MORE than three years after his evidence put pedophile priest Jim Fletcher in jail and after launching legal action that could see a priest in the Supreme Court defending the handling of Fletcher's estate, Daniel Feenan would like the public to know his name.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
"I'm sick of reading about Fletcher's 'anonymous sexual abuse victim'; I'm sick of constantly being linked with his name and having what he did define me in a public sense because it doesn't define me, and I'm over it," Mr Feenan, 32, said.
He wants Pope Benedict XVI's visit to be a line in the sand for him personally. He wants to get on with his life.
"I am Daniel Feenan. This has gone on for 20 years. Enough. For two-thirds of my life I've lived with this and I'm tired of it.
"All I ever wanted was normal. All I ever wanted was to get away from the filth, to be with a woman who loved me, have a family, a dog, a home and a four-wheel-drive in the garage. I've got that now. Time to move on."
The son of Maitland-Newcastle diocese's former business manager John Feenan, whose family was shattered when the extent of Fletcher's appalling abuse was revealed, Daniel Feenan is waiting to hear the Pope fulfil his promise of an apology.
While the Pope has indicated he will be saying sorry during his Australian tour to young people sexually abused by Catholic clergy, the words and form of the apology are not yet known.
"I want the Pope to apologise to all the people who've been hurt by the church," Daniel Feenan said.
"It will prove the abuse is really recognised by the church, that it did happen.
"Fletcher was found guilty in a court of law and there was an apology from Bishop [Michael] Malone, but that's not enough. Having the Pope apologise sends a message to everyone, all the people who still question you. It says priests sexually abused children and the church covered up those crimes and people were deeply hurt.
"I want to hear him say that. I deserve an apology. All of the victims deserve an apology."
A papal apology will help put to rest the pain of seeing Fletcher's conviction appealed all the way to the High Court, even after his death, by his executor and friend Merriwa priest Des Harrigan.
It was Father Harrigan's decision one month ago to direct all remaining funds from Fletcher's estate to the Maitland-Newcastle diocese that could see the priest defending the matter in a possible Supreme Court appeal.
Father Harrigan said the transferred money, believed to be $50,000, was to cover some of the $180,000 spent by the diocese on Fletcher's legal defence.
Daniel Feenan's damages claim against Fletcher's estate returns to Newcastle District Court tomorrow, the day before the Pope makes his first official appearance at World Youth Day celebrations in Sydney.
The matter could go to the Supreme Court if Feenan's action is successful and an appeal over the handling of the estate to recover the transferred money is launched.
Daniel Feenan's 50-page statement to police makes harrowing reading. Fletcher was eventually found guilty of nine sexual abuse charges, but as Mr Feenan sat in his Hunter home holding his newborn daughter Molly, he spoke about more than 100 individual and shocking acts.
A talented sportsman, whose cricket prospects ended when bones in his hand were shattered during a trial for the NSW country cricket side from a ball by another gifted teenager, Brett Lee, Mr Feenan was able to produce a grim smile about Fletcher's role in his cricket success.
"I used to think Fletcher's head was the ball," he said. "That's how I used to get my anger out, by bashing his head around the park."
He wasn't smiling when he talked about why he had to stay at the crease for hours in some games.
"I used to say to myself, 'If I get out here, I'm not going to make the rep side, and I'm going to have to go to church next Sunday and see him [Fletcher]', so I would just stay there, willing myself not to get out."
Mr Feenan and his fiancee, Jacqui Ryan, have four children between them, with Ms Ryan's daughters aged 13 and eight, Mr Feenan's son aged five, and baby Molly, two weeks.
The abuse he suffered for years from the age of 12 has made Mr Feenan a "very over-protective dad".
"I look at my little boy running out of the shower nude the way kids do and we laugh about it but I think to myself, what's sexual about that? I don't understand it, and I don't understand why it has taken the church so long to recognise why what it's done is so wrong."
He encourages people who have been or are being sexually abused to report the crimes to police or the diocese's Zimmerman House child protection unit.
"At the end of the day I don't think people really understand what happens when people are sexually abused," he said.
"It wasn't as if I went for a drive with him one day and he kissed me on the cheek. It was actually filthy.
"He used to say to me 'Don't say anything because I'm a priest and people won't believe you'."
