Father Adrian Van Klooster

Father Adrian Van Klooster was born in Holland and emigrated to Australia with his family when he was young. At the age of 13 he entered a junior seminary (a high school for boys aspiring to become Catholic priests) in his native Holland and was ordained as a priest in 1966 in New South Wales. After being ordained as a priest, Van Klooster started his career in the Catholic Diocese of Wollongong and where his progression as a notorious sexual offender also commenced. In 1966, he sexually abused a young girl he was supervising at a hostel for troubled young people. From Wollongong he was sent to the Geraldton Diocese in Western Australia in the 1970s. Van Klooster was listed in the Diocese of Wollongong again in the 1980s until 1983. In 1994, he was again transferred to Western Australia to serve in the Diocese of Bunbury.

By 2002, the law had caught up with Van Klooster, and he was charged in Western Australia with indecently dealing with children who had stayed overnight at his parish house in Australind in February 2002. In January 2003, Van Klooster pleaded guilty to indecently dealing with five children, four incidents of indecently recording children and one count of possessing child pornography. In May 2003, Van Klooster was further sentenced to eight years in jail in the Perth District Court for indecently dealing with two boys and three girls from 6 to 12 years old in the Diocese of Bunbury. Furthermore, in September 2017, Van Klooster pleaded guilty to possession of child exploitation material.

Moody Law has in the past represented a client who was sexually abused by Father Van Klooster in the Catholic Diocese of Geraldton.

We invite former victims to tell us confidentially what information they may have, and we will explain what options are available to help with these cases.

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