Jailed paedophile former priest stripped of law credentials

A former Catholic Priest in Australia who was jailed in 2019 for 19 years without parole for 14 years has been stripped of his law credentials. Peter Andrew Hansen’s right to practice law in Australia was nullified by a joint judgement by Justices Fabian Gleeson, Jeremy Kirk and John Basten. The paedophile priest did not oppose the ruling and was made to pay for the Supreme Court’s legal costs.

According to the judges in their judgement, “It is not appropriate that a practitioner remain on the roll whilst in custody”. The judges also considered his physical and mental health and ability to practice law at age 75, when he would have been released.

“The repeated and prolonged exploitation of young boys in Vietnam and in the Philippines, who were between the ages of 10 and 14, demonstrates such a serious deficiency of character as to render (Hansen) currently and for the foreseeable future a person who is not a fit and proper person to be a legal practitioner,” the judges said as reported by Canberra Times.

Background of jailed paedophile priest’s conviction

Peter Andrew Hansen was sentenced to 19 years in prison in 2019 without parole for 14 years. He was a Catholic priest in the Melbourne Archdiocese until his resignation in 2011. Hansen was arrested in October 2018 at the Sydney Airport when he arrived from Vietnam.

Hansen aside from being a lawyer was also an official of the Labour Party. He was sentenced on 31 charges after he pleaded guilty to all the charges at a NSW District Court.

Judge Bennet who presided over his case said of Mr Hansen in his sentencing remarks, “He is one of the base individuals who created abhorrent products for his own sexual pleasure, using children made vulnerable by circumstances in their homeland.”

Hansen exploited nine boys aged between 10 and 14 in the Philippines and Vietnam. At least 100,000 pornographic files on his devices when he was arrested. The materials dated back as far as 2008 and the recent ones in 2018.