A Catholic priest being investigated for being a paedophile was reported to be residing in Kuching . — Reuters pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 10 — Sarawak Immigration authorities said today that they will expel an Australian priest accused of sexually abusing children in his home country, if he is found to be living in Kuching.

Responding to reports of a Father Peter Grasby who is said to have been suspended pending investigations into claims he abused a young boy and currently residing in Kuching where he is searching for “young Asian men”, the department said they will check if he has entered the state.

“We will deport the former priest if he is found to be in Sarawak,” Ken Leben, who will assume duty as Sarawak’s new Immigration Department director on February 15, told Malay Mail Online.

Sarawak Minister of Welfare, Women and Family Development Datuk Fatimah Abdullah said if Grasby has a criminal record the police should be alerted so that they could monitor him.

Separately, Bishop Simon Peter Poh Hoon Seng said today that he will verify with the Catholic church in Melbourne, Australia, on reports that Grasby was currently residing here.

“I will write to St Mary Magdalen in Jordanville to verify whether Grasby is a former Catholic priest before making any comment,” Poh told Malay Mail Online today.

“If the information is true that he has stood down as a priest over the child abuse allegations, then we need to write to all the Catholic churches to tell our people about this Grasby,” Poh said.

Poh declined, however, to comment on the matter until it is verified, but said he had been given the information several days before reports emerged today.

According to Australian newspaper The Age, Grasby was suspended pending child sexual abuse allegations and has moved to Kuching, where he is using a gay dating website “Planetromeo” to seek the company of “young Asian men” while on paid leave.

The newspaper reported Grasby as listing in his Planetromeo profile details about his genitals and sexual preferences, and describing himself as a “well-educated and really soft-hearted mature GWM [gay white male]”.

Grasby, the former parish priest at St Mary Magdalen in Victoria, was accused in 2012 of abusing a boy aged between 10 and 14 some 30 years ago and subsequently put on “administrative leave.” The Victorian parliamentary inquiry also accused Grasby of “surrounding himself with a concerning number of young Vietnamese boys” while at St Mary Magdalen as well as for “allowing boys to sleep in his former presbytery at St Michael’s in North Melbourne.”