LAWFUEL – The Legal Newswire – Child sex abuse charges against a former St Peter’s College chaplain have been formally dropped in the District Court.
Prosecutors today withdraw eight counts laid against the Reverend John Mountford following his extradition from Thailand in February 2005.
Mountford, 52, was due to face trial next month but prosecutor Adam Kimber told Judge Peter Herriman no evidence would be tendered.
The decision to drop the high-profile case ended a five-year bid to prosecute Mountford over allegations he sexually abused a St Peter’s College student over a two-year period in the early 1990s.
Mountford refused to comment to The Advertiser when approached shortly after the hearing, which lasted less than three minutes.
He would not confirm he planned to seek damages from the State Government over his arrest in Bangkok – and subsequent two years on home detention bail at the northern suburbs home of a male friend.
