A former Catholic monk accused of abusing boys at a Highlands boarding school could soon face trial in Scotland.
Father Denis "Chrysostom" Alexander, 83, has been facing extradition from Australia since the allegations against him and other monks who worked at the Fort Augustus boarding school came to light several years ago.
A Crown Office spokeswoman confirmed that a decision has been taken by the Australian Government that he should be surrendered for trial in Scotland.
But the former priest has been contesting his extradition back to Scotland on the grounds of ill health, denies the claims, and has applied for a judicial review. The decision could take months.
The allegations of child abuse at Fort Augustus Abbey were made in a BBC documentary six years ago.
READ MORE: Charity calls for public inquiry into claims of school abuse
He is one of several priests accused of sexual and physical abuse at the Fort Augustus Abbey school in the 1970s.
A Crown Office spokesman said extradition proceedings were “ongoing”.
Fr MacKenzie taught at Fort Augustus during the 1960s and 70s, before moving to Canada in 1988.
Hugh Kennedy, 56, a former Fort Augustus pupil and one of Father Alexander’s accusers, gave the developments a cautious welcome.
“I daren’t get my hopes up too much – but all I want is to have the allegations heard in a Scottish court, and him to be there to face them. I still don’t know if that will ever happen," he told the BBC.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here