Max Leroy Davis
Maxwell Leroy Davis is the Roman Catholic bishop of the Catholic Diocese of the ADF.
Davis grew up in Perth. In his late teens, he served in the Royal Australian Navy in 1962–1964. He returned to Western Australia. Davis worked as a teacher at Saint Benedict's College in New Norcia in the late 1960s. He was ordained in 1971. He worked as a chaplain in the Army reserves and as a priest in the Archdiocese of Perth.
Davis was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1998 for service to the navy, particularly as Director General of Chaplaincy-Navy.
In June 2014, Western Australian police charged Davis with having indecently assaulted a 13-year-old boy in 1969, before he had been ordained. Davis denied the charges and stood aside from his roles of office while the charges were heard. On 7 August 2015, he pleaded not guilty, and a six-day trial was set down to start on 6 February 2016 in the District Court of Western Australia. The six counts related to the period between December 1968 and October 1972 when Davis was dorm master at St Benedict's College at New Norcia. The Defence case accepted that the boys were abused, but denied that Davis was the culprit, identifying other possible offenders. He was acquitted of all charges on 15 February 2016. He returned to public ministry in December 2017.
