A woman who was 16 when she was indecently assaulted by an Auckland youth worker is furious he has avoided jail to return to his family in Melbourne – after he claimed in court he had a job there with the Uniting Church.
However, the church denies hiring Australian man Fale McCarthy, 39, who has been convicted of indecent assault against two women in 2014.
He was sentenced in Auckland District Court last week after a trial in July last year.
One of McCarthy’s victims has spoken to the Herald about the impact of McCarthy’s offending on her in which he sucked her toes in exchange for money as part of a “ruse to take advantage of [her] vulnerability”.
“I believe I tried everything within my control to fight against this monster and if the system couldn’t hear the fight, hurt and trauma behind all of it and give what was due… then I’ll take the conviction because that’s a black mark for the rest of his life against his name,” the woman, who has name suppression, said.
On February 26, Judge David Sharp sentenced McCarthy to nine months supervision, 100 hours of community work and $1000 emotional harm reparations to each of his victims.
McCarthy escaped jail or home detention by arguing he needed to reunite with his partner and child in Melbourne, Victoria, and he had been offered new employment as a youth worker with the Uniting Church.
But the Uniting Church in Australia has confirmed to the Herald they have no record of McCarthy having anything to do with the Victorian branch of the church. “It is the Uniting Church’s policy that we would not employ anyone with a criminal conviction of sexual assault or any form of child sexual abuse,” Uniting Church communications manager Karin Kleynhans said.
Source: New Zealand Herald
