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World News

Priest apologises over rape and murder comment

The unnamed priest originally made the comments about the late Jill Meagher to to primary school children in their assembly.

Adrian Bayley was sentenced to life in prison in 2012 for raping and murdering 29-year-old Mrs Meagher.

The priest held up a newspaper with a picture of Adrian Bayley to the children, before saying Jill Meagher wouldn't have been murdered if she was "more faith-filled" and hadn't been "walking down Sydney Road at 3am".

In a statement on Facebook Jill Meagher's widower, Thomas Meagher, said: "What a truly abhorrent lesson to teach a child. How a human being with such dangerous and misogynistic views can be allowed pass those messages onto children is depressing. Shameful."

The vicar-general of the Archdiocese of Melbourne Monsignor, Greg Bennett, went on a local radio station to apologise on behalf of the priest and the parish.

The archdiocese has also said it's giving its clergy new training in "cultural awareness", according to The Guardian newspaper.

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