A retired Irish priest has appeared in court in Australia on 77 charges related to child sex abuse.

Father Finian Egan is charged with the rape and indecent assault of a number of children in the Sydney and New South Wales areas between 1972 and 1987.

The 77-year-old man, who turned himself into a police station in a Sydney suberb, with a lawyer, is charged with raping a 17-year-old girl in 1972; indecently assaulting teenage boys and girls and a girl as young as 11 years of age.

In 2008 Father Egan was allowed to say Mass in Ireland despite the allegations of sex abuse against him, after Bishop David Walker in Sydney's Broken Bay diocese admitted he did not inform church authorities in Ireland that Egan was under investigation, according to the Irish Times.

Belfast Telegraph