foundation, it centred on a mix of

karate (; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ) is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tii'' in Okinawan) under the ...

(Glennon claimed to have a

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) and Catholic

liturgy Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...

. Glennon transferred in 1977 to St Gabriel's in

Reservoir, Victoria Reservoir () is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Darebin local government area. Reservoir recorded a population of 51,096 at the 2021 census. Reservoir i ...

, but left after a year. In 1979, the church withdrew his right to be an active priest, but had no control over his activities at the camp. In 1998, he was formally laicised by the church. The church claims that

defamation Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

law prevented them from acting to expose him. Glennon continued to preach, ministering to a congregation from his home in

Thornbury Thornbury may refer to: Places ;Australia *Thornbury, Victoria * Thornbury railway station, Melbourne ;Canada * Thornbury, Ontario ;England *Thornbury, Devon * Thornbury, Herefordshire *Thornbury, Gloucestershire **Thornbury Castle **Thornbury (UK ...

. The congregation included poor and

Aboriginal Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to: *Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology * Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area *One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see ...

families. Glennon's charisma and religious devotion endeared him to many parents, who allowed their children to go with Glennon on overnight trips or even sleep in his bed, many years after his first charges. Children invited to these assignations suspected nothing and many long kept their silence. A victim testified in 1986 that Glennon said he had "lost count" of the children he had

assaulted An assault is the act of committing physical harm or unwanted physical contact upon a person or, in some specific legal definitions, a threat or attempt to commit such an action. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may result in crim ...

Trials

In 1978 Glennon was convicted of indecently assaulting a 10-year-old girl. He was sentenced to two years in prison, and served seven months before being paroled; he continued to run the camp, where he was often the only adult present. In 1984 he was

acquitted In common law jurisdictions, an acquittal certifies that the accused is free from the charge of an offense, as far as criminal law is concerned. The finality of an acquittal is dependent on the jurisdiction. In some countries, such as the ...

raping Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or a ...

two boys, aged 11 and 13. In 1985 Glennon was charged with

five boys and one girl, aged 12 to 16, all of them visitors to his camp during 1978-80. The trial was delayed by several years due to the publication of Glennon's prior conviction by Derryn Hinch. He was prosecuted by Crown Prosecutor Meryl Sexton, later appointed a Judge of the

County Court of Victoria The County Court of Victoria is the intermediate court in the Australian state of Victoria. It is equivalent to district courts in the other states. The County Court is the principal trial court in the state, having a broad criminal and civi ...

. In 1991, Glennon was found guilty of five charges including indecent assault, attempted buggery of a boy under 14 years, and buggery with violence. He

appeal In law, an appeal is the process in which cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of clarifying and ...

ed his own conviction to the High Court, which found that despite the publicity, the trial was not unfair. The ruling overturned an acquittal by the Court of Criminal Appeal, and Glennon was sent to prison for seven years with a five-year minimum. In 1999, Glennon was convicted on 24 further charges. These convictions were only made public after his final conviction in October 2003, where Glennon was found guilty of another 23 offences against children, including rape, indecent assault, gross indecency, sexually penetrating a child under the age of 16 and sexually penetrating a child under the age of 10. These assaults took place between 1986 and 1991, while he was free during the

litigation - A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil actio ...

of his case and that of Derryn Hinch. He was sentenced to an effective total of 22 years in jail with a minimum of 15 years; he was described as "evil and callous" by the sentencing judge, to applause from the victims and their supporters.

Death

Glennon was found dead in his cell at

Hopkins Correctional Centre Hopkins Correctional Centre is an Australian medium security protection prison for males, located in Ararat, Victoria, approximately west of Melbourne. The centre is operated by Corrections Victoria, part of the Department of Justice of the ...

in Ararat, Victoria, on 1 January 2014. Aged 69, he is believed to have died of

natural causes In many legal jurisdictions, the manner of death is a determination, typically made by the coroner, medical examiner, police, or similar officials, and recorded as a vital statistic. Within the United States and the United Kingdom, a distinct ...

.Goya Dmytryshchak (1 January 2014)
"Convicted paedophile priest Michael Glennon dies in jail"
''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

'' (Melbourne); accessed 17 June 2015. He would have been eligible for parole in 2018.

References

External links

Australian press reports on his case
{{DEFAULTSORT:Glennon, Michael Charles 1944 births 2014 deaths 20th-century Australian criminals 20th-century Australian Roman Catholic priests Australian people convicted of child sexual abuse Australian people convicted of indecent assault Australian people who died in prison custody Australian rapists Criminals from Melbourne Laicized Roman Catholic priests Catholic priests convicted of child sexual abuse Prisoners who died in Victoria (Australia) detention Catholic Church sexual abuse scandals in Australia People from Preston, Victoria

Life

Trials

Death

See also

References

External links