A former Anglican priest who repeatedly abused children, including a young girl in confirmation class, will be supervised in the community for another three years.
NSW Supreme Court Justice Megan Latham made the order for Robert Ellmore, 73, on Thursday after hearing the serial pedophile is at "serious risk" of reoffending if not under supervision.
Ellmore, who appeared in court for the hearing, has a record of child sex offences dating back to the 1950s.
In 2002 he was jailed for a maximum of 11 years after pleading guilty to indecently assaulting three girls, aged between eight and 12, between 1981 and 2001.
The defrocked clergyman was released from prison in December and put on an interim supervision order when his parole expired in April.
In arguing for a new order, Fernandez Lester, for the state of NSW, told Justice Latham "the offender is at risk of reoffending if he is not under supervision".
The judge said she was satisfied under the Crimes (Serious Sex Offenders Act) 2006 an order was justified and directed Ellmore be subjected to supervision for another three years.
When confronted by the parents of one of the victims, Ellmore said: "I could not help myself; it's a sickness."
He committed two of the offences while on parole for further crimes against three school girls in the 1970s when he was training for the priesthood in the NSW Hunter Valley.
Two of those girls were aged six and eight at the time and were the children of a fellow minister, while the third - a seven-year-old playmate of his own daughters - he assaulted inside the vestry of the All Saints Anglican Cathedral at Bathurst.
He molested a five-year-old girl on a weekend trip to central NSW in late 1991 and the then 53-year-old minister was convicted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
He received a five-year good behaviour bond and a $5000 fine.
The church revoked his licence to preach in 1992 and on Thursday the court heard hewas defrocked in 2005.
The judge will deliver her reasons next Friday.
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