Ex-priest and ALP official Peter Andrew Hansen ‘ashamed’ of child sexual abuse

“I didn’t only exploit their age, I exploited the fact they came from a poor Asian country,” he told the court. “I not only contravened society’s standards… I also used and manipulated to my own advantage, a power imbalance between me and them.”

“I never doubted the criminality of my action and I understand that exacerbates my culpability,” he said.

Prior to his arrest at Sydney Airport in 2018 on his return from a trip to Vietnam, Hansen had been the president of Labor’s Cabramatta branch. He had also run as a Labor candidate in the 2016 Fairfield Council election. He was a Catholic priest from 1996 until early 2011 and, before that, a lawyer.

The court heard Hansen’s offending commenced in 2014, four years after he…