A Sydney court has heard a former priest who sexually abused 39 young boys preyed on them because he felt sorry for them.

Eh? That’s fucking MENTAL.

Are you listening at the front? That’s what religion does to minds, given enough time and enabling.

hn Sidney Denham pleaded guilty to sexually abusing the boys at schools in Sydney, Newcastle, other parts of the Hunter Valley and Taree.

Where were the authorities? The local Police. Up in the Bishop’s Cloister? Or perhaps rounding off evensong with a tipple & a hint of excommunication?

Perhaps it unfair to berate the cops for not doing their jobs, perhaps they are ill-fitted for skeptical thinking: it seems to me that the rate of the mental illness known as Scientology is alarmingly high in the Australian police force.

Denham has described himself as a “mere scumbag paedophile”.

That’s the way to get a reduced sentence! Repeat a phrase relayed to you by your counsel.

The 67-year-old told the District Court that he spent the past 25 years trying to figure out why he did it.

Why he did what? Join the Catholic Church?

He was unable to offer an explanation for his behaviour but said it may have been motivated by hubris, telling the court, “It was as if I thought no-one could resist me”.

The court heard Denham was aroused by children he took pity on.

Now THAT’S mental.

His psychiatrist, Dr Olav Neilsen, told the court Denham had a low risk of reoffending because of his age.

Diddums. How many victims did not reach his age, by dint of the possibility that he caused their suicides?

My heart bleeds for the poor slime-ball.

But he said while some offenders were able to stop engaging in paedophilic behaviour, very few lost the desire to do so.

Denham said it had been 25 years since his last offence.

Hah! I bet he’s thinking that 25 years abstinence is little comfort compared to the eternity in hellish agony that he must imagine awaits him.

He apologised to the victims and their families.

Whoopdie-fucking-do…