A jury at the Downing Centre District Court declared on Monday that 78-year-old Fr Finian Egan is guilty of seven counts of indecent assault and one count of rape which he committed over 30 years.

His victims were girls then aged 10 to 17. The sexual assault happened from the 1960s through the 1980s.

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Fr Egan had been assigned as priest and youth worker in several Sydney dioceses and on the central coast.

Among his victims was a 10-year-old female student at the St Martha's Institution for Disadvantaged Girls at Leichardt. The girl testified, quoted by The Sydney Morning Herald, "Father Egan pulled me onto his knee, he put his hands up my dress, pulled down my underwear and put his hands into my vagina ... He had an erection."

The incident happened at the sacristy of the church.

The rape of another female student took place at a church-owned house at The Entrance on the central coast. The victim, now 59 years old, recalled that she wanted to kill herself then.

"I didn't know what to do, I didn't know how to make it end. I felt in my heart that the only thing I could do was to kill myself. I was too scared that they wouldn't believe me. A Catholic priest and a young girl? Back then you never heard about that stuff. I opened the door as the car was going ... He tried to grab hold of me ... He took me in his arms and said he was sorry," the rape victim recalled.

Fr Egan denied the accusations, but the jury found him guilty, except for one count. He is scheduled to be sentenced in December 2013. He is out on bail.

David Walker, bishop of the Diocese of Broke Bay where Fr Egan was assigned before, said the Catholic Church is very ashamed of these events but said the jury decision is a vindication for the victims whose allegations were proven to be true.

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