• By a Broken Rites researcher, updated 6 December 2018

This Broken Rites article is about the career of Australia's Archbishop Philip Wilson. Late in his career, police alleged that Wilson had covered up for a priest (Father James Fletcher) who indecently assaulted a ten-year-old boy (Peter Creigh). Police alleged that, when they were investigating Father Fletcher in 2003-2004 regarding a different victim (Daniel Feenan), Archbishop Wilson possessed information (about the abuse of Peter) which might help the case against Fletcher but Wilson concealed this information, thus protecting the criminal Fletcher. A court convicted Archbishop Wilson regarding his concealment of Peter's abuse. On 6 December 2018, a court quashed Wilson's conviction. This court case, however, was regarding only one of the church's victims, Peter Creigh. What did Wilson know about other criminal priests?

According to Broken Rites research, Philip Edward Wilson was born in 1950. The eldest of five children, he grew up within the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, north of Sydney. This is one of the eleven regional Catholic dioceses in New South Wales.

After finishing his schooling, he was accepted by the Maitland diocese as a candidate to enter a seminary in Sydney to study in for the priesthood.

After being ordained a priest of the Maitland Diocese in August 1975, aged 25, he was appointed as an assistant priest in the town of Maitland (St Joseph's parish). This put him at the centre of the diocese, which then had its headquarters in Maitland.

He was well regarded by Maitland's bishop, Leo Clarke, who administered this diocese from 1975 to 1995. Beginning in the late 1970s, Wilson gradually developed a role as a reliable functionary in this diocese. He soon became an assistant to Bishop Clarke. The bishop resided at "Bishop's House" in Maitland.

During this work in the late 1970s and the 1980s, Father Wilson worked alongside some of this diocese's criminal priests.

In 1978 and 1979 (according to one version of his own curriculum vitae), Father Philip Wilson was the Maitland-Newcastle diocesan Director of Religious Education. While holding that position, he also taught religious education at St Pius X Catholic High School in Adamstown, in the city of Newcastle. Wilson has stated (in a 20-minute video-taped conversation with journalist Alan Atkinson on 21 May 2010) that in 1978-79 "I lived at St Pius X for nine months and taught there for a year." There were six priests teaching at this school, and they lived in bedrooms located within the school building, not far from the classrooms. Yes, a school with bedrooms for the teachers. This school became notorious for child-sex crimes committed by priests such as Father John Denham.

In 1980 (according to his curriculum vitae), Father Wilson became the secretary to Maitland's Bishop Leo Clarke, as well as Master of Ceremonies for the diocese. That is, from 1980, Wilson's secretarial role involved spending time at the "Bishop's House", where Bishop Clarke lived in Maitland.

(Wilson had already been spending time in the town of Maitland, since he was appointed as an assistant priest in his first parish — East Maitland in 1975. And even while working in the city of Newcastle in the late 1970s, he made regular visits to Bishop's House in Maitland.)

During the early 1980s (according to the annual Catholic directories in the early 1980s) Bishop Clarke had a fellow-resident at Bishop's House — Father James Fletcher. For some years, Fletcher had been the administrator (i.e., priest in charge) at the Maitland cathedral and had also been the master of ceremonies for Bishop Leo Clarke.

By 1982 (according statements made by Wilson), Wilson too was residing at Bishop's House as a full-time resident, along with Leo Clarke and Jim Fletcher (whereas in the earlier years Wilson, according to his own account, had been spending time there as an occasional visitor).

In the mid-1980s, Bishop Clarke transferred Fletcher from the Maitland Cathedral parish to other, less important parishes. In 2005 Fletcher was jailed for child-sex offences committed against one of his victims in the 1990s.

According to the police involved in Fletcher's court case, Bishop Clarke knew in the late 1970s that Fletcher's liking for young males was a potential public-relations problem for the cathedral.

Fletcher died in 2006, aged 65.

The Catholic Church continued to support Father Jim Fletcher, even in death. Fletcher was buried in the priests’ section of Sandgate Cemetery near Newcastle, with a marble headstone celebrating his achievements. The honours outraged Fletcher’s victims, who described the elaborate burial plot as a "final insult".

Wilson's later career

Meanwhile, Father Philip Wilson's career blossomed. In 1987, he was appointed as the Vicar-General of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese — that is, the chief administrator, immediately under the bishop.

This was the year that the Maitland-Newcastle diocese was facing exposure and embarrassment because of child-sex abuse committed in parishes by Father John Denham (so this diocese brazenly transferred Denham to Sydney to work as a chaplain at Waverley Christian Brothers College, thereby putting more children in danger). Wilson, however, has told the ABC that Denham's transfer was arranged not by him but by Bishop Clarke.

Around this time, 1987, the Maitland-Newcastle diocese transferred the sexually-abusive Father Denis McAlinden thousands of kilometres away to a parish in Western Australia.

In 1996 Wilson was appointed as the Bishop of Wollongong (south of Sydney) to clean up a public-relations disaster there, caused by Wollongong's church-abuse scandals.

In 2001, he became of the Archbishop of Adelaide.

After this, Wilson was a member of the Australian bishops' National Committee for Professional Standards (the committee that is concerned with managing the church's sex-abuse crisis) and later he had ten years as the president of the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference (again, at the centre of the church's sex-abuse crisis).

The charges in court

Father James Fletcher had multiple victims. In May 2003, New South Wales Police charged Father James Fletcher with having committed "a serious indictable offence (namely, indecent assault)" against one of those victims (this was Daniel Feenan).

Fletcher's case had to wait during 2003-2004 for the court process to be completed. Fletcher was finally convicted in December 2004. By then, Philip Wilson was the Archbishop of Adelaide; that is, by 2003-2004, Archbishop Wilson was a senior official of the church, not a junior priest.

Later, in Newcastle Local Court, prosecutors began laying charges against Archbishop Wilson regarding concealment.

The prosecutors alleged that, during 2003-2004, Archbishop Wilson allegedly knew or believed that James Fletcher had committed an offence against another victim — a ten-year-old boy, Peter Creigh. That is, Wilson's concealment regarding Peter occurred in 2003-2004.

Archbishop Wilson (according to the prosecutors) allegedly knew or believed that he had information which might be of material assistance in securing the prosecution of James Fletcher but Wilson failed to bring that information to the attention of the police. Archbishop Wilson, the prosecutors said, did not have a reasonable excuse for the failure.

[Broken Rites normally doesn't publish the names of victims, but both Daniel Feenan and Peter Creigh have authorized their full names to be used in the media.]

Lengthy court proceedings

Wilson hired an expensive defence lawyer to fight the case on his behalf, thus indicating that the judicial contest could be a lengthy one, with long delays before the case might be scheduled for a hearing.

After being charged, Wilson announced (on 20 March 2015) that he was going on indefinite leave. He appointed his vicar-general to administer the archdiocese during his absence.

However, in December 2015 Wilson announced that he intended to resume his role as the Archbishop of Adelaide in January 2016, despite still facing a criminal charge of allegedly concealing Father James Fletcher's crime.

On 25 September 2015, the concealment charge had its first mention in Newcastle Local Court for a preliminary procedure (but Wilson was not required to appear for this preliminary mention). After this, Wilson's lawyers took legal legal action, for two years, trying to block the case from going ahead. But in this attempt eventually failed. In late 2017, the Newcastle Local Court was ready to start hearing the case.

Wilson's presence was needed for the hearing to begin but in November 2017 his lawyer told the court that Wilson was "too unwell" to attend court because he had recently (at the age of 67) developed "dementia" which (Wilson claimed) is affecting his memory and his cognitive ability, making him unfit to stand trial. However, Wilson also said (in a message to Adelaide parishes on 29 November 2017) that, despite his "dementia", he intended to keep his job as the archbishop of Adelaide until he reaches the retirement age for bishops in eight years time when he would be 75.

On 11 April 2018, the Newcastle Magistrates Court dismissed a submission by Wilson's defence barrister that Wilson had no case to answer.

Guilty

On 22 May 2018, the magistrate handed down the court's verdict — guilty. Wilson was released on bail until the sentencing..

Meanwhile, Wilson said publicly that he would not be not resigning from his position as archbishop unless "it becomes necessary and appropriate." On 23 May 2018, Wilson announced (apparently with an air of reluctance) that he would "stand aside" (but not resign) from his archbishop dutiesfor the time being.

Sentence and appeal

In Newcastle Local Court on 3 July 2018, Magistrate Robert Stone conducted the sentencing procedure.

The prosecution had recommended that Mr Stone should impose a jail term. The church's defence lawyer had urged Mr Stone to release Wilson if promising to be of good behaviour.

The magistrate sentenced Wilson to 12 months in custody, with release possible after six months if Wilson observes the conditions. Mr Stone proposed that, in view of Wilson's claims about health problems, he would be allowed to serve this jail sentence via home detention [at his sister's house on the NSW Central Coast], rather than behind bars.

Philip Wilson accepted the home-detention sentence but he lodged an appeal to the NSW District Court against his conviction.

On 6 December 2018, NSW District Court judge Roy Ellis quashed Wilson's concealment-conviction regarding Father Fletcher's abuse of one of Fletcher's victims, Peter Creigh.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 14 December 2018

For 34 years until 1995, Father David Joseph Perrett was a Catholic priest in New South Wales. In 2018 (aged 81 and retired) he has been charged by police with committing sexual crimes against 30 children throughout his priestly career. That is, his alleged 30-year crime spree occurred under the noses of the church authorities. The charges against Perrett include buggery, carnal knowledge of a child under 10, aggravated sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. The prosecutor has previously told a court that some of Perrett's charges are so serious that he could perhaps spend the rest of his life in jail if convicted. In court on 29 October 2018, additional charges were filed in Perrett's case. A court has ordered that Perrett must remain in custody while prosecutors continue compiling the documentation for his charges. He will face court again in 2019.

Perrett has spent his priestly career in the Armidale Catholic diocese. This is the same diocese which remained silent for three decades about the crimes of another priest, Father John Joseph Farrell, who now is serving a long jail sentence).

The Armidale Catholic diocese is one of eleven regional dioceses covering New South Wales. The Armidale diocese (comprising two dozen towns in the north-west of New South Wales) extends up the New England Highway to the Queensland border. The bishop resides in the city of Armidale.

Arrested in Queensland

Until 2017, Perrett had been living in retirement (apparently in a Catholic Church convent) in Wallangarra (on the Queensland-NSW border, near Tenterfield). In May 2017, NSW detectives extradited him back to NSW, where he was charged regarding several of the alleged victims. While awaiting his next court appearance, he was required to reside with a relative of his at a house in Armidale and was required to report to police four times a week.

Speaking on behalf of NSW police, Detective Inspector Ann Joy said in a media statement in May 2017: "We would encourage anyone with knowledge of any related incident, whether it is a witness or a complainant, to make contact with police. We will investigate those matters thoroughly and as a matter of priority.”

Locked up in custody

During 2017 and 2018, more members of the public contacted the Armidale Detectives Office about David Perrett.

In Armidale Local Court on 22 August 2018, the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions charged Perrett regarding additional boys and also some girls. This makes a total of 30 alleged victims, involving a total of 92 charges. The alleged offences occurred from the 1960s to the 1990s.

[These are not necessarily Perrett's only alleged victims. These are the thirty alleged victims who each had a private interview with the detectives. Police are still prepared to interview any more complainants. Police will not reveal the names of any of the alleged victims.]

At the August 2018 hearing, the prosecutor lodged a detention application to prevent Perrett from being released on bail while he awaits his next court appearance. The prosecutor said eleven of the charges required Perrett to produce evidence as to why his detention was not justified, because these charges all involved sexual intercourse with children under the age of 16.

Two of the charges involve sexual intercourse with a very young child and are punishable by life imprisonment, the prosecutor said.

The court heard that Perrett was ordained as a priest in 1961 and spent time in the towns of Walcha and Moree before being transferred to Armidale for 11 years in 1969. He was then appointed to positions in the church in Guyra, Walgett and Boggabri. He is now retired.

At the August 2018 hearing, Perrett was denied bail by magistrate Michael Holmes. Perrett then left the courtroom in the custody of Corrective Services NSW officers.

On 17 October 2018, the court conducted a brief administrative procedure. the magistrate granted a further adjournment until early 2019 for prosecutors to continue their paper work. Meanwhile Perrett must remain in custody.

Perrett has not yet been required to indicate how he will plead regarding the charges.

Some background (Broken Rites research)

Born 13 July 1937, David Joseph Perrett was baptised at the Warialda Catholic Church which was then a part of the Bingara parish (both these places are within the Armidale diocese). Eventually he was recruited to become a priest in the Armidale diocese.

In the 1970s, Father Dave Perrett was located at the Armidale Cathedral and in 1979 his postal address was the bishop’s house.

In the 1980s he was “chaplain” to the diocese’s “John XXIII Centre for Aborigines”. He was later in charge of rural parishes at Guyra and then Walgett, both of which included Aboriginal families.

In 1996, while he was working as a priest, Father David Joseph Perrett appeared in court in New South Wales, where he pleaded guilty to sexually abusing young boys in north-western NSW. The charges comprised indecent assault of two boys at one parish (Walgett) and sexual assault of one boy at another parish (Guyra). At the sentencing, in Orange District Court on 1 November 1996, Judge Shillington sentenced Perrett to a three-year good-behaviour bond. The annual Australian Catholic Directories continued to list Father Perrett as a priest of the Armidale diocese (“on leave”) until his name was removed in 2001.

Another complaint against David Joseph Perrett was aired on ABC-TV’s “Four Corner” on 11 November 2002. The program featured a written statement by a young Aboriginal, Edward Russell, who said he was sexually assaulted by Father Perrett as a boy at Walgett. However, this complaint never reached a court. Edward Russell (born in 1973) had an intellectual disability and was partially deaf. He had a traumatic adolescence. He went on to be convicted himself of crimes and he eventually committed suicide in jail.

• To see more about the silence of church leaders in the Armidale diocese in New South Wales (regarding another priest, Father John Joseph Farrell), click HERE.

By a Broken Rites researcher

Research by Broken Rites has revealed that the Catholic Church knowingly harboured the paedophile priest Father Denis McAlinden for 40 years, thus inflicting him on young girls in parishes around Australia and also overseas. The church has been paying small out-of-court settlements to some of McAlinden's victims, thus avoiding a larger court-based settlement. In November 2016, two sisters began to sue the Catholic Church in the New South Wales Supreme Court for a proper amount to settle their abuse by McAlinden. At the last moment, the church agreed to pay these two women a confidential out-of-court financial settlement, thus preventing the church's other victims from knowing the size of a court-related settlement. This Broken Rites article explains the background about Fr Denis McAlinden and the church's cover-up.

The latest developments are reported towards the end of this article under the sub-heading "Civil action against the church in 2016." But here, first, is some background:-

Broken Rites began researching McAlinden (and the church's cover-up) in 1994. This research eventually helped to bring about the New South Wales government's decision to establish a Special Commission of Inquiry in 2013 to investigate how church officials and police had handled allegations of child-sex crimes by Father McAlinden (and another priest) in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, north of Sydney.

Father McAlinden belonged to the Maitland-Newcastle diocese from 1949 onwards. From Day One, he was a danger to young schoolgirls but, for the next four decades, the church authorities knowingly inflicted him on more and more victims.

Beginning in 1994, Broken Rites has been contacted by women who were sexually abused by McAlinden when they were children.

Broken Rites research has ascertained that:

• For years, the Maitland-Newcastle diocese transferred McAlinden backwards and forwards between New South Wales and Western Australia after he abused children in those states.
• The Maitland-Newcastle diocese also allowed him to work in Papua New Guinea for several years, in the middle of his career, thus putting PNG children in danger.
• The Maitland-Newcastle diocese also allowed him to spend a year doing parish work in New Zealand, thus protecting him from exposure in Australia. Again, he offended in New Zealand.
• Towards the end of his career, McAlinden also went to the Philippines to work as a priest there, although officially he still belonged to the Maitland-Newcastle diocese.
• During McAlinden's career, he was protected by each of the three bishops who administered the Maitland-Newcastle diocese during that time: Edmund Gleeson (to 1956), John Toohey (1956-75) and Leo Clarke (1976-95).
• When the Maitland-Newcastle diocese allowed McAlinden to transfer from state to state, and from country to country, it neglected to warn his new parishioners that he was a danger to children. Thus, the Maitland-Newcastle diocese inflicted him on new victims, thousands of kilometres away. This therefore leaves the Maitland-Newcastle with a legal liability. A Papua New Guinea diocese and a New Zealand diocese also share this culpability.
• The Catholic culture discouraged victims from reporting McAlnden's crimes (and certainly not to the police). Thus, the church authorities were able to keep the information in-house, thereby inflicting McAlinden on more children.
• In 1991, one of McAlinden's West Australian victims (let's call her "Susan"— not her real name) wisely contacted the W.A. police (more about Susan later in this article). In a W.A. court in 1992, McAlinden managed to defeat Susan's charges but church authorities in New South Wales feared that other McAlinden victims in New South Wales might contact the NSW police, thereby causing bad publicity for the church.
• During the remainder of the 1990s, the church authorities successfully kept McAlinden beyond the reach of the Australian police until he died in Western Australia in 2005.

How the church recruited Father McAlinden

Broken Rites has ascertained that Fr Denis McAlinden was born in Ireland on 24 January 1922 — the fourth child in a family of seven (he had three brothers and three sisters).

In Ireland it was common for boys to drift into full-time Catholicism as a career. At the age of 12, Denis McAlinden entered a Catholic "juniorate"— a school for boys who "aspired" to become priests. This juniorate was run by priests of the Redemptorist Order. After completing this schooling, young Denis was recruited to a Redemptorist seminary, where he trained for the priesthood. He was ordained as a priest in Ireland in 1949.

Documents tendered to the New South Wales Special Commission of Inquiry in 2013  reveal that, in 1949, the Redemptorist authorities  in Ireland wanted to get rid of McAlinden - and the Maitland diocese in Australia seemed to be a suitable dumping ground.

Conveniently, Maitland's Bishop Edmund  Gleeson was himself a former member of the Redemptorist order.

So, in 1949, the head of the Redemptorists in Limerick (Father John Treacy), wrote to Maitland's Bishop  Gleeson, asking if "there be any possibility of taking one of our students".

Fr Tracey did not specifically mention sexual crimes, and said merely that McAlinden was a "difficult" person.  Fr Tracey wrote: "You will very justly say then: 'What is wrong with him, so why do you not wish to retain him? Well, his difficulty is community life . . . he is a bit hard to get on with in ordinary life... His temper is difficult."

Fr Tracey said that this bad temper made McAlinden unsuitable for living in a religious order such as the Redemptorists and claimed that McAlinden would be better suited for working in a regional diocese.

In a subsequent letter, Fr Tracey thanked Bishop Gleeson for accepting McAlinden.

Thus, later in 1949, aged 26, McAlinden arrived in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese. He was one of a significant number of Irish priests who surfaced, often unaccountably, in Australia around that time. Too often, these priests from Ireland molested children in Australia.

McAlinden's crimes begin

Soon after McAlinden's arrival in Maitland-Newcastle in 1949, talk started about him touching young girls. By the early 1950s, his crimes included rape, but the church's "holy" status intimidated his victims into silence.

Broken Rites has checked McAlinden's parish appointments in the annual editions of the Australian Catholic directories. In the 1960s, his parishes in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese included Singleton, Mussellbrook, Murrurindi and Greta.

The directories indicate that in 1969 he was transferred on loan from the Maitland diocese to a diocese (called Mendi) in Papua New Guinea, where he spent about four years.

By 1974, he had been brought back to Maitland diocese to become the Parish Priest (that is, in charge) at the Kendall parish (a coastal town, north of Newcastle). But, extraordinarily, within a couple of years, he was removed from this position.

In a letter dated 17 MAY 1976, the Maitland diocese's vicar-general (deputy bishop) Monsignor Patrick Cotter told Bishop Leo Clarke: "Fr Mac has an inclination to interfere ... with young girls - aged perhaps 7 to 12 or so ... I had a long session with Fr Mac at the presbytery. Slowly, very slowly, he admitted some indiscretions but then agreed that it was a condition that had been with him for many years."(Broken Rites possesses a copy of this letter.)

The Maitland-Newcastle diocese allowed McAlinden to stay in the ministry as a relieving priest, filling in for other priests who were away. Broken Rites has ascertained that, by the late 1970s, the diocese was listing him among its "supplementary" priests, doing "relief duties" at its Nelson Bay parish (north of Newcastle).

Western Australia

Broken Rites has ascertained that in 1980 the Maitland diocese arranged for McAlinden to go out of sight — to minister in a remote part of Western Australia, at Wickham, 1500 kilometres north of Perth (in the Pilbara mining region, between Perth and Broome). Wickham parish is administered by the Geraldton Catholic diocese.

This strange transfer involved a deal between the bishop's office in Maitland and the bishop's office in Geraldton. The Catholics of Maitland-Newcastle were not told why McAlinden was leaving that diocese, and the Catholics of the Geraldton diocese were not told why this priest was arriving.

In Wickham, McAlinden was the Parish Priest in charge of "Our Lady of the Pilbara". He remained there until late 1983. In Wickham, McAlinden molested young girls — including the above-mentioned "Susan". Susan has told Broken Rites that in 1982, when she was aged ten, McAlinden "befriended" her parents, visiting them about three times a week. On Saturdays, "Father Mac" would get Susan to help him in the presbytery (e.g., doing photocopies of Mass sheets, Susan says that it was on occasions such as this that he mauled her genital area — that is, the crime of indecent assault.

Susan says she could not tell her parents about these assaults because "I didn't think my parents would believe me, Father Mac being so close to the family and also being a priest. I was always taught to trust and respect a priest."

(More about Susan later in this article.)

Significantly, Broken Rites has found that McAlinden was not Wickham's only paedophile priest. McAlinden's predecessor there had been Father Adrian van Klooster, who was eventually jailed for child-sex crimes.

New Zealand

Broken Rites has found that throughout the 1980s, according to the annual Australian Catholic Directory, McAlinden was listed as belonging to the Maitland-Newcastle diocese but he was not always listed in one of this region's parishes.

Broken Rites has discovered that in 1984 McAlinden was in New Zealand, "on loan" to the Diocese of Hamilton, situated in the North Island, where he did "supply" (relieving work) in rural parishes. This kind of transfer involved an arrangement between the Maitland-Newcastle diocese and its New Zealand counterpart. Victims of McAlinden in New Zealand can take civil legal action against the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle (for turning McAlinden loose in New Zealand), as well as against the Hamilton Diocese (for accepting a problem priest from Australia).

In New South Wales again

McAlinden was back in Maitland-Newcastle in the mid-1980s but the Australian Catholic Directory in the late 1980s gave McAlinden's address merely as care of the bishop's office in Maitland.

Broken Rites has learned that, in fact, McAlinden was ministering at the Merriwa parish from late 1984 until early 1988. Merriwa is in the north-west of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, about as far away as he could be sent in this diocese. McAlinden continued to offend while at Merriwa.

Mike Stanwell, principal of a small Catholic school at Merriwa, became concerned about reports from young children who had been in the adjoining church with Father McAlinden. Mr Stanwell says there were consistent stories of what the priest did when he sat children on his lap. Mr Stanwell went to see Bishop Leo Clarke, who said he would send McAlinden away. McAlinden was moved to a parish closer to Newcastle. After receiving further reports about the priest and a child, Mr Stanwell again went to see Bishop Leo Clarke.

By early 1988, Bishop Clarke was considering whether McAlindan could go on loan to to some other diocese. In a letter (dated 1 February 1988), Clarke told a bishop in Papua New Guinea:

• "In your letter you asked for some comment on his character. So in all honesty I must tell you the following in strict confidence. Towards the end of last year, allegations were made by some parents and the head teacher that Father's [i.e. McAlinden's] behaviour with small girls was worrying them because of his imprudent relationship...

  "In view of the allegations, in his [McAlinden's] own opinion it would be unwise for him to continue to working in this diocese [Maitland-Newcastle]. It would be a charity for some bishop to take him on, knowing the problems that have arisen."

Charged in Western Australia

Broken Rites has ascertained that in 1988, the church authorities arranged to evacuate McAlinden to do a second stint in Western Australia, this time in the Bunbury diocese (south of Perth), where he was listed as the Parish Priest in charge of St Bernard's parish at Kojunup until 1992.

In 1991, while McAlinden was at Kojunup, one of his victims from his previous West Australian parish (the above-mentioned "Susan", from the Wickham parish) finally decided to bring McAlinden to justice by talking to detectives in the child-abuse unit of the the W.A. Police. By 1991, Susan was 19 years of age, married with two children (one aged 30 months and one aged nine months). Now feeling independent from her parents, she told her mother about the 1982 assaults. Her mother complained to the bishop's office but Susan realised that it would be a smarter idea to have a chat with police detectives, which she did. Susan made a signed, sworn police statement. The police then arrested McAlinden at Kojunup. (Bishops do not arrest or charge paedophile priests.)

In a W.A. magistrates court, on 4 March 1992, the police charged McAlinden (then aged 69) with three incidents of indecent dealing with a child. McAlinden contested the charges, which went to a jury trial in the Perth District Court in July 1992. Broken Rites has examined the transcript of the trial, amounting to 277 pages.

The prosecutor told the court that another girl ("Maria") was present during two of these three incidents, and that Maria, too, was indecently touched by McAlinden. Maria gave evidence in court, describing how McAlinden touched Maria on the genital area. However, although she gave this evidence in support of Susan's complaint, Maria did not want to press charges of her own against McAlinden because her family would be upset is she took such action against a Catholic priest.

Thus, Susan was left as the only complainant and the jury had to decide how harshly, or leniently, it should treat the priest in view of the fact that there was one complainant. The jury returned a verdict of "Not Guilty".

By 1992, Susan and Maria had both left Wickham, each of them moving to a different part of Australia. Susan and Maria then lost contact with each other but Broken Rites eventually managed to interview each of them.

Broken Rites is still in contact with both Susan and Maria.

The cover-up after 1992

Until 1992, church leaders had presumed that McAlinden (like other sexually abusive priests) was safe from criminal prosecution (and therefore the church was safe from bad publicity). However, the 1992 West Australian court case prompted New South Wales church authorities to go into "damage control" regarding McAlinden. They tried to persuade McAlinden to quietly leave Australia, out of the reach of Australian police, so as to protect the public image of the church.

In 1993, Bishop Leo Clarke removed McAlinden from working in parishes within the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, but this ban applied only to this diocese.

According to Broken Rites research, McAlinden continued to be listed in each of the annual Australian Catholic directories from 1994 to 1998 as still belonging (officially) to the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, but was listed as "on leave" from parish duties in this diocese. His forwarding address was care of the Maitland-Newcastle diocesan office.

So what was McAlinden actually doing during his "leave"? Even after 1993, the Maitland-Newcastle diocese continued paying a priestly stipend to him. Therefore, after 1993, Father McAlinden was living a "nomad" type of life, sometimes operating as a priest in various parts of the world (but not, of course, in Maitland-Newcastle).

For example, McAlinden has stated in a letter that his priestly work during his leave (in the mid-1990s) included working as a Catholic chaplain in the Philippines. There (in the San Pablo diocese) he was responsible to "over 7500 pupils, ranging from kindergarten through primary, secondary, teachers college, university and including medical college." And, he says, he dealt with "thousands" of children in the Confessional (where children were required to reveal their "sins" to the priest).

Meanwhile, McAlinden's victims in Australia were not aware that he was still allowed to operate as a priest outside Australia.

Broken Rites and the media

McAlinden's name did not come to public notice until after the Broken Rites website in 2007 published an article about how the Maitland-Newcastle diocese concealed the crimes of Father Vincent Gerard Ryan. The Newcastle Herald daily newspaper immediately publicised the Broken Rites story about Vincent Ryan, which in turn prompted Herald readers to contact the newspaper about Vincent Ryan and other clergy, including Denis McAlinden.

Beginning on 29 September 2007, the Newcastle Herald published a series of articles about Denis McAlinden, written by staff journalist Joanne McCarthy with help from Broken Rites. Within a few weeks after the first McAlinden article, the Herald became aware of at least 20 victims of McAlinden in New South Wales.

As well as the victims who contacted Broken Rites or the Newcastle Herald, some other victims merely contacted the Maitland-Newcastle diocese (unfortunately, this is merely like a burglary victim reporting the burglary to the Burglars' Association).

The church is evasive at first

When preparing its first article about McAlinden in September 2007, the Newcastle Herald contacted the office of Maitland-Newcastle Bishop Michael Malone but he declined to answer questions about the movements of Father McAlinden.

The Herald also contacted the president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Archbishop Philip Wilson of Adelaide. Wilson was originally a priest in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese and became the diocese's vicar-general (chief administrator). Wilson confirmed to the Herald in late September 2007 that he had been involved with the Father McAlinden matter in the 1980s but declined to give details. A week later, in early October 2007 (after the Herald had begun its McAlinden articles), Archbishop Wilson confirmed in a statement to the Herald that he was aware in 1985 of concerns about Father McAlinden. In 1985, Father Wilson travelled to a Maitland-Newcastle parish at the request Bishop Leo Clarke to "talk to the school authorities after they raised concerns about Father McAlinden".

The Herald sought to interview Archbishop Wilson in person in 2007 about how the church handled the Father McAlinden case but a spokeswoman for Wilson said he was "too busy" to be interviewed. "That's all we really want to say at this stage," the spokeswoman said. She referred any questions to the Maitland-Newcastle diocese.

The church apologises

Publication of the Herald's first McAlinden article on Saturday 29 September 2007 caused a public-relations disaster for the church hierarchy. Six days later, on Friday 5 October 2007, the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic diocese was forced to admit publicly (but reluctantly) that Father McAlinden had been a serial child-molester and that the church authorities had known about his offences for decades. The diocese issued a statement, acknowledging the victims of McAlinden and apologising for his actions and "any instances of abuse by church personnel of people in its care".

The diocese confirmed that McAlinden had many victims, but it said that most were not known to the church.

This indicates that the diocese never bothered to look for McAlinden's victims. And it never helped any victims to arrange a chat with the child-abuse detectives of the New South Wales Police.

Protecting the church's image

The Newcastle Herald has continued to publish allegations that the Catholic Church covered up the McAlinden affair. On 28 April 2010, the Herald referred to documents in which Australian Catholic Church authorities told Father Denis McAlinden that his "good name will be protected" by the church's "confidential process".

These documents, the Herald said, show that two bishops (Leo Clarke and Michael Malone) and a future archbishop (Philip Wilson) were involved in managing the Father McAlinden problem.

Bishop Leo Clarke was in charge of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese until 1995, when he was succeeded by Bishop Michael Malone.

Father Philip Wilson was then the secretary of the diocese, and his duties included assisting the bishop in the 1980s and 1990s in matters regarding Father Denis McAlinden.

In 2001 Wilson became the archbishop of Adelaide in South Australia. He also became the chairman of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference. And he has been a member of the church's National Committee on Professional Standards, the group which supervises the management of the Catholic Church's sex-abuse issue throughout Australia.

A one-way plane ticket

On 8 October 2011 the Newcastle Herald reported that, after Father McAlinden successfully evaded police charges in Western Australia in 1992, Australian church authorities considered giving him a "one-way ticket to England" in order to protect the church from bad publicity in Australia.

Documents obtained by the Newcastle Herald and handed to police show that in October 1995 (when McAlinden was in Western Australia) senior Australian church officials had roles in an attempted "speedy" secret defrocking of McAlinden as police investigated another Maitland-Newcastle diocesan paedophile priest, Fr Vincent Ryan.

Broken Rites Australia possesses a copy of these same documents.

One document (a letter from Bishop Leo Clarke to McAlinden, dated 19 October 1995) urged McAlinden to co-operate with the church's plan to laicise (that is, defrock) him. Clarke said this laicisation would be "for the good of the church" (that is, to protect the church's public image).

Clarke's letter assured McAlinden that "your good name will be protected by the confidential nature of the process". [Broken Rites takes this to mean that McAlinden's record in New South Wales would not become public or, if it did, the media would describe McAlinden as a "former" priest.]

Clarke's letter also indicates that the church authorities were seeking to hide McAlinden from the New South Wales Police. Clarke wrote: "A speedy resolution of this whole matter will be in your own good interests as I have it on very good authority that some people are threatening seriously to take this whole matter to the police."

Other documents seen by the Herald show that a Newcastle region family told a bishop in the early 1950s that McAlinden had sexually assaulted their primary school-aged daughter three times. The assaults occurred only four years after he arrived in Maitland-Newcastle diocese from Ireland in 1949, aged 26.

The Herald said that a warrant was issued for McAlinden's arrest in 1999 when the woman reported the sexual assaults to police, who were advised by the church that the priest was not in Australia. Maitland-Newcastle diocese paid the woman more than $130,000 in compensation in 2002. Another McAlinden victim was paid compensation the following year.

In October 2005, church authorities finally revealed McAlinden's address. A senior Maitland-Newcastle diocese representative phoned Newcastle police to advise that Father McAlinden was dying of cancer in a Catholic Church-run aged-care centre at Subiaco, Western Australia. WA police visited the priest and confirmed he was too ill to be extradited to NSW. He died one month later and is buried in Perth.

Civil action against the church

As McAlinden is dead, it is no longer possible for the police to charge him in the criminal courts. The best way for McAlinden victims to obtain justice now is by demanding substantial compensation from the Maitland-Newcastle diocese through a solicitor but the solicitor must be one who has had previous experience in tackling the Catholic Church on behalf of victims. Broken Rites knows the contact details for such solicitors.

In 2016, two sisters filed a civil law suit in the New South Wales Supreme Court for abuse which (they said) was inflicted on them by McAlinden in NSW when they were young girls in the 1970s and 1980s. This law suit was aimed at the estate of the late Maitland-Newcastle bishop Leo Clarke and the trustees of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese.

In their lawsuit, the sisters said the church knew about the paedophile activities of Father Denis McAlinden long before the two girls were abused. They said that, prior to their being abused, complaints had been made over the years about McAlinden's abuse of other children, but the church took no action against him.

The case came before the NSW Supreme Court case on 21 November 2016 but, the next day, the judge was told that the parties have reached a confidential settlement.

The agreement prevented the church's cover-up from being publicly aired in the court and in the media.

The judge agreed to the church's request that the amount of the settlement be recorded in a sealed envelope on the court file and not be opened without the permission of a judge.

[The church's aim was to discourage other church-victims from taking Supreme Court action. The church prefers it when victims don't file a law suit in the Supreme Court.}

Summing up

Broken Rites is proud of having helped to expose the Catholic Church's cover-up of Father Denis McAlinden.

There is still more research that can be done on the Denis McAlinden case. Father McAlinden talked in Maitland-Newcastle about working in Aboriginal communities in Western Australia. This is an alarming issue which would need to be investigated in Western Australia.

The Broken Rites exposure of Denis McAlinden was helped by another Broken Rites article, which exposed the church's cover-up of Father Vincent Ryan. To read about the Vince Ryan cover-up, click HERE.

• By a Broken Rites Australia researcher

The Catholic diocese of Maitland-Newcastle in New South Wales has admitted that it paid an expensive team of lawyers to defend a paedophile priest in a child-abuse court case. The priest, Father James Patrick Fletcher, pleaded not guilty in 2004 to multiple counts of anal and oral sexual penetration of an altar boy, Daniel Feenan. The offences began in 1990, when Daniel was 12. A jury found Fletcher guilty on all charges. Legal experts have told the media that Fletcher's legal costs for the 11-day trial exceeded $200,000. The church's defence team included a Queen's Counsel, plus a second barrister and a solicitor. Fletcher had various victims, most of whom were still remaining silent. This court case in 2004 was about one victim, Daniel.

After the guilty verdict, the media questioned Fletcher's superior (the Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle, Most Reverend Michael Malone) about aspects of the case, including how the defence team was financed. Malone said that Fletcher "availed" himself of an "offered loan facility" to help fund his defence. It is not known how the "loan" was supposed to be "re-paid", especially seeing that Fletcher was about to be jailed for the crimes. It is not known why Bishop Malone called this payment a "loan".

Bishop Malone also admitted he was aware of "one priest from one parish" donating part of the parish's Christmas collection to help pay Fletcher's lawyers. [The parishioners of this generous priest did not know that their Christmas donations were to be used to help another priest, Father Fletcher, to evade child-sex charges.]

Daniel was merely the first Fletcher victim who eventually contacted the police - in 2002 at the age of 25.

After Fletcher was charged in 2003, additional Fletcher victims (from Fletcher's other parishes) began contacting the police.

Victim's identity

When the the Broken Rites website first published an article about Fletcher's 2004 court proceedngs, Broken Rites did not reveal Daniel's real name. (This is in line with Broken Rites policy, which is to protect the privacy of victims).

However, in July 2008, Daniel Feenan gave an interview to the Newcastle Herald daily newspaper, stating that he now would like the public to know his name.

And in late 2012, Daniel's mother (Patricia Feenan) published a book, entitled Holy Hell: A Catholic family's story of faith, betrayal and pain , about how the Catholic Church inflicted the criminal Father Fletcher on her son Daniel and how this betrayal has hurt the whole family.

Therefore, in updating this article, Broken Rites is publishing the victim's real name, Daniel, in accordance with the family's wishes.

Towards the end of this article, more information is given about Patricia Feenan's book.

The priest's background

One of the victims who contacted police in 2003-4 said he was abused by Fletcher as early as 1978 - 12 years before Daniel's time. In 1978, Fr Jim Fletcher had been the administrator (i.e., priest in charge) at St John's Cathedral, Maitland. He was also the master of ceremonies for the then bishop, Bishop Leo Clarke. (Bishop Clarke was in charge of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese from 1976 to 1995.) Fletcher's position at the cathedral was a prestigious one. Fletcher's colleagues at this cathedral (as shown in the Catholic directory for 1983-4) included another up-and-coming young priest, Father Philip Wilson, who eventually became the Archbishop of Adelaide.

Fletcher took a particular interest in altar boys. Years later, his victims told how Fletcher had "groomed" them before sexually abusing them.

According to police, Bishop Clarke knew in the late 1970s and early '80s that Fletcher's liking for boys was a potential public-relations problem for the cathedral. Therefore, in the mid-1980s, Bishop Clarke removed Fletcher from Maitland (a demotion that he resented thereafter). However, instead of removing Fletcher from parish work altogether, Bishop Clarke transferred him to other, less important parishes, including Gateshead (in Newcastle) and later Denman (a rural parish) in the mid-1980s. In these parishes, the congregations did not know about Fletcher's past, so he was able to continue unhindered with more altar boys. (Yet another of Fletcher's alleged victims - from 1986-7 - came forward in 2004, as will be explained later in this article.)

By 1988, Fletcher had been transferred to yet another parish. Broken Rites has checked the 1988 edition of the annual Australian Cathholic Directory, which indicates that in 1988 Father James Fletcher became the priest in charge at Dungog (St Mary's parish). (This is a rural parish, 70km north of Newcastle.) Thus, Fletcher now had access to a fresh lot of altar boys and a fresh lot of unsuspecting parents. One of these altar boys (Daniel) ultimately caused the unmasking of Fletcher in 2002.

The story of Daniel

Fletcher, who was known to parishioners as "Father Jim", committed sexual crimes against Daniel (an altar boy) repeatedly from the age of 12 in 1990. The details, as later established in court, were as follows.

As a Catholic priest, Father Fletcher ingratiated himself with Daniel and his family, had meals at their home and lured Daniel away from home to inflict sexual acts upon the boy. Fletcher drove the boy to parks and other public locations around the Hunter Valley. Fletcher, who had enormous authority over the boy as a Catholic priest, intimidated the boy into allowing Fletcher to perform the sex acts. The boy trusted the priest and therefore obeyed him. Fletcher directed the boy to perform oral sex on the priest and these encounters eventually progressed to anal sex.

Daniel testified that, during anal intercourse, "he had never felt pain like it in his life" and had looked at a Saint Christopher medal in the car while the intercourse took place. The boy then cried and Fletcher hugged him, saying that "it was a normal part of life".

After one incident, Fletcher dropped the boy at a bus stop to find his own way home.

Daniel was unable to tell anyone about Fletcher's crimes because, as a priest, Fletcher had an exalted position in the Catholic community and he was a friend of Daniel's parents. Furthermore, to intimidate Daniel into silence, Fletcher warned him that "no-one would believe him" if he told anyone "because priests never lie. And he threatened to hurt Daniel's siblings if the boy ever spoke out.

During these years of abuse, Daniel increasingly became a "difficult" boy but his parents did not know the cause of his grumpiness.

The sexual abuse continued throughout Daniel's secondary schooling but Fletcher was charged only with certain selected incidents in the boy's early teenage years. It was not until Daniel was in Year 12 that he finally broke away from Fletcher's clutches.

By 1995, Fletcher had moved on to a new parish -- St Brigid's parish in rural Branxton, west of Maitland - leaving Daniel to suffer in silence at the previous parish.

This secrecy disrupted Daniel's adolescent development. He became distant, angry and depressed. He became a binge-drinker. At age 19, he tried to commit suicide.

Finally, during a serious personal crisis in 2002, aged 25, Daniel admitted to his parents that he was a sex-abuse victim and that the offender was the Reverend Father Jim Fletcher. He disclosed how Father Fletcher forced him to have sexual intercourse with the priest.

Daniel's father complained about Fletcher to the new bishop, Most Reverend Michael Malone, who had succeeded Bishop Clarke in 1995. But later the family realised that notifying the diocese turned out to be an unwise move.

After telling his family, Daniel made a signed, sworn statement for the NSW police in mid-2002. As part of their investigation, the police contacted the Maitland-Newcastle diocesan office to ask if the diocese had received any previous complaints about Fletcher in any of his parishes. But this was another unwise move because the diocese "tipped off" Fletcher at Branxton parish that he was facing potential criminal charges. This enabled Fletcher to get his story together and to begin marshalling church support for his defence.

According to public promises previously made by Australian Catholic bishops, the Maitland-Newcastle diocese should have transferred Fletcher immediately to other duties or they could have granted him leave (which the church sometimes disguises as "study leave" or "sick leave" for a priest facing sex-abuse allegations), so that he would not have contact with families or children, while the police investigation was proceeding. However, the diocese allowed Fletcher to continue working in his parish among families and children. The diocese was prepared to continue protecting Fletcher as long as it could get away with it.

Indeed, in January 2003 (six months after the police complaint), the diocese even enlarged Fletcher's area of responsibilities, by adding another parish (Lochinvar) to that he already held (Branxton), thereby increasing his parishioners from 2447 to 3125. This additional appointment was documented in the next annual National Council of Priests directory, compiled in January 2003.

By March 2003, it became evident that the police intended to formally charge James Fletcher with child-sex crimes. This meant that the charges eventually would be reported in the media, so, faced with a looming scandal, the diocese finally stood Fletcher down. This was nine months after the diocese learned about the police investigation.

Priest arrested

On 14 May 2003, police arrested Father James Fletcher and laid the charges. Fletcher, with his legal defence strategy now organised, denied the charges. A magistrate granted him bail on condition that he have no contact with children younger than 16.

The Fletcher charges were reported in the media. Newcastle and Hunter Valley newspapers demanded to be told why the diocese had waited so long before withdrawing Fletcher from parish ministry. Why had he been kept in his position during the police investigation?

In a media statement immediately after the laying of charges, Bishop Michael Malone said the diocese had not stood Fletcher down in June 2002 because it "did not deem him to be a risk". [The church's statement did not explain how Fletcher had suddenly become a "risk" only after the media exposure, whereas he had "not been a risk" beforehand while the church was able to prevent Fletcher's parishioners from knowing about the matter.]

In fact, Father James Fletcher obviously had been a huge risk for many years, as shown in the subsequent court proceedings and by the emergence of further victims afterwards.

Thus, by speaking to the police, Daniel ensured that the church's cover-up of Fletcher was thwarted, although Fletcher continued to receive support in church circles during the court proceedings and afterwards.

In the East Maitland District Court in November 2004, James Patrick Fletcher (aged 63) was charged with having performed sexual intercourse (anal and oral) on Daniel on eight occasions in 1990-1. He was also charged with committing an aggravated act of indecency on the child.

Fletcher pleaded "not guilty" to all charges but declined to give evidence in the witness box (to defend himself against the charges). This protected him from being cross-examined.

The jury, comprising eight men and four women, heard the full details of Daniel's abuse. The evidence was thoroughly sifted, at length, by the prosecutor and by the church's lawyers.

Finally, the prosecution produced another alleged victim of Fletcher -- a 30-year-old man who said he was abused by Fletcher at the age of 13. This witness, who can be identified only as "Mr G", told the court that he was he twice stayed overnight at Father Fletcher's presbytery (parish house) in 1986 and 1987. (This was in one of Fletcher's new parishes after he had left the Maitland cathedral.) Mr G said that, both times, Fletcher gave him a goodnight kiss, interfered with the boy's genitals, performed oral sex on the boy and ordered him not to tell his parents. Mr G said he told nobody about this abuse until Fletcher asked a family member for a character reference. Mr G then contacted the prosecutors and arranged to give this evidence in court.

Guilty verdict

On 6 December 2004, after long deliberations in the jury room, the jury unanimously returned a verdict of guilty on all nine charges. Fletcher was placed in prison on remand, pending the sentencing on a later date.

Bishop Michael Malone told the media that he wished to apologise to the victims (plural) and their families and friends "for the immense pain and suffering caused by Father Fletcher's criminal actions". He apologised for not transferring Father Fletcher from parish work immediately after being told about the child-sex charges. He said: "In retrospect, the matter could have been handled better and we have learned that we have to respond more appropriately to these issues."

Malone said that Fletcher would not return to the ministry. [This was a safe assumption because Fletcher had been thoroughly exposed and was facing a jail sentence].

Malone claimed that the diocese was setting up a toll-free telephone number so that people could talk to the church about the matter. [This is a common tactic, which often results in further victims reporting offences - possibly about other perpetrators - to the church instead of contacting the police or a victims' group such as Broken Rites.] However, when a Newcastle Herald reporter rang the toll-free number, nobody answered.

Malone also telephoned the victim, Daniel, telling him that he was courageous for coming forward. Malone also urged Daniel to "keep your faith". Daniel told the Newcastle Herald that this did not amount to an apology.

After Fletcher's conviction, the diocese finally dropped his name from the March 2005 directory of the National Council of Priests. The church did not want to mention that he was in remand prison, awaiting his full sentence.

Jailed

At the sentencing in Sydney District Court on 11 April 2005, Judge Graham Armitage said Fletcher committed an "inexcusable" breach of trust. He said the victim's evidence was the most compelling that he had heard.

Judge Armitage said the victim had presented to the court as a down-to-earth young man who was truthful.

Judge Armitage sentenced James Fletcher, aged 64, to a maximum 10 years in jail, with a non-parole period of seven and-a-half years.

Mother's anguish

Outside the court, Daniel's mother (Patricia) told the media that, for her family, the sentence was "life-long" and no amount of time in prison could restore the joy in faith that they had lost.

Praising her son's courage, the woman described him as "an extraordinarily brave boy".

The mother thanked a New South Wales Police detective, Detective Sergeant (later Chief Inspector) Peter Fox (of Maitland and Cessnock), for his diligence and compassion in helping her son. She said she hoped her son's actions would make it easier for other victims to speak out.

In media statements after Fletcher's sentencing, Bishop Michael Malone admitted that he had handled the Fletcher matter badly. He also admitted that more needed to be done to ensure that those affected by Fletcher's actions got proper attention and support.

Appeals to higher courts

Fletcher's conviction meant that the church was forced finally to distance itself from Fletcher, though not completely. Several of Fletcher's fellow priests continued to organise on his behalf.

Fletcher appealed to the NSW Court of Appeal against his conviction. The church lawyers argued that the trial judge erred in admitting evidence from the second altar boy, Mr G, who said Fletcher performed oral sex on him in 1986 and 1987.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal. One of the appeal judges, Justice Carolyn Simpson, said the trial judge was correct in allowing Mr G's evidence. At the time of the alleged offences against him, Mr G was the same age as the complainant [Daniel] and there were sufficient similarities between the two sets of allegations for the evidence to be admitted, Judge Simpson said.

After losing his appeal in New South Wales, Fletcher then initiated an appeal to the High Court of Australia against the conviction, again opposing the use of Mr G's evidence. A High Court appeal is an expensive exercise but Fletcher had backing for this from his supporters in the church.

More victims

Meanwhile, more victims of Fletcher were coming forward. On 13 December 2004 — while he was awaiting his sentence — Fletcher was charged in Maitland Local Court with having indecently assaulted yet another teenage boy. These incidents occurred at Maitland in January-March 1978 when Fletcher was located at the cathedral. This was a decade before Fletcher went to Daniel's parish. This case was adjourned to 18 April 2005 but, by then, Fletcher was in jail and the prosecutors considered that there was no point in bringing him back to court again. The 1978 victim was not the same as the previously mentioned "Mr G", whose incidents occurred at a different parish in 1986-7.

Fletcher died in jail in January 2006, from a stroke, after serving 14 months of his jail sentence. His funeral service, held in his last parish at Branxton, was attended by Bishop Michael Malone, vicar-general Father Jim Saunders and 31 other priests. Fletcher's long-time friend Father Des Harrigan, who officiated at the service, asked those present to pray for Fletcher.

Fletcher was buried in the priests' section of Sandgate Cemetery, near Newcastle.

Father Harrigan, who was the executor of Fletcher's estate, confirmed that the High Court appeal application would still go ahead. Harrigan said that, as the executor, he had to follow the wishes of the deceased.

Bishop Michael Malone said he would like to see the appeal proceed, so that Fletcher's family, his family and his victims could all "find closure".

A family member of one of Fletcher's victims told the Newcastle Herald: "I cannot understand why his [Fletcher's] supporters keep pushing this. He is dead. Can't they understand that it is just perpetuating the pain for everyone involved, particularly the victims?"

A victim's letter

One of Fletcher's victims wrote a letter to the editor, published in the Newcastle Herald on 10 March 2006, asking Fletcher's supporters not to proceed with the High Court appeal. The letter indicates that the writer's family had encountered Fletcher in the late 1970s

The letter said, referring to Fletcher's abuse: "I am not the courageous young man [Daniel] who came forward, complained and testified about that abuse.

"Nor am I the other brave person ["Mr G"] who gave evidence in support of that claim.

"I am, however, the survivor of years of grooming and sexual abuse at the hands of Father Fletcher.

"I met him as a shy nine-year-old, a member of a devout Catholic family whose devotion to the church meant that closer to a priest was to be closer to God.

"For 25 years I tried to forget what Fletcher did to me and for 25 years I did not tell a soul. For the past two years, I have been forced to confront my reality over and over again, and I have had to contend with people who cannot see the truth.

"The Catholic Bishop and Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle believe my story, as do the NSW police. Sadly, though, Father Des Harrigan and a (hopefully) small group of other people believe that me and Fletcher's other victims are liars and that we and our families should keep on suffering. Witness this week's appeal by Father Harrigan to the High Court.

"I feel very sorry for Jim Fletcher's mother, family, friends and supporters. It must be a terrible burden to have to confront the double life of someone you love. Nonetheless, I would like to ask them all, and Father Harrigan in particular, to stop trying to clear his name.

"It can do Fletcher, his supporters and his victims no good.

"It is time that they too confronted their reality - they were deceived, and in their own way abused, by a man who was driven by his own desires." [End of letter. Name and address withheld. ]

On the same day that this letter was published, the High Court dismissed Father Harrigan's application to appeal. Chief Justice Murray Gleeson said: "We [the judges] are of the view that the evidence in question [by Mr G] was correctly admitted in the particular circumstances of this case and we are not persuaded there has been any miscarriage of justice."

By April 2006, six of Fletcher's sex-abuse victims had contacted the NSW police. However, police told Broken Rites that the police can do nothing further about Fletcher because of his death. Therefore, the police said, these new complainants should seek justice by claiming compensation from the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle. The payouts by the church would be a kind of fine for the church's negligence in inflicting Fletcher on his victims.

Family hurt by the church

A close friend of Daniel's family told Broken Rites in early 2006: "The whole process of the past three years has been traumatic, especially by the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese giving Fletcher a tip-off that the victim had gone to the police.

"The church's compensation process is slow and the Catholic Church seems to be trying to minimize the damage done to this young man and his family. After five years of this trauma, the family is struggling to keep their head up.

"The church claims that it was not responsible for the priest. However, we believe, from things that we have heard, that the diocese knew that Fletcher was a danger to children but it protected him. I believe the church is responsible. They have a duty of care. And they claim that priests are people that you could welcome into your home and lives. It was a huge breach of trust."

An interesting aspect of the Fletcher case is that in the late 1990s, while Daniel was suffering in silence about his sexual abuse, his local bishop (Bishop Michael Malone) was appointed as a member of the Australian Catholic Church's National Committee on Professional Standards, which supervises the church's handling of sexual abuse. And Adelaide's Archbishop Philip Wilson, who had begun his own career at the Maitland cathedral in the early 1980s in the heyday of Father Jim Fletcher, became the chairman of this national committee.

Daniel goes public

On 14 July 2008 (three years after Daniel Feenan's evidence put Fletcher in jail), Daniel gave an interview to journalist Joanne McCarthy of the Newcastle Herald. Daniel (then aged 32) said that he would like the public to know his name.

"I'm sick of reading about Fletcher's 'anonymous sexual abuse victim'; I'm sick of constantly being linked with his name and having what he did define me in a public sense because it doesn't define me, and I'm over it," Daniel said.

"I am Daniel Feenan. This has gone on for 20 years. Enough. For two-thirds of my life I've lived with this and I'm tired of it...Time to move on."

Mother's book published

After Patricia Feenan's book (HOLY HELL: A Catholic family's story of faith, betrayal and pain) was published in 2012, the Maitland Mercury daily newspaper published the following article on 24 November 2012:

• Patricia Feenan and her family were devout Catholics. They had complete trust in the godliness and integrity of the church and its leaders, until a black-hearted priest by the name of James Patrick Fletcher took away their son’s innocence forever.

  There was a lot priestly business in the Feenan family home. John Feenan was the business manager of the Maitland Newcastle Diocese and Patricia was a special minister at the church in Clarence Town.

  “I had a traditional Catholic upbringing where the priest was almost like God,” Patricia said.

  “I guess [James Patrick] Fletcher groomed the whole family; he didn’t only did groom Daniel and his brothers – his brothers weren’t abused – but that was part of this thing . . . to groom us all and he had other families with sons. The places where he went had sons. I think we just thought he was good with boys.

  “It’s hard to reflect now,” she said haltingly. “I had four sons; I never got out of the kitchen or the laundry - I was trying to do a bit of teaching, John was really busy in his job and we just tried to do the right thing and attend mass ... live your life like Christians. We had evil in our midst, but we didn’t know it.”

  The eldest of four boys, Daniel was brought up surrounded by love. A champion cricketer, he cherishes the happy memories, especially of playing backyard cricket with his father, brothers and cousins at every opportunity.

  But the normally happy boy began to exhibit worrying behaviour as he grew into manhood. His behaviour worsened and was erratic.

  “Daniel’s behaviour was pretty worrying as he began to show a fair bit of anger and he started to abuse alcohol,” Patricia said.

  “When we knew about the abuse, it explained his risk-taking behaviour, which included a suicide attempt. A typical victim when you look at the research and the profile of an abused child. We had no idea and eventually he disclosed to me that he was [sexually abused] when I asked the question.

  “It was the only question I hadn’t asked about what would explain his bad behaviour and the fact that he didn’t seem to respect himself – he lived life on the edge. I don’t know why I asked that question, it just came into my head.”

  Daniel was 24 years old when he made this admission to his mum, but she said some people never let their secret be known.

  With the recent announcement [by the Federal Government, in November 2012] of a Royal Commission, men and women in their 60s and 70s have begun to speak out.

  “[The announcement] has opened up quite a discussion,” Patricia said. “Paedophiles operate under silence and their victims stay silent because they somehow put the guilt and the shame onto them [the victims] – they say no one will believe you and they stay silent and victims just try to get on with their lives, if they can.”

  She said it took 11 months for Daniel to give his statement to police – it was that harrowing.

  “He was hospitalised a few times during that time and he was fairly traumatised and stressed,” Patricia said. “It took over 50 hours of sitting with [Detective Inspector] Peter Fox; he took Daniel very carefully and gently through that process.”

  After word that Daniel had gone to the police began to circulate, it wasn’t long before disparaging rumours about the Feenans, particularly Daniel, also began to leach through the community.

  Priests, including Bishop Michael Malone, chose to give solace to Fletcher. The Bishop has since apologised to the family.

  The priest, as Patricia refers to Fletcher, was jailed for 10 years on nine charges of child sex abuse.

  “There could have been many more charges, but the DPP [Department of Public Prosecutions] settled on the nine they thought would have a good chance of successful prosecution.

  “He died in jail 14 months after he was sentenced in early 2005.”

Mother still feels the hurt

Here is an extract from Patricia Feenan’s book, Holy Hell: A Catholic family's story of faith, betrayal and pain , published in 2012:

• “On the day I was to start giving my statement to the police I drove slowly towards Maitland, trying to stay calm so that my words would be coherent.

  “I had left myself plenty of time for the half hour drive but as I approached Maitland, I began to get upset.

  “Memories of the priest’s involvement in my family began to bubble around in my head and so I pulled into a little park located about 10 minutes from the town centre.

  “I was actually physically sick. I was alone. I remembered the meals I’d cooked for him, zucchini pie was his favourite, and the buttons I’d sewn on his black shirts.

  “Exchanges of Christmas and birthday gifts and dinner parties for his mother and sister and social gatherings with friends of his were past memories that crowded into my thoughts.

  “Dozens of snippets of conversations I had had with him were also recalled and I remembered the times we had asked him for advice when we were worried about Daniel.”

Broken Rites is proud to have helped in reporting the Father James Patrick Fletcher case (and the Catholic Church's cover-up) since the court proceedings in 2004.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 16 December 2018

Broken Rites is continuing its research about how the Catholic Church enabled the paedophile priest Father Michael Charles Glennon to commit sexual crimes against children in Melbourne. Years later, many of his victims (and their families) are still feeling the impact of the church's negligence. (By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 16 December 2018.)

Glennon was jailed for some (but not al)l of his crimes) Thanks to Broken Rites and the Victoria Police, Glennon was facing more criminal charges when he died in jail on New Year's Day in 2014.

Broken Rites has been researching Glennon since 1993. We have also interviewed some of his victims, who helped to bring him to justice in his various court appearances.;

In recent years, more Glennon victims have contacted Broken Rites. In 2013 we began telling these victims how they could exercise their right to consult detectives at the newly-established  Sano Taskforce in the Victoria Police sex-crimes squad.

These detectives laid ten new charges against Glennon (aged 69) on 23 December 2013, nine days  before he died.

The new charges related to indecent assault and buggery incidents in Melbourne's northern suburbs (Glennon's old stamping ground) in the 1970s.

On 9 January 2014, the Melbourne Magistrates Court noted that these charges could no longer proceed, because of Glennon's death.

Countless victims

Originally, when the Catholic Church ordained Father Michael Glennon as a priest for the Melbourne Archdiocese, it gave him easy access to children. By the year 2003, Glennon had been convicted five times (and was serving a long jail sentence) for child-sex offences, involving a long list of children, mostly boys.

However, these were not his only victims — they were merely those who eventually spoke to police detectives.

The world will never know exactly how many children Father Glennon abused. Even Glennon himself would have lost count of the real number.

After serving most of his original long jail sentence, Glennon was due to become eligible (in April 2014) to apply for release from jail on parole. But the new charges in December 2013 ended this prospect.

Broken Rites research

Michael Charles Glennon was born in 1944 in a family of ten children and grew up in Melbourne’s working-class northern suburbs, among a mixture of Irish Catholics, European immigrants and Aboriginal families. There, becoming a professional Catholic — a priest — was a means of getting ahead in the world.

The Melbourne archdiocese recruited Glennon as a trainee for the priesthood at Melbourne's Corpus Christi College seminary. Glenon was not the only sex-offender in the seminary. Former students at Corpus Christi have told Broken Rites that Glennon's room-mate for the first six months was Terrence Pidoto, who later ended up in jail for child-sex crimes.

While training to be a priest, Glennon was also acting as a Scout leader but not much is known about those activities. After being ordained in 1971 (aged 27), he became a “chaplain” [nudge-nudge, wink-wink] for boys in the Scouts movement..

By then, he was also "working" with homeless boys. Broken Rites discovered the 1972 annual report of St Augustine's boys' orphanage, Geelong, which stated that students from Corpus Christi seminary, including Father Michael Glennon and Father Terry Pidoto, "have frequently travelled down to St Augustine’s and have given many hours in counselling, holding discussions and helping the boys generally."

It is not clear exactly how Glennon and Pidoto “helped” the boys.

Broken Rites has researched Glennon's career by examining the annual editions of the Australian Catholic Directory. About 1972, Glennon began his first permanent appointment as an assistant priest in Thornbury East (the Holy Spirit parish), followed in the mid-1970s by Moonee Ponds (St Monica’s) and Reservoir (St Gabriel’s) — all in Melbourne’s north, the region where he had grown up.

He acted as a “chaplain” at local Catholic schools. At St Monica’s school in Moonee Ponds, he did football coaching, taught karate and took children on camping trips.

At the Marist Brothers boys’ school (later re-named Redden College and Samaritan Catholic College) in Preston (the suburb where Glennon was born), he conducted “sex education” classes. A former student there has told Broken Rites that Fr Michael Glennon was popular there because he was well known as an expert in karate.

Glennon’s activities ranged far and wide beyond these parish boundaries.

Glennon's rural camp

During the 1970s, he launched a youth group, the Peaceful Hand Youth Foundation, in which he taught karate. Somehow, he acquired a 16-hectare rural property, “Karaglen”, near Lancefield, north of Melbourne.

It is not clear how Glennon managed to afford to acquire this land. The land was on two titles and Broken Rites knows the official folio numbers of both titles. According to a title search, Glennon acquired the first allotment on 12 August 1977 and this was transferred to the Peaceful Hand Youth Foundation Pty Ltd on 23 January 1978. The second allotment was bought by the Peaceful Hand Youth Foundation (not in Glennon's name) on 3 June 1991.

Initially a bunch of huddled tents and scrubby wilderness, “Karaglen” grew to become a collection of huts and a hall attached to Glennon's private bedroom. Groups of children would visit there, staying overnight in sleeping bags, for the karate camps that Glennon regularly held there. Parents trusted Father Michael to look after their children because they trusted Catholic priests. Father Michael was sometimes the only adult present at the camp.

According to evidence by victims, the children were required to take turns in sleeping with Father Michael in his bedroom. However, the children were intimidated into remaining silent about Father Michael's activities.

First jail sentence, 1978

In 1978 the first allegation surfaced when a 10-year-old girl said Glennon had sexually assaulted her in his car at “Karaglen”. Glennon pleaded guilty to indecent assault and was sent to jail, serving seven months of a two-year sentence. This was the only time he ever pleaded guilty. During the next two decades, he would contest all subsequent charges fiercely.

[Much later, it was revealed that in 1979, nine weeks after his release from jail, he indecently assaulted a 16-year-old girl during a sleepover at Karaglen].

After his release from jail, Glennon was still a priest, although the Melbourne archdiocese did not appoint him to another parish. However, the archdiocese had no control over Glennon’s unofficial activities.

Glennon continued to practice as a freelance priest throughout the 1980s. He held Catholic-style religious services at his home at Thornbury (a Melbourne northern suburb), preaching a conservative Catholic liturgy to his flock of poor or immigrant families and Aboriginal families. And, despite his jailing, some parents continued to allow their children to visit (and even to have sleepovers at) “Karaglen”.

Glennon charged again, 1984-85

In 1984, Glennon was charged with indecently assaulting a boy, aged 11, and sodomising another boy, aged 13, during a camp sleepover, but was acquitted on both charges.

Although the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese refrained from giving Glennon any more parish appointments, Father Michael continued to minister privately to his unofficial congregation.

In November 1985, after receiving further complaints about Father Michael, police charged him with several sexual offences, including buggery and indecent assault of five boys and one girl, aged between 12 and 16 years, in 1977-80.

Radio man Derryn Hinch

During the 1985 prosecution process, Melbourne radio broadcaster Derryn Hinch (who likes to be known as "The Human Headline") sabotaged this prosecution by telling the public (and any jury members) about Glennon’s 1978 conviction (instead of letting a jury concentrate on the 1985 prosecution).

It is the role of the court system, not a radio shock-jock, to supervise a prosecution.

Hinch’s interference meant that Glennon’s jury trial had to be postponed (otherwise, the defence lawyers could have used the Hinch blunder as a ground for appealing against any guilty verdict).

Glennon was therefore released on bail and (thanks to Hinch) he continued acting as a freelance priest (and abusing children) instead of being in jail.

Father Glennon’s power in the 1980s

Why were parents so trusting of Father Michael Glennon, even in the late 1980s after the Derryn Hinch publicity? One of Glennon’s later trials (in 2003) heard the testimony of a woman whose nephew was one of Glennon’s victims in the 1980s. She told the court that she saw her nephew in bed with Father Michael at “Karaglen” one night in 1986 when she walked through his room on the way to the bathroom.

Asked by Judge Roland Williams if she trusted Father Michael, the aunt declared: "Of course I did. I'm a Catholic aren't I? I mean, you go by the cloth… Who else do you trust in this world? ...He came around to our houses and we used to sing and we used to talk all hours of the night and enjoy each other's company because he was just good to talk to... I thought this world was good when you talked to a priest."

Similar statements were repeated throughout Glennon’s other trials.

Prosecutor Rosemary Carlin told one court session about Father Glennon’s popularity, charisma and persuasiveness among his followers. She said: "They think the world of Glennon... He is their priest, their friend, their confidant... He has shown them he has a profound understanding and respect for the Aboriginal culture."

During one trial, the jury was shown video footage of an open-air communion Mass which Father Glennon held at “Karaglen” in 1989. The footage included the smiling faces of three boys who were repeatedly abused by Glennon. One of them, aged 12, was dressed as an altar boy, leading a procession of children to make their first Holy Communion.

The video also included a sermon by Glennon, in which he told the congregation: "Everybody here, priest included, is and has been a most wicked, wilful sinner."

This is the kind of things that Father Michael Glennon was doing in the late 1980s, while (thanks to Derryn Hinch) he was out on bail.

Another Glennon trial, 1991

Eventually, in 1991, after the Hinch blunder had faded from the memory of potential jurors, it became possible to hold Glennon’s postponed trial.  Fortunately, this time, Hinch did not interfere with the work of the court. This jury found Glennon guilty of attempted buggery of a boy under 14 and two counts of buggery with violence.

Glennon was sentenced to jail but successfully appealed to the Victorian Court of Appeal, arguing that media publicity had prevented him receiving a fair trial.

Thus, Father Michael was a free man again — and he returned to his faithful followers.

Glennon still a part-time priest

On 29 December 1991, after Glennon's successful appeal, Melbourne’s Sunday Age wondered whether Father Michael Glennon was “still a priest”. Melbourne’s Catholic vicar-general (Monsignor Hilton Deakin) said that, although the archdiocese had stopped appointing Glennon to parishes, "we returned his rights  [to act as a priest] for one day at a time— for the funeral of his mother and the wedding of his sister.”

In other words, Glennon was still a Catholic priest, being allowed officially to minister, on behalf of the Melbourne archdiocese, on specified occasions.

Anyway, Father Michael Glennon told the Sunday Age that he had no plans to rejoin the Catholic Church in an official capacity.

Asked what he planned to do, Father Glennon said he would apply for unemployment benefits, but “what do I say when they ask me what I’m qualified to do? I’m pretty good as a Catholic priest – what have you got in that line?”

Jailed in 1992, 1999 and 2003

Glennon’s successful appeal against his 1991 conviction was short-lived. In 1992 the Victorian state prosecution office successfully appealed to the High Court of Australia against the Victorian acquittal. Glennon was sent back to jail, this time for at least seven years (with no parole possible until mid-1998).

In 1997, as his release neared, Glennon was charged with new sex offences — 65 charges, involving 15 male victims and one female, between 1974 and 1991. The offences included indecent assault, buggery, attempted buggery and rape. Glennon committed many of his crimes while on bail awaiting trial for other sex offences, including during the delay caused by the Derryn Hinch publicity.

The youngest victim was seven years old. The victims included Aboriginal children, and Glennon used his knowledge of Aboriginal traditions to scare his victims into silence.

These proceedings were split into three separate trials, with different juries. Each trial was held in secret so that jury members could not be prejudiced (and, this time, radio shock-jock Hinch did not sabotage the trials):

• In May 1999, in the first trial, Glennon was convicted on all but five of 29 counts relating to the abuse of six children between 1974 and 1978. He immediately began serving a jail sentence for this conviction, with the total jail sentence to be increased if convicted after the subsequent trials.
   
• The second trial began in September 1999 and, after another appeal and a retrial, was decided in August 2003 when Glennon was convicted of sex assaults against an Aboriginal boy in 1983.
   
• The third of the split trials was held in August-October 2003 with a conviction. A jury found him guilty of 23 charges of abuse on three boys from 1986 to 1991.

A police officer told Broken Rites that the third trial was to have included a female victim but this victim was badly damaged and she died of a drug overdose before the case reached court.

Glennon sentenced, 2003

In November 2003, as a result of the three trials, Glennon (then aged 59) was sentenced to a total of 18 years jail, with a 15 year minimum. However, in 2005, after an appeal, some of the charges were quashed and his total sentence was reduced to a minimum of 10 years six months, dating from October 2003.

This meant that, at last, the children of Victoria were safe from Fr Michael Glennon.

Footnote

On 2 January 2014, after Glennon died, one of his victims (Graeme, born 1961) contacted Broken Rites and said:

"In 1978, when I was 17, I got into trouble. At Preston court, a magistrate named Hammond ordered me into the custody of Father Glennon. In court, a police officer (Sgt Anderson) objected to this order, knowing that Glennon was being charged with child-sex offences, but magistrate Hammond over-ruled the sergeant.

"At Karaglen camp, Glennon forced me to sleep with him and molested me. Later that year, Glennon received his first jail sentence, for the crimes that Sergeant Anderson already knew about.

"I didn't go to the police about what Glennon did to me, because I was already preoccupied with my teenage troubles."

Graeme added: "I would like to learn more about magistrate Hammond. Was he personally acquainted with Father Michael Glennon?"

• By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 17 December 2018)

This Broken Rites article is the most comprehensive account available about how the Marist Brothers allowed the sex-abuse criminal Brother Ross Francis Murrin to remain in their Order, thus giving him access to more child victims. Murrin has been jailed three times (in 2008 and 2010 and 2018) for child-sex crimes committed during his teaching career in Australian Catholic schools. There is evidence that his Marist superiors were aware many years ago about his criminal behaviour but they negligently allowed him to continue teaching, until some of Murrin's victims finally began speaking to the police detectives.

Murrin worked in eleven Catholic schools in New South Wales and Queensland. Here are three examples:

• Murrin's first school was the Marist Brothers boys' primary school in DACEYVILLE (in Sydney's east) in 1974. On 10 March 2008, Murrin was jailed after pleading guilty to 17 charges of indecently assaulting eight boys in Year 5 and Year 6 at this school.
   
• Murrin's third school was St Augustine's College in CAIRNS, Queensland, in 1979-81. Queensland police have taken sworn statements from former Cairns pupils, alleged that they were molested by Murrin. There is evidence that the school administration knew what Murrin was doing. Yet he was kept in the Marist order and was transferred to more schools.
   
• Murrin's sixth school was St Gregory's College in CAMPBELLTOWN (in Sydney's south-west) in 1985-87. On 4 February 2010 he was sentenced to additional jail time for repeatedly committing sexual assaults on a St Gregory's boy. This victim ("Rupert") is now taking civil action against the Marist Brothers and the school, seeking compenation to repair his damaged life. This jailing caught the attention of more of Murrin's ex-stucents, and therefore on 14 December 2018 he was jailed again regarding another St Gregory's College student.
   

Thus, as well as being a significant criminal matter, the Murrin story is also significant for potential civil actions by victims, seeking compensation.

As shown later in this article, the Marist Brothers were negligent in inflicting Murrin on his students, especially when the Marists kept transferring him (as a known offender) to more schools.

Civil action by victims

Canberra solicitor Jason Parkinson (principal of the legal firm Porters Lawyers) is acting for several Murrin victims seeking compensation

He says he possesses evidence that the Marists knew that Murrin was a danger to children.

Jason Parkinson told Broken Rites:

"After he indecently assaulted the boys at Daceyville, the Marist Order transferred Murrin to a school in Queanbeyan [in southern New South Wales, near Canberra] and then to Cairns, Queensland.

"The Cairns school is particularly significant. From 1979 at Cairns, Murrin committed multiple indecent assaults against boarders. Two siblings — let us call them 'Ian Windsor' and 'Gordon Windsor' [not their real names] — were repeatedly assaulted by Murrin when he was their boarding master. Unusually for victims of child sexual abuse, Ian and Gordon told their father, who travelled from a remote part of Queensland to confront the Marist headmaster in Cairns.

"Murrin wrote a letter apologising to the Marist Brothers Order. This letter is now in the hands of the New South Wales Police and has been subpoened by Porters Lawyers. Murrin also wrote a letter of apology to the family.

"Ian and Gordon allege that the Marist headmaster gave them two tickets to a circus by way of compensation for Murrin's assaults.

"After Murrin attacked another St Augustine's boarder during a school camp in 1981, both he and the Marist headmaster left the school. The ex-headmaster later became prominent in Marist 'youth welfare' in Australia nationally."

Murrn's sixth school was St Gregory's College in Campbelltown NSW, where he repeatedly assaulted "Rupert". Jason Parkinson's firm is acting for Rupert in Rupert's action against the Marists and the school for compensation.

Parkinson says that the Cairns background is crucial for Rupert's compensation case, because Rupert's assault occurred long after the Marists undoubtedly knew that Murrin was a danger to children.

The Cairns and Campbelltown schools were both boarding schools and Murrin was assigned to be a boarding master at both schools.

Jason Parkinson says: "During the 1970s and 80's the religious Brothers in boarding schools had more power over the children than their parents did. To repeatedly give a paedophile access to children in that setting is reckless and reprehensible."

Jason Parkinson was present at the Campbelltown sentencing in February 2010. As well as acting for "Rupert", he is also acting in compensation actions for other victims of Murrin from other schools.

Parkinson has been tracking Murrin's movements from his first school (in Sydney's Daceyville) to his next ten schools. Parkinson has travelled from Canberra to Cairns, Brisbane and the Gold Coast locating Murrin victims and gathering evidence.

Broken Rites research

Representatives of Broken Rites have attended Murrin's court hearings in Sydney and Campbelltown, taking notes of the proceedings (for this article) and chatting with victims. In addition, other victims of Murrin have contacted Broken Rites from both New South Wales and Queensland — either before or after the court proceedings.

Broken Rites has obtained this list of the eleven schools at which Murrin worked:

1. 1974: Marist Brothers primary school in Daceyville, in Sydney's east, followed by a year (1975) in training at the Marist Brothers novitiate in Mittagong NSW;
    
2. 1976: Marist Brothers primary school (now called St Gregory's parish school) in Queanbeyan NSW, followed by two years teacher training (1977-78);
    
3. 1979-81: St Augustine’s College, Cairns, Queensland (with boarding-school duties);
    
4. 1982-83: Marcellin College junior school, Coogee in Sydney (as primary deputy principal);
    
5. 1984: Marist High School, Parramatta in western Sydney (secondary);
    
6. 1985-87: St Gregory’s College, Campbelltown NSW (secondary, with boarding-school duties);
    
7. 1988-89: Marist High School, Parramatta, Sydney (secondary);
    
8. 1990-93: St Joseph’s College, Hunters Hill, Sydney (secondary, with boarding-school duties);
    
9. 1994:-2000: Marist College, Ashgrove, Brisbane;
    
10. 2001: St Patrick’s Marist College, Dundas, Sydney;
     
11. 2002: Marist College North Shore, Sydney.

At Coogee and Campbelltown, Murrin's duties included being the "religious" education co-ordinator.

Judge refers to the Marists' folly

According to court evidence, Murrin (born on 10 June 1955) completed his own schooling (Higher School Certificate) in 1972. In January 1973, aged 17, he joined the Marists and spent that year as a "postulant" (that is, as a candidate for admission). As part of his training, he was appointed as a Marist Brother to teach primary classes at the Daceyville school in February 1974, when he was just 18.

At Murrin's sentencing (regarding the Daceyville offences) in March 2008, Judge Helen Murrell told the court: "Despite his youth and lack of teacher training (let alone training in relation to appropriate sexual boundaries), the offender was given responsibility for a Year 5 class of 30-35 students [at Daceyville]. In effect, he was unsupervised."

The judge said: "The folly of placing an 18 or 19-year-old youth in charge of 30-35 Year 5 boys must have been obvious."

[That is, the Marist Brothers put these students at risk from Day One.]

When Murrin's lawyer submitted "mitigating" evidence (seeking a lenient sentence for Murrin), Murrin's psychiatrist told the court that Murrin had fallen victim to a system which had wrongly allowed him to teach at the "extraordinarily young" age of 18 and which had been "very slow to respond to this nature of sexual abuse".

[This amounted to an admission that the Marist Brothers order was negligent in turning Murrin loose upon young boys.]

Offences at his first school

The Daceyville school, where Murrin's first charged offences occurred, was a boys-only campus in Banks Avenue. The school was then being run by the Marist Brothers but the Banks Avenue campus has since been replaced by a full co-ed primary school (St Michael's school), now run by the Catholic Education Office.

The court hearing in 2008 was told that the abuse often occurred when Murrin asked one of the boys to come to his desk and ordered him to sit on his lap. He would then maul the boy sexually in front of the rest of the class.

A number of the offences took place on a "religious" retreat or during detention, with one boy molested while the class was in the library watching a movie.

The most serious incident occurred during a weekend, when Murrin grabbed one of the victims from behind and pinned him to the floor before pulling his pants down.

Murrin's behaviour was "quite open", the court was told. A pupil would witness another pupil being assaulted.

Judge Murrell said that Brother Murrin, even at 18, was tall. She said the victims were intimidated by the status and size of the offender.

The court was told that the victims were forced to remain silent about the abuse. Judge Murrell said: "One victim complained to his parents but he was disbelieved. His parents could not comprehend that a person in the offender's position would breach the trust reposed in him."

The 17 Daceyville charges were not Murrin's only offences. He admitted that there were other occasions he had abused the children for which he had not been charged.

And these eight boys were not necessarily Murrin's only Daceyville victims. They were merely those who were located by the police 30 years later. And they were merely those who agreed to make a signed, sworn statement for court purposes.

One victim died

At a pre-sentence hearing (regarding the Daceyville offences) in Sydney District Court on 1 February 2008, the court heard impact statements, showing how the abuse disrupted the adolescence of Brother Murrin's victims.

One victim ("Gary") ended up as a drug addict, dying of a drug overdose in 1987 aged 22, the court was told.

The assault of "Gary" was witnessed by another boy, whose testimony enabled police to charge Murrin in relation to the deceased victim, the court was told.

Gary's father said in his impact statement that the abuse by Murrin when Gary was 10 in Primary Year 5 completely changed the boy.

"This revelation (caused our family) total emotional distress and heartbreak," the father told the court.

"I'm now in a position to understand my son's disinterest in school matters."

The boy became "secretive and reclusive" and withdrew from the family, and developed a substance addiction to mask his low self-esteem and feelings of little worth.

The boy entered rehabilitation at 18 and left the program 40 times in five years, unable to overcome the demons of his past.

"The family was extremely fearful of his instability, that it would result in the loss of his life, which it did," his father said.

The revelation of Murrin's abuse sparked a "chain of detrimental events" for the family, leading to a "meltdown", he said.

"The effect of this knowledge of the abuse was far-reaching. Our grand-children in Catholic schools, we fear that they are suffering.

"Our belief has been rocked in all things Catholic."

In court, the Marist Brothers' lawyer demanded that the court should not allow this father to describe how Murrin's sexual abuse affected the whole family, instead of just how it affected the boy. The judge therefore prevented the father from reading his full statement to the court.

Another impact statement

Another of Murrin's victims, "Boris", said his faith in God had been destroyed by Murrin's assaults.

"It was only in my adult life that I realised that Ross Murrin betrayed all of us ... everyone in our class of about 30 students," he said.

"He betrayed the local community, he betrayed the New South Wales state government, the Marist Brothers order, the Catholic church and, most of all, our parents."

"My parents entrusted us to the Catholic system of education, they paid with their blood, sweat and tears to get my brothers and I through a more ethical system ... the same system that was supposed to protect us, the same system that my parents had trusted so much."

"I have not reached out and spoken to God for a long time ... I hope God and my father can forgive me for my many years of absence from our faith," the victim said.

Locked up

After this pre-sentence hearing on 1 February 2008, Judge Helen Murrell refused bail and remanded Murrin in custody to be sentenced on a later date.

A Broken Rites representative, who was present in court, saw Murrin being escorted from the courtroom to the cells.

In effect, this was the beginning of his incarceration.

What the judge said

Sentencing Murrin on 10 March 2008, Judge Helen Murrell enumerated Murrin’s charged offences, one by one. For some of the victim's families, this was the first time they had heard the details of Murrin's crimes.

Broken Rites obtained a copy of the judge's 15-page sentencing remarks.

Judge Murrell said the offences were generally "impulsive or opportunistic", but Murrin's position of authority over the students was an aggravating factor.

She said: "Each of the offences is objectively serious because it involved a breach of trust by a person in authority. Through most of the 1974 school year, the offender was a very important authority figure to each of his pupils. His status was secondary only to that of their parents. in addition to educating and supervising his pupils, the offender was supposed to provide moral guidance. Several offences occurred when the offender and his pupils were on a religious retreat. The offender breached the trust reposed in him by his pupils, their parents and the church."

Referring to the impact on the victims, the judge said: "They [the victims] were affected by having witnessed earlier assaults. They felt violated, ashamed and isolated. They lost self-confidence. Some became bullies and/or targets for bullies. Some developed anger management problems.

"Some victims continue to experience flashbacks, sleep disturbance and intrusive thoughts. Most victims have experienced difficulty with trust and with developing close relationships, particularly with women. Some continue to struggle with depression and anxiety. Some turned to drugs or alcohol to alleviate their pain. In 1987 [one victim] died of a drug overdose...

"It is inevitable that significant and repeated child sexual assault that goes unrecognised and untreated will have a substantial impact on the victim."

The judge noted that "in cases of childhood sexual assault, for understandable reasons, victims often delay reporting the misconduct."

The judge noted that in 1974, the age gap between Murrin and his victims was not large. She said that, in Murrin's more adult years, "as far as can be ascertained", he has directed his homosexual orientation towards adult males.

Jailed

For the Daceyville offences, Judge Murrell gave Murrin a maximum jail sentence of three years and three months, with a non-parole period of 18 months.

Murrin was charged under the laws of the 1970s. The judge noted: "In 1974, non-custodial sentences were common for offences of this type. [Since then] the community has come to ... understand that authority figures, even figures of religious authority, are not immune from such conduct."

The offender's career

The court was told that Murrin started out as a primary teacher but in the 1980s and 1990s he did university studies, majoring in French. From about 1984 onwards, his teaching duties were with secondary-level students, teaching "religion", mathematics and French.

The court was told that in 2002 two of his Daceyville victims contacted the church authorities and Murrin spent 2003 in “renewal”. But he continued to be accepted by the Marist Brothers order. When the police investigated him in 2007, Murrin was in Rome, working for the Catholic Church as a translator.

A father's grief

Several of the victims, plus their families, were present in court during the March 2008 sentence proceedings. One spectator was the father (let us call him "Sam") whose son "Gary" died from a drug overdose.

Outside the court, Sam told Broken Rites:

"Sitting in the court during the several days of proceedings, I reflected on the irony of the situation. Here we were -- me and my wife, with my son's three grieving sisters, and their husbands (all Catholic), plus four of the sexually abused victims.

"Also in court were four Marist Brothers. Now I would have expected the Marist Brothers would be supporting the wrecked Catholic victims of the Marist system but, no, the four Marist Brothers were there supporting the offender, Murrin."

Sam said that the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions was "smart" in obtaining a guilty plea. The guilty plea meant that Murrin became convicted automatically. Therefore, there was no contest, and the victims were not required to give evidence in court.

Sam said: "My family and I were satisfied with Judge Murrell's sentence — in a climate where you get only seven years for murder."

Radio interview

On 11 March 2008, the day after the sentencing, broadcaster Ray Hadley interviewed the grieving father, "Sam", on Sydney's radio 2GB.

On air, Sam said he did not know about his son's sexual abuse until police contacted him in July 2007. The police obtained a school photo and located the boys who were in Murrin's class. The police told Sam that other victims had reported that Sam's son "Gary" was one of Murrin's victims. This was a surprise to Sam but it helped Sam to understand the tragic decline in his son's behaviour in the years after the boy left the Daceyvillle school.

Sam told 2GB that, after his Murrin left the Daceyville school, Murrin continued to have contact with "Gary".

In his teens, Gary became secretive and, unknown to his parents, he started consuming marijuana and tablets and later heroin, Sam said.

Sam said he learned recently that two of Murrin's victims contacted the Marist Brothers in 2002. The Marist Brothers "paid them off", Sam said.

But, said Sam, in 2002 the Marists failed to alert other families from Murrin's class at Daceyville to see if there were any other victims who might need help. The Marists remained silent. Eventually, after a victim went to the police, the police contacted Murrin's ex-pupils in 2007 and did what the Marists had failed to do. But it was too late to help Sam's son Gary.

[That is, Broken Rites believes that it was the police, not the Marist Brothers, who provided moral leadership in the whole Murrin affair.]

The story breaks in Queensland

After the 2GB broadcast on 11 March 2008, "Sam" told Broken Rites: "The 2GB telephone receptionist told me that, after Ray Hadley first mentioned the Ross Murrin case, the studio switchboard received a call from a listener, who was a former resident of Cairns in Queensland. The caller did not want to go on air but he told the receptionist that, on his first night as a boarder at a Marist Brothers school in Cairns, the caller had an encounter with Murrin."

Later that week, on 13 March 2008, the phone call regarding Cairns was reported as a news item on page three of the Cairns Post (far-north Queensland daily newspaper). And, in the same newspaper on 15 March 2008, the Marist headquarters in Sydney confirmed that Brother Murrin had indeed taught in Cairns in 1979-81.

Earlier, on 24 February 2009 the Cairns Post had reported that Murrin is under police investigation in relation to a charge of sexual misconduct while he was working at St Augustine’s College in Cairns in 1979-81. Murrin had boarding-school duties at the school.

The newspaper said: "It is feared that there may be many unknown victims of Murrin."

Jailed again, for Campbelltown crimes

The jailing of Murrin in 2008 was reported in Sydney daily newspapers and also in suburban weekly newspapers where Murrin had worked — that is, papers circulating in the Daceyville area and in Campbelltown. This prompted a victim from St Gregory's college in Campbelltown — "Rupert"— to contact the police. He pointed out that Daceyville boys were not Murrin's only victims.

During 2009, while Murrin was in jail, court proceedings were held, at which Murrin was charged with offences against Rupert.

On 4 February 2010, Judge Sorby in the Campbelltown District Court sentenced Murrin for sexually abusing a 14 year old boarder ("Rupert") in his care at St Gregory’s College, Campbelltown in 1982.

During the Campbelltown pre-sentence hearings, adjustments were made to some of the charges. The Campbelltown offences, for which Murrin finally pleaded guilty, included:

• 6 counts of homosexual intercourse with a pupil;
• 1 count of attempted homosexual intercourse with a pupil; and
• 2 counts of assault with act of indecency.

Murrin’s guilty plea qualified him for a discount in his sentence. He was sentenced to additional jail time (on top of his Daceyille sentence), extending to 31 January 2015, with parole possible after 31 July 2014.

After Murrin's sentencing, the Campbelltown victim ("Rupert") said outside the court: "As a boy I needed help, not abuse. Murrin assaulted and abused me in a way no child should ever hear of, let alone experience. My life, as well as my family’s life, has been wrecked by that Marist Brother."

How the church treated this victim - Mr "DK"

One of Brother Ross Murrin's victims, from St Augustine's College in Cairns, has told his story to Australia's national Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. This victim, who is being referred to at the royal commission by the code-name Mr "DK", has given evidence at a public hearing of the commission in Sydney. His evidence tells how he was treated by the church authorities when he tried to obtain justice from the church.

Mr DK became a boarder at Saint Augustine's College in Cairns in 1976 (when he was aged eleven) and stayed there until 1981. He says his life has been disrupted by the Catholic Church. He says that, as well as being abused by Brother Ross Murrin (and other Brothers), he was later re-victimised by the church authorities.

Mr DK said he had put his faith in the Marist Brothers three times, but each time he was betrayed.

The first time was when he was a student at St Augustine’s College, Cairns. He was abused by three different Marist brothers from when he was 11 in 1976. The third Brother, in 1981, was Brother Ross Francis Murrin. This upset him the most because he had turned to Brother Murrin “in my time of need and fear” and thought they were good friends.

Mr DK told the Royal Commission he believes other Brothers at the school and its then-principal (Brother Gerald Burns) knew of Murrin's sexual abuse of boys while it was going on.

“After the abuse by Brother Murrin, I received a number of floggings and was treated differently by the Brothers. I remember being excluded from events and feeling like they were trying to get me to leave the school”, he testified. He said his academic results suffered.

The second betrayal, DK said, was in 2009-2010 when he went through the Catholic Church's Towards Healing process for victims. DK first heard about Towards Healing when he approached the Marist Brothers in 2009. He was given a phone number but was greeted with a voice-mail message. He did not persevere for several months.

In early 2010, DK rang the head office of the Marist Brothers and was put through to the director of professional standards for the Marist order at the time, Brother Alexis Turton. DK said when the mediation session took place in Brisbane on March 30, 2010, he wanted answers from three of the Marist Brothers who he says knew about Murrin's behaviour.

When his session to discuss compensation was organised, Mr Michael Salmon was appointed to co-ordinate the meeting. DK told the hearing that church authorities told him that Mr Salmon was "independent".

DK said that his mediation meeting was "aggressive and destructive." He described Towards Healing as a “sham” (more like Towards HURTING).

DK was paid a settlement out of the Towards Healing process and received a written apology, but much of the investigation took place without engagement or communication with him, he said. DK says he later saw Mr Salmon, on television, defending the Catholic Church. DK says he then learned that Mr Salmon is in fact employed by the Catholic Church (as the director of the Catholic Church’s NSW Professional Standards Office).

DK said that the third betrayal revealed itself in his preparations for the Royal Commission when he saw “terribly hurtful” documents that had previously been kept from him. He was disgusted to read how the Marist Brothers were preoccupied with potential legal liability. They showed “complete lack of concern” for his well-being.

He “read and discovered things that are so morally repugnant” that he thought “those involved in the Towards Healing process have totally lost their way”.

Brother Alexis Turton, who was called to appear at the Royal Commission, admitted to the commission that he brought Mr Salmon in to conduct DK's compensation meeting, even though involving a PSO director was expressly against Towards Healing rules. Turton said it was an “oversight” and he acknowledged the potential conflict of interest.

On 22 January 2014, Mr Michael Salmon appeared at the Royal Commission. Answering questions, Mr Salmon told the inquiry he does not think the person co-ordinating a compensation hearing needs to be impartial.

The Chair of the Royal Commission, Justice Peter McClellan, expressed his concern to Mr Salmon.

"It seems to me that if the purpose of the facilitator is to get the best outcome for the person who has suffered, that a lack of identity with the Church would be fundamental to a perception of a fair process," Justice McClellan said.

Counsel Assisting the Commission, Gail Furness SC, also questioned Michael Salmon about the decision to appoint Church employees.

"Why didn't you, back then, know the importance of properly conveying to a person attending Towards Healing your employment, and doing so in writing before agreeing to engage as the facilitator?" she said.

Michael Salmon responded that he made the decisions "in good faith".

Jailed again in 2018

Media coverage of Murrin's convictions caught the attention of more of his former students, some of whom spoke to NSW detectives. On 14 December 2018, Murrin (then aged 63) faced Campbelltown District Court, where Judge O'Brien sentenced him to 10 months in prison (with a five month non-parole period) for indecent assault of a young student at St Gregory's College in 1985.

• By a Broken Rites reseacher, article update 29 December 2018

Broken Rites is doing further research about a Catholic priest, Father Bernard Maxwell Day, who was living at a girls' orphanage in Victoria in the early 1960s. Father Day was one of a series of "chaplains" who occupied a flat at the orphanage. His "duties" including hearing each girl's Confession; this sacred ritual enabled a priest to talk to a girl about sex. A senior nun got Father Day removed after allegations that he was molesting girls at the orphanage. In a submission to a Victorian Parliamentary inquiry in 2013, the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese admitted that Fr Day committed sexual offences against children.

The orphanage (demolished in 1975) was St Catherine's Children's Home, which was situated in St Catherine's Street, Highton (a suburb of Geelong). Operated by the Sisters of Mercy religious order, St Catherine's accommodated about 100 girls each year in the 1960s, aged from 2 to 16.

St Catherine's orphanage had a chaplain's flat, where a priest would live. As Geelong is situated in the archdiocese of Melbourne, the flat was occupied by one of the diocesan priests who worked in Geelong. The priest would act as the girls' chaplain, possibly while also ministering in a neighbouring parish church.

In 1961-63, the flat was occupied by Father Bernard Maxwell Day. The nun then in charge of St Catherine's orphanage was Reverend Mother Aquin. Former inmates of St Catherine's say that Mother Aquin learned about Father Day molesting girls and she therefore had him removed from the institution.

In 1997 a Melbourne Herald Sun reporter located Mother Aquin, who confirmed to the reporter (18 April 1997, page 9) that she had sought the removal of Father Day from St Catherine's in the 1960s. By the 1990s, Mother Aquin had changed her name to Sister Veronica.

Opportunities for abuse

At St Catherine's orphanage, the chaplain's role included hearing the girls' Confessions and giving individual "counselling". The ritual of Confession enabled a priest to talk to a girl about sex.

There was a lack of proper sex education at the orphanage, and many girls obtained their first sexual knowledge through a priest.

The system at St Catherine's provided a chaplain with many temptations and opportunities. After early morning Mass, the priest's breakfast would be prepared in the convent kitchen and a girl would have to take it to the priest's flat. A girl would also be sent to tidy the priest's bedroom and make his bed.

A chaplain had the run of the orphanage premises and it was accepted that he could call a girl to his quarters to give her "individual counselling". There was no independent person outside the orphanage for the girls to complain to.

Many of the girls formed lasting impressions of men from their experience of a priest.

When former St Catherine's girls meet at reunions, they still talk about Father Bernard Maxwell Day.

A former inmate: Liz

Liz, born in 1955, has told Broken Rites:

"I was very young (only about eight) when Father Day was at St Catherine's in the early 1960s and I didn't encounter him but the older girls still talk about Day when they meet after all these years.

"These women say that Father Day used to sit girls on his knee and touch them indecently. These girls assumed that this was the normal job of priests.

"As these girls did not have parents to talk to in the evenings, it was difficult for them to complain about sexual abuse.

"The mother superior, Mother Aquin, learned that Father Day was sexually abusing girls. She got rid of Day and told the girls to keep quiet about it.

"Some girls who were sent to do Day's housework say they found pornographic material in his room."

Another ex-inmate: Beryl

Beryl, born in 1949, has told Broken Rites:

"I was about 14 when Father Day was at St Catherine's. I disliked him and kept out of his way. One day, about 1963, we woke up to find that Father Day had suddenly vanished. Mother Aquin told us girls that Father Day had done things that could bring shame to St Catherine's and therefore we must never talk to anybody about him. We later learned from other girls that Day had sexually abused some girls.

"The priest's house was quite separate, about 200 metres from the orphanage. It had its own gate and fence. It had two bedrooms. I used to do house work there.

"Father Day had a sibling who was a nun in the Sisters of Mercy (the order which conducted St Catherine's) and she was the head of a Catholic girls' school in Geelong, also conducted by the Mercy Sisters. Therefore the church in Geelong was keen to cover up the Father Day scandal."

The priest's background

Broken Rites has researched Day's career through the annual Australian Catholic Directories. Broken Rites ascertained that Day was ordained in 1936 and spent his entire career in the Melbourne diocese (which includes Geelong). His earliest parishes (in chronological order) included Collingwood, Essendon, Altona, North Melbourne, Balaclava, Daylesford, Pakenham and Cheltenham.

He then became chaplain at St Catherine's orphanage in 1961. He is listed at St Catherine's in the Catholic Directories published in early 1962 and early 1963. He was evidently removed from St Catherine's during 1963.

St Catherine's was not the only girls' institution at which Father Day worked. In 1953-54, his address was St Ursula's College, boarding school conducted by the Ursuline nuns, at Macedon, north of Melbourne.

The priest's later activities

After being removed from St Catherine's orphanage, Father Day served in Melbourne suburban parishes (St Roch's in Glen Iris, St John the Evangelist in East Melbourne and St John the Baptist in Clifton Hill).

At the East Melbourne parish, Father Bernard Maxwell Day was listed as "Father M. Day", which indicates that he may also have been known by his middle name — that is, Max Day or Maxie Day.

Broken Rites has ascertained that Father Day continued molesting girls after leaving St Catherine's. In the early 1970s, when he was at the Clifton Hill parish, he visited the local state primary schools to conduct religious instruction classes.

A woman teacher at the North Fitzroy state primary school in 1971-4 has told Broken Rites: "Day used to indecently touch Grade 6 girls in the corridors and schoolyard when he visited the school to teach a weekly catechism class. I complained to the principal and Day stopped coming to the school for a while. However, about 1974 he re-appeared at the school for catechism and resumed the molestation. I reported him again and he was banned from the school again. Girls told me that Day also molested them at the parish church, where it was easier for him to get away with it."

Father Day retired from the priesthood in the late 1970s and died about 1988.

Former St Catherine's girls have also named two other sexually abusive priests from the 1960s.

Cruelty

While some girls at St Catherine's experienced sexual abuse, a greater number experienced physical and emotional cruelty and neglect.

Beryl, whom we quoted earlier in this article, told Broken Rites: "Some of the nuns could be nice. However, it was a harsh place. For example, there were terrible punishments for bed-wetting. A bed-wetter could be forced to parade around with her wet sheets over her head and body."

Beryl said: "Some St Catherine's girls came from large families. In some cases, the whole family was placed in orphanages but the family was split, with one child placed here and the others scattered around in various other institutions. Some St Catherine's girls suspected that they had brothers and sisters but they did not know how to find them. Some St Catherine's girls are still searching for a long-lost brother or sister.

"St Catherine's orphanage had some positive aspects — for example, the friendships they made there. But this is due to the girls themselves, not to the institution," Beryl said.

In 1997, Broken Rites alerted The Age newspaper in Melbourne about the physical and emotional cruelty at St Catherine’s, and the paper published a series of articles about this on 16-18 April 1997. 

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 29 December 2018

Broken Rites has helped to obtain justice for victims of one of Australia's most notorious Catholic priests, Father John Sidney Denham. Father Denham's superiors and colleagues knew about his child-sex crimes but this information was concealed from the police. Finally, with advice from Broken Rites, some victims began to contact the police, so Denham was convicted in court in the year 2000 and again in 2010 and 2015 (and jailed). The sentencing judge in 2015 made scathing comments about how this criminal priest had been protected by the Catholic Church. In 2018, Denham was convicted again after another of his victims contacted the police. He will be sentenced in early 2019. Meanwhile, he remains in jail.

Denham's latest conviction, on 11 October 2018, is mentioned at the end of this Broken Rites article, but first here is some background about Denham's life of crime.

Some background

Broken Rites began hearing about Father John Denham in the late 1990s when we were contacted by one of his victims (and later by other victims). Therefore, Broken Rites began researching Denham in church publications. We ascertained that Denham (born on 8 September 1942) was recruited in the 1960s as a trainee priest for the Newcastle-Maitland Diocese, north of Sydney. As a trainee and later as a priest, he officially belonged to this diocese, and it is usual for diocesan priests to spend their whole career in one diocese. (The Catholic Church in the state of New South Wales is divided into eleven dioceses.)

As a trainee priest, Denham was a danger to children from Day One. According to statements that were eventually made in court, some of Denham's child-sex crimes were committed during his period of training.

Broken Rites searched through the annual printed editions of the Australian Catholic Directory to trace Denham's movements. For example, we ascertained that, in the final stage of his training, he was a deacon (an assistant to other priests) in the Mayfield parish in 1972. After being ordained, he moved to the Singleton parish (St Patrick's) in 1973.

According to Denham's victims, his superiors knew in the 1970s about the offences he was committing against children but this information did not reach the police. The church allowed Denham to continue as a priest and merely transferred him to new districts, thereby putting more children at risk.

The school building with bedrooms for six priests

Broken Rites ascertained that in 1973 Father Denham joined the staff of St Pius X College (also known as St Pius X Catholic High School) at Adamstown, Newcastle. This was then a boys-only school. Many of the victims in the Denham court charges in 2009 were students at this school.

In the 1979 Directory of Australian Catholic Clergy, six priests (including Father Denham) were listed as teaching — and living — on this school's premises.

Yes, not just one priest . . . but SIX of them. A bedroom for even just one priest should have raised some eyebrows.

The priests had bedrooms in the same building as the classrooms, as we will explain later in this article.

The story of Tim

At St Pius X Catholic High School, Father Denham became well known for his habit of touching boys indecently. Broken Rites has interviewed one such pupil — "Tim" (not his real name) — who was at this school in 1978-9. By chance, in October 1979, Tim's mother overheard 14-year-old Tim telling another boy that it was "not safe to be with Father Denham".

After quizzing Tim, the mother went to see the school administration, who promised to "deal with" Denham. However, Denham continued working at the school that year. Therefore, Tim's mother decided to remove her son from the school after the end of 1979. In 1980 Tim transferred to a government high school, which he found to be educationally excellent. Meanwhile, the church culture prevented Denham's offences from being reported to the police.

Denham in parishes in the 1980s

In 1980, following the 1979 complaint, the diocese transferred Denham away from St Pius X Catholic High School to work as an assistant priest in parishes. First, he worked at the Charlestown parish (in the Newcastle urban area). In 1981 he was transferred to a parish ("Our Lady of the Rosary") in Taree (a coastal town, north of Newcastle), where he stayed for four years.

In these parishes, Denham worked with altar boys as well as school boys. The church authorities kept quiet about Denham's record at St Pius Catholic High School. Thus, the church was putting more children in danger.

During this parish work, he committed more offences and again, the church authorities (as usual) concealed these crimes from the police. Eventually, at least one Denham victim from this period reported Denham's crimes to the police (instead of merely to the church authorities). Thus, some of Denham's offences from this period were were included in his court charges in 2009.

Denham at a Sydney school

In 1987, the Maitland-Newcastle diocese "solved" its Denham problem by arranging to transfer him "on loan" to work as a "chaplain" at Waverley College (a Christian Brothers secondary school), in Waverley, in Sydney's east. Research by Broken Rites indicates that, throughout the next seven years, "Reverend John Denham" continued to be listed in the annual Australian Catholic directories as belonging to the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, although working at Waverley College.

Thus, the church authorities were putting more children at risk. During his time at Waverley CBC, according to police, Denham was charged with "having intercourse, as a teacher, with a male aged 10 to 18 years". However, helped by church lawyers, Denham successfully contested the charges in court.

In 1994 Denham was accepted for a role at the Chevalier Resource Centre, a theological library located in the grounds of the Sacred Heart Monastery (owned by a religious order, the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart) in the eastern Sydney suburb of Kensington. This role involved working on church archives.

Broken Rites found that, from 1995 onwards, after he joined the Chevalier Resource Centre, Denham was still listed in the annual Australian Catholic directories as "ReverendJohn Denham, on leave from the Maitland-Newcastle diocese". His forwarding address was care of the Maitland-Newcastle diocesan office.

Convicted in 2000

In 1997, Tim (the above-mentioned victim who had been a pupil St Pius X Catholic High School 18 years earlier) phoned Broken Rites. Tim (then aged 32) was now a father himself, and he was keen to protect all children from pedophiles.

After speaking with Broken Rites, Tim contacted an appropriate police unit, where he made a signed statement. Tim's complaint was investigated by a senior Newcastle detective, Mark Dixon. While investigating Tim's complaint, the police learned about the similar charges that Denham had beaten relating to Waverley Christian Brothers College.

Denham was charged regarding Tim's complaint and underwent committal proceedings in a magistrate's court in 1999. The magistrate ordered Denham to stand trial before a judge in the New South Wales District Court. Denham's solicitor was prominent Sydney lawyer John Marsden.

Eventually, in the District Court at Sydney's Downing Centre in 2000, a jury convicted Father Denham on two incidents of indecent assault against Tim (case number 99111180). Denham, then aged in his late fifties, was given a two-years jail sentence, which was suspended.

Still "reverend" after his conviction

Unfortunately, there was no media coverage of Denham's 2000 conviction. Therefore, the New South Wales Catholic community in general was not aware of the conviction.

A year later, despite this conviction, "Reverend John Denham" was still listed as a priest in the 2001 edition of the Directory of Australian Catholic Clergy. The directory said he was a priest "on leave from the Maitland diocese", with a Post Office box at Oatley in Sydney's south, but it did not say what his Sydney activities were.

Because of the lack of media exposure, it was possible for the church authorities to use Father Denham as a relieving priest in parishes at weekends - and no "alarm bells" would ring to warn parents and children about Denham's past.

In 2005, when Denham was aged about 62, Broken Rites ascertained that he was then working on week-days in the Sydney library of a religious order of priests. But what was he doing at weekends, when there was often a need for a relieving priest to do church services?

Despite the lack of media coverage, Broken Rites still received occasional phone calls or emails from former students or parishioners inquiring about Denham.

In November 2005, Tim (the victim from St Pius X Catholic High School in the 2000 court case) phoned Broken Rites again. He said he had learned that Denham was currently in Sydney's "supply" pool of priests who were available to do casual work as a relieving priest at weekends. Tim contacted the church's Professional Standards office in Sydney and its counterpart in Newcastle, and both these offices confirmed that Denham was working in the "supply pool". Tim told Broken Rites: "This is an alarming situation."

Broken Rites article

In early 2006 Broken Rites published an article on its website about Denham's 2000 conviction and about the school with bedrooms for six priests. A journalist from the Newcastle Herald, Joanne McCarthy, noticed the Broken Rites article and did some more research. On 10 June 2006 the Newcastle Herald published an article (by Joanne McCarthy) about Denham, thus becoming the first newspaper to mention his 2000 conviction. The Newcastle Herald article mentioned Broken Rites.

After the Newcastle Herald article, Tim told Broken Rites: "Maybe, after this exposure, through Broken Rites and the Newcastle Herald, the church will find it harder to use Denham as a relieving priest. They have been getting away with this for too long."

The NewcastleHerald article prompted some of Denham's victims to read about him on the Broken Rites website and/or to contact the police. Joanne McCarthy continued researching Denham (and other cases of church-cover-up) and she began receiving information from her readers, which resulted in further Newcastle Herald articles.

In 2006 another informant spoke to Broken Rites about Denham's behaviour at the Taree parish in the mid-1980s, alleging that Denham used to show "sexy" videos and literature to young altar boys in the Taree presbytery.

Another police investigation

Meanwhile, in 2005, another victim of Denham contacted the police. A Newcastle detective, who did not know about Denham's 2000 conviction, checked the archives but could not find any conviction involving Denham.

The detective began contacting some former students from the St Pius X Catholic High School rolls and he happened to phone "Tim". When Tim told him about the 2000 conviction, the detective was surprised but he eventually unearthed it in the archives. Police believe that someone had filed the record of the 2000 conviction where it would be difficult to find.

In 2008, police started another investigation of Denham and gathered written statements from victims. Later that year, he was charged with multiple offences. He pleaded guilty in court in July 2009.

More about the school with six bedrooms

Several former students of St Pius X Catholic High School contacted Broken Rites in 2006, telling us more about the layout of the school in Denham's time.

One former student ("Syd") told Broken Rites: "St Pius X College was fundamentally an old factory that had been converted into a secondary school. Some new buildings had been added.

"The main building was long and narrow, with classrooms down the western side and with a hall, science labs and offices down the eastern side. The northern end was mostly occupied by the priests' living quarters, comprising a series of bedrooms, with shared living areas at the furthest end.

"In other words, the priests' quarters and the classrooms were on the same floor. Hence, when a boy was sent to the priests' quarters, it was as simple as walking from one room to another room. When I was a student there in the 1970s, it was not unusual for a boy to be sent or taken to the priests' living quarters.

"As well as his bedroom in the old building, Denham also had an office in another building. Boys also had occasion to go — or to be sent to — to Denham's office.

"Other members of the clergy must have known that Denham was up to mischief at this school but they turned a blind eye to it and allowed him to continue doing it.

"One of Denham's friends in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese in the 1970s was a younger priest who has since gone on to become one of Australia's most prominent Catholic clerics. This cleric must have known something."

Another ex-pupil of Denham at St Pius X ("Jerry") told Broken Rites in March 2006 that he agreed with Syd's description of the school layout.

Jerry said: "In the main building, you could go from the classrooms area to the priests' living quarters by just going through a door. I never knew this door to be locked.

"A priest might simply say 'come with me' and you would be led through this door."

Jerry added: "Yes, Denham targeted me. I was frightened and disorientated. It's something that you think is only happening to you because of who you are and the trouble you are in. You feel, or are made to feel, that it's your doing and has to be done to avoid big trouble."

However, Jerry says that he has not reported Denham to the police and says he probably will not get around to doing so now because he is pre-occupied with his young family. Jerry said he felt slightly guilty about leaving it to people like Tim to bring Denham to justice.

[Tim, Syd and Jerry do not know each other because they were in different years.]

Jailed in 2010 and 2015

For details of John Denham's court cases (resulting in his jailing in 2010 and 2015), see another Broken Rites article HERE.

Convicted in October 2018

On 11 October 2018, John Sidney Denham (aged 77) was found guilty of four offences against a young boy at Taree NSW in the late 1970s after a judge-alone trial (that is, no jury). The charges included one count of buggery and three counts of indecent assault.

A sentence hearing for Denham's Taree crimes will be held in Sydney in February 2019.

By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 1 January 2019

This Broken Rites article is the most comprehensive account available about how Catholic Church leaders knowingly protected a pedophile priest, Father Vincent Gerard Ryan. Ryan's superiors (in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese in New South Wales) knew that he was sexually assaulting boys in his parishes. But the church concealed Ryan's crimes from the police and kept him in the ministry for twenty years, giving him access to new victims. He has already been jailed for some of his crimes. In 2019, he is awaiting a further court case regarding some additional alleged victims.

Detectives discovered the church's cover-up of Ryan when they investigated Ryan in 1995 for sex-crimes spanning 20 years. In court appearances in 1996 and 1997, Ryan pleaded guilty to multiple offences against young boys, including sexual intercourse by anal and oral penetration, plus multiples charges of indecent assault by genital touching. By 1997, he had been sentenced to a total of 16 years' jail, with a minimum of 11 years.

On 27 April 2016, after one more of Ryan's victims spoke to the police, Ryan pleaded guilty to more of his offences; and, because of this guilty plea (plus his previous jail time), he was given a suspended sentence on 14 October 2016 (instead of being placed behind bars again).

Following is the Broken Rites research about Ryan's career of crime — and the church's cover-up.

The cover-up

Ordained in the late 1960s, Father Vincent Gerard Ryan studied in Rome and worked in North London before returning to New South Wales. By 1971, he was an assistant priest in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, being based firstly at St John the Baptist parish in Maitland and later (in 1974-75) in a Newcastle suburban parish. Publicly, he became a well-known and respected pastor but privately he was committing crimes.

Court documents, tendered by the prosecution in the 1996-1997 hearings, stated that:

• By 1975, the Maitland-Newcastle diocesan office learned that Vince Ryan was committing sexual crimes against boys. At this time, Monsignor Patrick Cotter was acting as the vicar-general, administering the diocese, following the death of Bishop John Toohey. As explained later in this article, Cotter covered up for Ryan. In 1976, Bishop Toohey was succeeded by Bishop Leo Clarke and the cover-up continued.
• The diocese evacuated Vince Ryan to Melbourne where he lived for a year in 1976 at a Franciscan retreat house in Kew. Newcastle parishioners were told that the reason for the trip was that Ryan would be doing a "pastoral" course of study in Melbourne. Ryan, however, told police in a tendered record of interview that the Melbourne study course was "a cover for me being out of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese".
• Ryan told police that, while in Melbourne, he had only one interview with a psychotherapist, with no on-going therapy.
• Dr. Peter J. Evans, a former Franciscan priest who had become a Melbourne psychiatrist, said in a tendered record of interview that he was a Franciscan priest when he had been asked, in Melbourne, to see Ryan. Ryan admitted to being sexually attracted to boys. Evans said he told Ryan that any treatment was best achieved in Ryan's own environment.
• After his year in Melbourne, Vince Ryan was brought back to Maitland-Newcastle where he was allowed to resume work as a priest. Although the diocese administration knew about Ryan's previous child-sex crimes, it again gave him access to altar boys, thereby putting these boys in danger.
• In the late 1970s, according to the annual editions of the Australian Catholic Directory, Ryan spent time at the parish of St Mary Star of the Sea in Newcastle, with access to altar boys.

Vince Ryan, who had a church diploma in canon law, worked in the early 1980s in the Maitland-Newcastle Diocesan Tribunal, which meant that he became privy to people's marriage problems when couples applied for an annulment of their marriage. During this time, he was a priest-in-residence at several Newcastle parishes.

In the 1980s, despite the church's knowledge of his child-sex crimes, Ryan was promoted to the position of a Parish Priest (that is, in charge of a parish) and, in the next ten years to 1995, he was awarded a total of three Parish Priest appointments, all in country parishes. It was revealed in court that Ryan continued to commit child sex crimes during this parish work.

The cover-up ends, 1995

Vincent Gerard Ryan's prominence as a senior clergyman in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese finally led to two victims catching up with him in 1995. The two men, who had not seen each other since school days, met up at a funeral. Afterwards, they discussed their school days and each revealed that he had been a victim of Ryan. Seeking to promote the protection of children in the future, one of the victims then contacted New South Wales detectives — and the investigation of Fr Vince Ryan began.

On 11 October 1995, when police were preparing to charge Ryan, the church authorities realised that the Ryan story was about to become public, thus damaging the church's public image. Therefore, the church finally withdrew Ryan from parish appointments, although officially he still had the status of a Catholic priest.

Newcastle news media reported on 16 October 1995 that an un-named priest had been arrested on child-abuse charges. Another victim then contacted police after he learned who the priest was. Another victim came forward in 1996.

Some of the charged offences occurred in a Newcastle suburban parish in 1972-75, while others occurred in a country parish between 1989 and 1994.

When arrested in 1995, Vincent Gerard Ryan had recently become the parish priest of Our Lady of the Rosary parish in Taree, north of Newcastle, but the charges related to earlier parishes.

The first charges, 1996

In May 1996 Father Vincent Gerard Ryan (then aged 58) pleaded guilty in the Newcastle District Court to charges including:

• SIX counts of indecently assaulting four boys, aged from 10 to 12; and
• FIVE counts of having intercourse with a boy by anal and oral penetration during a six-year period beginning when the boy was aged ten.
• In addition, charges of indecency involving two more boys (making a total of seven victims) were to be taken into account at sentencing.

The story of Sylvester

According to court evidence by Senior Detective Troy Grant (of the Major Crimes Squad, the officer in charge of the investigation), Ryan sexually abused one boy (Broken Rites will refer to this boy as "Sylvester" - not his real name) more than two hundred times during six years from the age of ten. The abuse included anal and oral penetration as well as masturbation.

Ryan, a trusted friend of Sylvester's family, had repeatedly supplied the victim with pornographic movies and magazines to sexually stimulate him. Detective Grant said police searched Ryan's home on 30 October 1995 and found exhibits to corroborate Sylvester's complaint. Ryan had admitted destroying certain pornographic material that he had shown to Sylvester.

Detective Grant said Sylvester has since tried several times to end his life by suicide, as a result of the sexual abuse.

Detective Grant said in a tendered document that Ryan had encouraged boys, after altar-boy practice, to masturbate him and themselves. Father Ryan had then encouraged them to pull down their pants and try to have anal intercourse with each other.

Sentenced in 1996

In May 1996, Ryan appeared in Newcastle District Court for sentencing. Some of Ryan's fellow clergy and parishioners submitted "character" references to the court on behalf of Ryan, seeking a lenient sentence.

Judge George Rummery sentenced Ryan to a maximum of four years' jail on the intercourse charge and to lesser concurrent terms on each of the other charges. He fixed a two-year non-parole period.

Ryan's two-year minimum sentence drew anger and disgust from his victims and their families.

One victim told the media: "The amount of time it has taken out of my life, the sleepless nights, everything, it's not good enough. Plucking up the courage to come forward, that has taken years for us to do, and I thought the courts would understand but they don't".

Reporting of the Father Ryan case was virtually confined to the Newcastle media (for example, the Newcastle Herald, April 24, May 24 and May 31, 1996), plus the Sydney Daily Telegraph. Most Australians, in the other states, did not hear about it.

The New South Wales Director of Public Prosecutions appealed against the leniency of Ryan's sentence but in August 1996 the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal.

"Still a priest"

Bishop Michael Malone, who took over the Maitland-Newcastle diocese in 1995, admitted to the Newcastle Herald (26 August 1996) that "there is a strong possibility that there could be other people in the diocese who were victims."

Bishop Malone told the paper that Father Ryan would not be stripped of his title despite his conviction, unlike other professions such as lawyers and medical practitioners.

Bishop Malone told the paper: "At this point in time Vince Ryan is still a priest until such time as he wants to leave the priesthood and return to the lay state — that would be his decison."

Convicted again, 1997

Following the publicity in mid-1996 about Ryan's lenient sentence, three more of his victims contacted the police. These victims were aged from 7 to 11 at the time of the offences. Ryan, who was in jail, was charged with six offences relating to these three victims.

Police continued their investigations and located still more victims. Some of these victims agreed to make police statements. In March 1997, Ryan was charged with 38 incidents of sexual assaults, which brought the total number of new offences to 44.

In June 1997, he was charged with nine more offences, bringing the total to 53, committed from 1972 to 1994. The 53 charges involved 26 victims, aged between six and 14 years. All were pupils at Ryan's parish school (of which, Ryan, as the Parish Priest, was the official manager). Some of the victims were altar boys.

Ryan pleaded guilty to all 53 charges.

In September 1997, Ryan was brought to court from his jail, to be sentenced by Judge John Nield. The judge told the court that there could be "no greater breach of trust" than the breach committed by Ryan.

The judge said: "He [Ryan] preyed on the young, the vulnerable, the impressionable, the child needing a friend or a father figure and the child seeking approval from an adult. And for what? For his own sexual gratification, without a thought or concern for the sexual development of his victims."

The judge said that, because so many instances of abuse had been committed by Ryan, the precise number could not be determined.

Taking into account the previous sentence (by Judge Rummery in 1996), Judge Nield increased Ryan jail term to 16 years, to start from the date of Judge Rummery's sentencing. Judge Nield fixed a minimum of 11 years before parole. (The 1997 conviction was reported in the Newcastle Herald on 27 September 1997 and in the Canberra Times a day later.)

Cover-up by a church official

During their investigation of Father Ryan in 1995, detectives also investigated Monsignor Patrick Cotter, who was the vicar-general of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese in New South Wales in 1975.

In 1995, the detectives discovered that, in 1975, Monsignor Cotter knew that Father Vincent Ryan was sexually assaulting boys in parishes. According to a letter written by Cotter in the 1970s, Cotter admitted covering up the crimes. Cotter wrote: "I decided to do nothing [about Ryan's crimes]."

Police believed that Cotter therefore became complicit in Vince Ryan's crimes.

In 1995-6, police considered charging Monsignor Cotter with the crime of "misprision of a felony"— that is, wilfully concealing a serious crime committed by another person. However, as Cotter was aged over 80 when police found this letter in 1996, the prosecution did not proceed.

More alleged victims

Some of Ryan's countless victims have not been included in the prosecutions. On 1 July 2003, one victim ("Tom", not his real name) phoned Broken Rites, describing how he had been indecently assaulted three times by Ryan in a Newcastle suburban parish in 1973, aged 10. Tom was a pupil in Ryan's parish school and was one of Ryan's altar boys.

Two of the attacks occurred in the church's sacristy (behind locked doors) after Mass, while the third occurred in the home of Ryan's relatives in Maitland.

In 1996, someone told the detectives about Tom being a Ryan victim. The detectives invited Tom to make a statement but Tom declined for family reasons. Therefore, he was not included in the police prosecution.

Tom told Broken Rites: "Ryan's sexual abuse had a bad impact on my life. I blamed myself for the offences, instead of blaming Ryan and the church."

It is possible for Ryan's victims to take civil action against the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, demanding financial compensation for their damaged lives. It is best to do this through a solicitor who has had previous experience in tackling the Catholic Church on behalf of victims.

Suicide

Broken Rites has learned about one of Ryan's former altar boys, "Oscar" (not his real name), who eventually died by suicide.

Oscar's father contacted Broken Rites in 2011 and said: "In 1977, when he was about eleven, my son was an altar boy in a parish in Newcastle, where he encountered Father Vincent Ryan.

"My son was a good-looking all-rounder. Until he was eleven, he had been doing well at school and in many sports. But after being an altar boy, he changed in mood and attitude. He even badly wanted to get out of Newcastle. Neither his mother nor I knew the reason for this, although we now learn that apparently he did confide in other altar boys.

"We transferred him to a school in Sydney for the remainder of his secondary education but he did not do well there. After a disrupted adolescence, he left home and lived in a rented flat. He then started a succession of self-harm episodes, ranging from self-mutilation to setting on fire his flat in what was thought to be a suicide attempt.

"In 1996, after Fr Vincent Ryan had been publicly exposed in court, my son jumped off a cliff at Newcastle Beach. He sustained multiple injuries including irreparable brain damage. His life support systems were ceased the next day in the John Hunter Hospital Intensive Care Unit."

Some months after his suicide, the NSW Police informed Oscar's parents that Oscar was mentioned in Fr Vincent Ryan's diary of 1977 on certain days and with certain comments.

Oscar's father told Broken Rites: "After the police told us about the diary entries, we sought justice from the church for having allowed Fr Vincent Ryan — a known sex-offender — to have access to our son. My wife took the matter up with the Maitland-Newcastle diocese. The diocese's response was to the effect that, because our son had not personally complained before he died, there was nothing that could be done now because he is dead. This was despite the fact that our son was mentioned in Fr Ryan's diary, together with other boys whose sexual assault had been verified."

After jail, Ryan was "still a priest"

On 6 August 2010, Vincent Gerard Ryan (then aged 72) was released from Long Bay Correctional Centre on parole after serving 14 years in jail. But technically, according to church spokesmen, Ryan was still a priest. And the church would provide him with accommodation.

Ryan’s bishop (Most Reverend Michael Malone of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese) told the Newcastle Herald (24 July 2010) that the Catholic Church does not intend to laicise or defrock Ryan. Bishop Malone said the decision not to defrock Ryan was based on the church’s role in supervising and remaining responsible for him.

Malone said that Ryan "certainly will not" be in the Maitland-Newcastle region or in the diocese. He said that the Maitland-Newcastle diocese had removed Ryan’s right to practise as a priest in this diocese. He said that the Maitland-Newcastle diocese will find appropriate accommodation for Ryan in Sydney.

NSW State Parole Authority director Paul Byrnes said in July 2010 that the parole authority determined it was in the public interest to release Ryan for a supervised parole period of three years and nine months. Byrnes indicated that the State Parole Authority has a memorandum of understanding with the Maitland-Newcastle diocese regarding the supervision of Ryan.

Maitland-Newcastle Bishop Michael Malone told the media in early August 2010 that Ryan has a right to a future with dignity and safety.

Bishop Malone urged parishioners to pray for Ryan upon his release, as well as for his victims.

A church sex-abuse victim commented to Broken Rites in August 2010: "Allowing the Catholic Church authorities to supervise an early-release paedophile priest is like allowing the Burglars' Association to supervise an early-release burglar."

Compensation to victims

In an article about church-abuse in the Hunter region (around Maitland-Newcastle), journalist Joanne McCarthy wrote in the Newcastle Herald on 15 September 2012:

"The [Hunter] region's child sexual abuse crisis has cost the Catholic church dearly in financial terms - at least $20 million in compensation, support and legal expenses, and quite probably much more.

"The crimes of just one priest, Vince Ryan, cost the church $6.4 million, with about half covered by insurance.

"The figure includes $3 million to one victim, the highest known payout by the Catholic church to an Australian victim.

"The cost to the church for the crimes of another notorious Hunter paedophile priest is close to $10 million.

"In a letter as early as 2000 the then Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle Michael Malone was reporting the diocese 'has been put to enormous cost' funding civil and criminal actions flowing from Vince Ryan, which were 'a significant drain' on resources.

"And the Ryan case was one of the first.

"But the greater cost of the sexual abuse crisis is on the church's standing in the community..."

Ryan pleads guilty in 2016

On 27 April 2016, Vincent Gerard Ryan (aged 78) appeared in Sydney's Downing Centre District Court, charged with multiple sexual offences which were committed against a boy at East Gresford, near Dugong, when the victim was aged between 13 and 15. The charges included three counts of attempted intercourse with a child, three counts of indecent assault of a child, and three counts of gross indecency against a child.

Ryan pleaded guilty to three charges, including an act of gross indecency and attempting sexual intercourse with the boy. Following his guilty plea, the remaining charges were dropped.

Because of Ryan's guilty plea, the court merely had to conduct the sentence proceedings. At a pre-sentence hearing on 15 August 2016, the court heard extracts from a written statement by the victim, in which he said: "I could not say no to someone as important as a priest". The victim also felt that he couldn't tell anyone about the priest's offences as he would not be believed, particularly by his grandfather who believed Ryan "was a very good man".

On 14 October 2016, the court gave Vincent Ryan a 15-month jail sentence which was suspended. The judge noted the 14-year sentence already served by Ryan for similar child sexual abuse that occurred in the same decade.

In August 2016, Australia's national child-abuse Royal Commission held a public hearing in which it examined how the church's Maitland-Newcastle diocese had handled (or mis-handled) complaints about Fr Vincent Ryan's abuse. The commission heard that the diocese was made aware of abuse allegations against Ryan in the mid 1970s but police were not notified until two decades later.

Awaiting a further trial in 2019

In 2017 and 2018, prosecutors filed additional charges against Ryan in the Newcastle Local Court. These charges involved fresh offences against three additional alleged victims between 1973 and 1991. The charges included: indecent assault on a male; sexual assault with a person under 16 years of age; and attempted sexual intercourse with a child between 10 and 16.

On 7 February 2018, after a committal hearing on these charges, a magistrate ordered Ryan to face a trial in the Newcastle District Court, to be held on a future date, possibly in 2019. [There is a long wait for District Court hearings in New South Wales.]

According to court documents at the committal hearing in 2018, Father Ryan was alleged to have given one boy (aged 10 or 11 in 1973 or 1974) a full glass of wine in the priest's room at one parish, while explaining the role of church altar boy. Ryan allegedly told the boy that the wine was “the blood of Christ” before introducing the boy to his “tickling games”. Ryan is then accused of indecently assaulting the boy and masturbating himself before telling the boy “you can see how much fun it can be being an altar boy”, according to the court documents. On a later occasion, Ryan allegedly showed this boy some homosexual pornographic images before allegedly assaulting the boy.

Another alleged victim says he was 10 or 11 when Father Ryan allegedly indecently assaulted him at the boy's family-house while the boy was home sick from school. The boy didn’t tell anyone about the alleged abuse because he “believed at that time that the position [of parish priest] was one of the highest positions in society”.

• To see more about Monsignor Patrick Cotter's cover-up, click HERE.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 1 January 2019

During the 1980s and 1890s, Father David Anthony O’Hearn worked in parishes in the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic diocese, north of Sydney. Now he is in jail where he is serving a minimum nine years’ jail for sexual offences against young boys. In March 2018, police visited the jail to charge O'Hearn (then aged 56) with additional offences after one more alleged victim had spoken to detectives. In 2019, while still a prisoner, O'Hearn is due to face a trial in the NSW District Court on these new charges. He will then continue to serve his current jail sentence.

Why he is already in jail

Father David Anthony O'Hearn was born on 28 April 1961.

Police began investigating O'Hearn in 2008 and they laid the first charges against him in a magistrates court in 2009. A preliminary ("committal") hearing in June 2010 resulted in him being ordered to stand trial, with a judge, in the NSW District Court.

A series of separate juries from 2012 to 2016 found O'Hearn guilty of offences against six young boys in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese. The offences included sexual intercourse, indecent assault and inciting a minor to commit an indecent act. Victims ranged from nine to 13.

During the series of jury trials, the NSW District Court imposed an order prohibiting the media from publishing O'Hearn's name until the final jury would finish its work. The trials were delayed somewhat when O'Hearn launched appeal proceedings.

In December 2012, after the guilty verdict in the first trial, O'Hearn was remanded in jail to await the jury trials relating to the remaining victims.

On 20 May 2016, after the final jury trial was finished, Judge Richard Cogswell lifted the name-suppression order.

O'Hearn was found guilty of a total of 44 offences against six boys and was sentenced in August 2016 to 18 years’ jail, with a minimum sentence of nine years.

Another trial due in 2019

On 6 March 2018, police visited O'Hearn in jail and took him to a police station, where they charged him with aggravated indecent assault of a boy at a school in Booragul NSW in 1994. On 15 November 2018, O'Hearn appeared in court again (by video-link from the jail), where he was answered “not guilty” to nine counts of "aggravated indecent assault – under authority". The trial is due to be held in the New South Wales District Court in 2019.

Broken Rites research

Broken Rites has researched Father O'Hearn in the annual editions of the Australian Catholic directories. His annual entries all list him as a priest of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese.

Before being ordained, David O'Hearn was a deacon at Waratah parish in 1985 and at Singleton parish in 1986.

He was ordained in late 1986. He then became an assistant priest at Muswellbrook in 1987.

In the 1990 directory Fr David O'Hearn was listed as an assistant priest at St Joseph's parish in Cessnock, where the priest in charge was another child-sex criminal, Father Vincent Gerard Ryan.

In the early 1990s, Father O'Hearn was listed as the priest in charge firstly at the Windale parish (St Pius X) and later at the Toronto parish (St Joseph's).

In the directories from 1995 to 1999, he was listed as being in charge of the Rutherford parish (St Paul's).

In the 2000 edition of the annual Directory of Australian Catholic Clergy, he was "a priest in residence" at St Columban's/Christ the King, 58 Church Street, Mayfield West. Also listed at that address was Father William (Bill) Burston, who was the Vicar-General of the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese.

In the directories for 2001 and 2003, David O'Hearn was listed as the acting parish priest at St Patrick's, Swansea.

In the 2004 directory, he was listed as the Parish Priest of St Michael's, Nelson Bay.

Police began investigating O'Hearn in 2008 and they laid the first charges against him in court in 2009. The July 2011 edition of the annual Australian Catholic Directory stated that Fr O'Hearn is "on Leave" and it gave his postal address in 2011 as care of the Maitland-Newcastle diocesan office. When Broken Rites checked the Nelson Bay parish website on 19 March 2012, O'Hearn was still listed officially on that website as the Parish Priest there (but with another priest acting as the parish administrator).

• Police began investigating David Anthony O'Hearn in 2008. The police charged him in court in 2009. To see another Broken Rites article about this backgound, click HERE.

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 1 January 2019)

For many years, Marist Brother Francis William Cable (also known as "Brother Romuald") was committing sexual crimes against Catholic schoolboys in New South Wales. His Marist colleagues and superiors looked the other way, protecting him from the police and giving him access to more victims. Eventually, some of his victims (acting separately) began to contact Broken Rites and/or the New South Wales Police, instead of merely telling Romuald Cable's church colleagues. NSW Police detectives then found some more of his victims. As a result, "Rom" Cable was jailed in 2015 regarding 19 of his victims. The police investigation continued. In court in October 2018, he pleaded guilty regarding five more of his victims; and he is expected to be sentenced regarding these victims in 2019..

The October 2018 guilty plea is mentioned later in this article but, first, here is some background.

Some background

According to Broken Rites research, Francis William Cable was born on 3 May 1932. As a child, he attended a Marist Brothers school, where he was introduced to the ways of the Marist Brothers in (wink-wink) handling boys. Eventually he was selected to undergo training to become a Marist Brother. Cable was one of 23 young trainee Brothers who took their "first vows" at the Marists' training institution at Mittagong (south-west of Sydney) in 1952. These 23 trainees included two others who, like Romuald Cable, ended up as convicted criminals — Brother Kostka Chute and Brother Oswald MacNamara. How many others in this bunch were a danger to boys?

On becoming a Brother, Francis William Cable was assigned the name "Brother Romuald", in honour of an ancient saint. It was customary then to give each new Marist Brother a saintly name of this kind.

But, as shown in court, Francis Cable was no saint. And the same could be said about the colleagues and superiors who made it possible for Brother Romuald's crimes to be concealed from the police.

One of Brother Romuald Cable's first roles (in the 1950s) was on the staff of a Marist-operated boys' orphanage — St Vincent's Boys Home at Westmead in western Sydney. Broken Rites has been aware for some time that Brother Romuald Cable was targeting boys at St Vincent's Boys Home but, fortunately for Cable, none of the St Vincent's victims have contacted the police during this current investigation.

Evidence about his crimes has come from former students at Marist schools in Sydney and the Maitland-Newcastle region.

He molested boys in his office, on excursions, behind his desk (as fellow students sat nearby), and at a local swimming pool.

Eventually, in the late 1970s, Romuald Cable ceased being a Marist Brother and became a lay teacher ("Mister" Rom Cable) in Catholic schools. Ex-students of St Edmunds Christian Brothers College, Canberra, have told Broken Rites that they remember Mr "Rom" Cable teaching at that school throughout the 1980s.

First court case, in 2013-2015

On 29 January 2013 Brother "Romuald" Cable appeared in Newcastle Local court, where the first charges were officially filed. This brief hearing was in Newcastle, rather than Sydney, because the first victims were being interviewed by the Newcastle Detectives Office. After finding more victims, the detectives increased the number of indecent assault charges to 23, and added two buggery charges. The number of alleged victims increased from two to six.

After this court appearance, more former students contacted "Strike Force Georgiana" detectives in Newcastle. Some of the new allegations were from Sydney. The subsequent court dates (spread over the next two years) were regularly mentioned in the Newcastle Herald, and this prompted more Newcastle-Maitland victims to contact the detectives. At this stage, Brother Romuald's ex-students from Sydney were less likely to hear about the Newcastle court proceedings.

On 13 March 2013 the case came up for mention again in Newcastle.The number of charges against Cable was increased to 33 and the number of alleged victims was increased to 12.

When the case came up for mention again in Newcastle on 3 July 2013, the prosecutor told the court that another 13 charges would be laid against Cable, bringing the total to 46.

In mid-2013 a brief of evidence against Brother Romuald, which was then already eight centimetres deep, was served to Romuald's lawyers, the court was told.

When the case was mentioned in court in Newcastle again on 13 November 2013, there were 60 alleged offences committed against 22 boys.

During the 2013 proceedings, the prosecutors alleged that the offences occurred at several schools in the Newcastle and Sydney regions between 1960 and 1974. The allegations included:

• Indecent assaults on boys from Marist Brothers schools at Hamilton and Maitland (in the Newcastle/Hunter region) and Pagewood (in Sydney) between 1960 and 1974;  and
• Incidents of buggery in the 1960s.

Victims' statements in 2013

Statements tendered to the Newcastle Local Court during the November 2013 proceedings alleged that Brother Romuald indecently assaulted students behind his desk after calling them out in front of class or ordering them to stay behind alone after lessons.

Police alleged that Brother Romuald indecently assaulted one student during a sex education class when the boy was 13.

"He did this [sex education], one-on-one, in his office," the former student said in a police statement.

"I remember about halfway through the year [1972], it was my turn to have sex education with him."

Another former student alleged that Brother Romuald indecently assaulted him behind his desk after calling the boy to the front of the class. The student did not tell anyone because (he says) the incident allegedly occurred shortly after his father died and while his mother was struggling to cope.

By January 2014, Cable indicated that he would plead "not guilty" to all charges. Magistrate Robert Stone decided to commit Brother Francis William Romuald Cable for trial on more than 50 of the charges, involving 21 victims.

Jury trials, 2015

The case then went to the New South Wales District Court in Sydney, to be conducted by a judge. There was some legal argument about how to proceed. There were 21 victims and the defence wanted a separate jury for each victim (a total of 21 juries), meaning that each jury would believe that Cable had only one victim. The court eventually decided to have three juries (with a group of victims for each jury). The first jury trial was scheduled to begin on 9 March 2015, with the other trials to follow that.

GUILTY, 2015

On 17 March 2015, the first jury found Cable guilty of 13 indecent assault and buggery charges against two students who were grouped together in the first trial.

Two days later, on 19 March 2015, Cable made a brief appearance in court, where he entered guilty pleas to offences against another 17 students from the scheduled jury trials. This made it unnecessary to hold any further jury trials.

Francis William Cable was then locked up in remand prison to await the sentence proceedings.

"No remorse"

On Friday 12 June 2015, pre-sentence proceedings began in Sydney's Downing Centre District Court (case number 2012/393036). This is a process in which the prosecutor and the defence make submissions about what kind of sentence should be imposed.

Cable's defence barrister told the court that Cable was not making any submission of remorse to the court.

Also, during this pre-sentence procedure, any victim has an opportunity submit a written impact statement, telling the court how his later life was affected by the abuse and by the church's cover-up. These statements are read out to the court.

The 83-year-old Brother Romuald Cable, wearing prison greens, sat in the dock as the court heard the victims' impact statements.

One victim stated that he turned into an alcoholic, as the bottle was the only way he could stop thinking of Cable's abuse. He wrote: “I would just lay in the park wishing I was dead, still hating my father for not taking me out of that school."

A man wept in the witness box, and his wife wept in court, as he spoke of his impatience, intolerance, and need for perfection in all aspects of his life as a result of being sexually abused by Romuald at age 13, after his father’s sudden death.

A victim wept as he spoke about Romuald hosting father/son camps that included a keg of beer. This victim said: ‘‘By laying on a keg he was feeding our fathers’ addictions so he could feed his own."

Francis Cable did not show any emotion as the victim impact statements were read out.

Jailed, 2015

When sentencing Cable on 18 June 2015, Judge Peter Whitford gave an account of each of the charged incidents, one by one.

The judge spoke about Cable's "abhorrent" and "cruel" offences. He said Cable showed little concern about being detected, but his victims were "incredibly resilient" for coming forward to report the abuse decades after it took place.

The judge said Cable failed to understand the damage he had caused to his victims and "persisted in a course of predatory conduct over a number of years" with no signs of remorse.

The judge sentenced Cable to a period in jail for each of the charged incidents in accordance with the laws in place at the time of the offending when sentences for child sex abuse were much lighter. After making all these calculations, the judge sentenced Cable to a maximum of 16 years jail with a non-parole period of eight years. Cable is eligible to apply for parole in March 2023.

A number of Brother Romuald's victims were in court for the sentencing. One ex-student, from Marist Brothers Pagewood in Sydney, told Broken Rites later: "I was in court for the sentencing of Romuald. There were guys there from Marist Pagewood that I haven't spoken to for 47 years. Brother Romuald got his just deserves. However, he showed no emotion, no remorse, nothing. I guess he couldn't care less."

The police investigator for the Francis William Cable case in 2013-2015 was Detective Simon Grob, of the Newcastle Detectives Office.

Guilty plea in 2018

After Cable's jailing, police continued their investigation. They eventually charged Cable with additional offences against five more alleged victims. The incidents occurred in the Newcastle region between 1971 and 1974.

In court in October 2018, Cable entered a plea of guilty regarding these five victims. He will be sentenced on a later date.

Other schools

Broken Rites research indicates that, as well as working at the schools named in his court cases, Marist Brother "Romuald" Cable also worked in other schools, including (and this is not a complete list):

• St Vincent's Boys Home, Westmead, in western Sydney (late 1950s);
• Marist Brothers Maitland (early 1960s);
• Marist Brothers Parramatta (in the 1960s before transferring to Pagewood);
• Marist Brothers Kogarah (from 1968 into the 1970s);
• Marist Brothers Dundas (mid-1970s).

Cable later in Canberra

Francis William Cable left the Marist Brothers (about 1978) and was given a job by the Christian Brothers as a lay teacher (known as "Mister" Rom Cable), at St Edmunds Christian Brothers College, Canberra, where he worked for ten years before retiring in 1989.

A former Canberra student has told Broken Rites: "Mr Cable was a teacher of mine at St Edmund's College in the 1980s. I was bullied by him and I witnessed his cruelty towards other students. He was a horrible and sadistic teacher."

Broken Rites helped a Canberra Times journalist with research for two large articles about Rom Cable which appeared in that newspaper in May 2016.

Some more background

Brother Romuald Cable should not be confused with any other Marist Brother in Australia who was given the saintly name "Romuald". The Marists in Australia were divided into two separate provinces: a northern province comprising New South Wales and Queensland (with its head office in Sydney); and a southern province (comprising Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia (with its head office in Melbourne). Romuald Cable belonged to the northern province. The southern province had a different Brother who, also, was given the name "Romuald". Nowadays, with so many Marist Brothers dead or in jail, the remaining Marist Brothers (largely elderly now) have been bundled into one Australia-wide province.

Broken Rites is continuing its research about Marist Brother Francis William "Romuald" Cable.

• By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 8 January 2019)

This Broken Rites article is the most comprehensive account available about how Catholic Church leaders remained silent for 30 years about the child-sex crimes of Father John Joseph Farrell (also known as "Father F"). In 1993, Broken Rites began researching the Farrell cover-up. In 2012, our research helped to create a "Four Corners" television program about the Farrell cover-up, thus bringing this cover-up to nationwide attention. And this helped to encourage the Federal Government to establish its national child-abuse Royal Commission. Gradually, Broken Rites (but not the church officials) encouraged some of Farrell's victims to talk with child-protection police, resulting in the jailing of Farrell in 2016. Meanwhile, more of his victims were speaking to the detectives, and therefore on 2 November 2018 Farrell (then aged 65) was sentenced to more time in jail for these additional crimes.

To see a summary of the court proceedings, resulting in the jailing of Farrell, click a link at the end of this article.

First, here is the background to Farrell's life, as researched by Broken Rites.

Church document

According to a church document, Catholic Church officials knew that Father John Joseph Farrell had been committing sex-crimes against children in New South Wales but the church officials preferred to conceal these crimes, so as to protect the church's image.

According to this document (written by senior priest Father Wayne Peters, acting for the church authorities), Father John Farrell admitted to the church authorities in 1992 that, during the previous ten years, he had committed sexual offences against altar boys. These boys were 10 and 11 years old at the time of the offences. The church document quoted Father Farrell as admitting that he began doing these things to the boys in his very first parish in the early 1980s.

According to this 1992 document, the church authorities feared that "one or some of the boys involved may bring criminal charges against [John Farrell] with subsequent grave harm to the priesthood and the Church."

That is, according to this document, the church's priority was to protect the church's public image, rather than to protect the children. Indeed, the document made no mention of the welfare of the children. Thus, the church authorities did not help Father Farrell's former altar boys to consult the state's child-protection police about Farrell's actions Thus, the church's public image was protected — until the church's cover-up of "Father F" was revealed in an ABC "Four Corners" program in July 2012. This program prompted the NSW Police to start investigating Farrell, resulting in his jailing in 2016.

Some background

Father John Joseph Farrell spent his priestly career in New South Wales. The Catholic Church in New South Wales is divided into eleven dioceses, with each diocese being responsible for recruiting its priests and assigning them to various parishes or other postings. Farrell belonged to the Armidale diocese (comprising two dozen parishes) in north-western New South Wales, extending along the New England Highway to the Queensland border.

One of Father Farrell's first parishes (from November 1981 to about April 1984) was the town of Moree, where he assisted the Parish Priest, Monsignor Frank Ryan. Monsignor Ryan was descended from Irish immigrants; Ryan's mother (born as Elizabeth Farrell) was a member of the large Farrell clan in northern New South Wales.

Father Farrell's first full year in Moree was 1982 — and this is when the church's 30-year silence began. (Moree is 600 kilometres north-west of Sydney.)

Ten years later, in 1993, the newly-established Broken Rites victim support group began its Australia-wide research on church sexual-abuse. Broken Rites received a phone call from a former altar boy of Father Farrell at Moree, reporting certain things that allegedly happened to him and other altar boys (aged about ten and eleven) in this parish in 1982-1983.

Soon, Broken Rites had similar phone chats with other Moree families, who said that, by 1983, they had spoken to Father Farrell's immediate superior (Monsignor Frank Ryan, the senior priest in charge of the parish), expressing their concern.

Thirty years later, in 2012, Broken Rites arranged for some of these families to speak to the producers of the Australian television public-affairs program Four Corners. In an interview aired on 2 July 2012, one of the Moree parents (Patrick) told Four Corners that his son (Michael) was indecently assaulted on the genitals by Father Farrell in 1983. Immediately after the abuse occurred, Michael (an altar boy) told his father about it. Patrick said in the Four Corners interview:

• "I immediately went to the presbytery, spoke to Monsignor Frank Ryan, who was the Parish Priest, told him what had happened and how I felt that it'd be best if he [Father Farrell] was kept away from our children and so that it didn't happen again.

That is, the church received this complaint in 1983. The Four Corners program displayed a typewritten letter, from Monsignor Ryan to this parent, admitting that the church authorities knew in 1983 about the Father Farrell complaints. Monsignor Ryan wrote in the letter:

• "I made discreet inquiries and liaised with families known to have children involved in the matters that were brought to our attention."

That is, Monsignor Ryan knew of other victims (for example, according to Michael's dad Patrick, one of these was an abused boy who was a friend of Michael).

As well as being in charge of the Moree parish, Monsignor Ryan was the Vicar-General (that is, the bishop's deputy) for the whole of the Armidale diocese. The bishop, Most Reverend Henry ("Harry") Kennedy, was located in the town of Armidale.

Parents have told Broken Rites that, in 1983 and 1984, Bishop Henry Kennedy and Monsignor Ryan showed no surprise about these complaints regarding Father Farrell (and they showed no concern about the welfare of the altar boys).

The church discouraged these families from lodging a complaint with the police. Two of the mothers had jobs in local Catholic schools and neither of these mothers wanted to jeopardize this employment. And some parents helped priests to serve Communion at the altar and did not want to fall out with the clergy.

Thus, the church protected Father Farrell from any police investigation in 1983 and 1984. The church merely transferred him to another parish (as we will explain later in this article).

Father Farrell admitted the offences

So what was Father Farrell doing to some of his altar boys in his first parish in 1981-1984? Father Wayne Peters, a senior priest representing the Armidale diocese, wrote some answers in a church document in 1992. This document, which is a report of an interview with Father Farrell, was quoted in a courtroom during an unrelated court case in Sydney in 2004. The court document was revealed by the Four Corners program on 2 July 2012. In the document, Father Peters alleged:

• "He [Father Farrell] admitted that there had been five boys around the age of ten and eleven that he had sexually interfered with in varying degrees in the years approximately 1982 to 1984 while he was the assistant priest at Moree."

The letter quotes Father Farrell as saying that, in the case of Boy One and Boy Two, he made "advances" which both these boys resisted.

In the case of Boy Three, Father Farrell admitted "that he fondled the boy's genitals" during a car trip to Narrabri parish. [There will be more about Boy Three, Damian Jurd, later in this Broken Rites article.]

Regarding Boy Four and Boy Five, Father Peters alleged:

• "The situations of boys four and five were the occasion of more serious admissions on the part of [Father Farrell]. He admitted that over a period of approximately twelve months he fondled the genitals of each of these [two] boys and, to quote, 'sucked off their dicks'. As far as [Father Farrell] can remember, this was done on about a monthly basis over a period of twelve months."

[Broken Rites understands that, according to the New South Wales criminal laws, it is possible that any adult could be charged by police with a crime called "indecent assault" for allegedly doing such things to a child, especially as it was allegedly done while the child was in the custody of a person of authority, such as a clergyman.]

It is significant that Bishop Henry Kennedy and Monsignor Frank Ryan seemed to ignore the concerns expressed by parents in 1982-84. And these leaders did not bother to find out what harm was suffered by the altar boys and how this harm also affected the boys' families.

The perpetrators of the 1982-84 cover-up

Father Farrell's early protectors — Bishop Henry (or "Harry") Kennedy and Monsignor Frank Ryan — were significant figures in the Australian church.

• Bishop Henry Kennedy, as a young priest, had been the private secretary to Cardinal Norman Gilroy in Sydney, and had eventually become vice-chancellor of the archdiocese of Sydney. After being an auxiliary bishop in Brisbane, he became bishop of the Armidale diocese in 1971, aged 56 (when John Joseph Farrell was aged about 18).
• Monsignor Francis Patrick Ryan was born in the Armidale diocese. He was a pupil at De La Salle College in Armidale city, and later served as the school's chaplain. He became one of Australia's youngest monsignors (the rank immediately below a bishop). He served as the Armidale diocese's vicar-general (that is, the bishop's deputy) throughout Bishop Kennedy's reign. As well as being vicar-general, Monsignor Frank Ryan simultaneously worked in parishes (for example, St Francis Xavier parish at Moree). As Monsignor Ryan's family was related to Farrell's family, Ryan became a significant figure in helping to launch Farrell's priestly career.

Father Farrell's background

Born on 4 July 1953, John Joseph Farrell was the youngest of seven children. He grew up in the town of Armidale. His secondary school was Armidale's De La Salle College, operated by the De La Salle religious Brothers. This school had a tradition of grooming some boys for a career as a priest or a religious brother.

For years, young John Farrell served as an altar boy at the Armidale Cathedral (the Cathedral of St Mary and St Joseph). Thus, he grew up knowing three successive Armidale bishops: Bishop Edward Doody who was based at Armidale until John Farrell was 15; Bishop James Freeman who was based at Armidale briefly during John Farrell's mid-teens (Freeman later became cardinal archbishop of Sydney); and Bishop Henry Kennedy (who took over in 1971, when Farrell was 18).

Farrell seems to have spent his childhood and teenage years "hanging around" churches, being groomed by priests and bishops. It would be interesting if, at some time in the distant future, Farrell were to tell the public something about the grooming process which he experienced.

In 1974, when he was aged 21, John Farrell was endorsed by Bishop Henry Kennedy to go to Sydney to study for the priesthood. The early years were to be spent in a seminary at Springwood and the later years in another seminary at Manly. After commencing at Springwood, Farrell took a year off but returned to continue his training.

During his seminary years (in the late 1970s), Farrell still kept his connection and allegiance to northern New South Wales. He was being trained specifically for the Armidale diocese and normally he would be expected to spend his career in the various towns of this region.

Farrell was ordained as a deacon on 28 November 1980 and as a priest on 28 September 1981. During this period of traineeship in 1980-81, he spent some time (as a trainee) at the Narrabri parish, in an outlying town of the Armidale diocese. According to former parishioners at Narrabri, Farrell was sexually targeting altar boys in that parish.

From 11 November 1981, Farrell was appointed as an assistant priest in the parish of Moree (called the St Francis Xavier parish), and continued molesting altar boys there.

Farrell was not the only young man from Armidale who was recruited into the priesthood for this diocese. An earlier example is Father Gerard Joseph Hanna (born 22 Dec 1941, 12 years older than Farrell). Hanna became in charge of parishes, where Father Father was an assistant priest. (More about Hanna later in this article.)

Father Farrell in 1984-87

In April 1984, after Farrell had been involved with the altar boys in the Moree parish for more than two years, Bishop Henry Kennedy was forced to take action to protect the interests of the Catholic Church. Father Farrell was abruptly removed from the Moree parish and was sent on what was euphemistically described as "sick leave".

Farrell then spent a short period visiting the presbytery of another priest, Father Rex Brown, at Tweed Heads in the Lismore diocese on the New South Wales north coast. Father Rex Brown, who was a child-sex offender, had access to a residential shelter in Tweed Heads for homeless boys. Rex Brown is the subject of a separate article on the Broken Rites website. (Broken Rites is doing further research about John Farrell's visit to Tweed Heads.)

About the end of July 1984, Father Farrell returned to the Armidale diocese. Despite the previous complaints about Father Farrell, Bishop Henry Kennedy kept him as a priest and appointed him to St Nicholas’s parish in Tamworth (the largest town in the Armidale diocese). There, he worked under the parish priest-in-charge, Father Gerard Hanna.

In Tamworth, various priests and laypersons knew that that Farrell was a danger to children. For example, according to a church report (compiled for the church in 2012-13 by Antony Whitlam QC), there are two letters in the diocesan records protesting to Bishop J Kennedy about Farrell's proposed appointment to Tamworth. Whitlam reported:

• "One [letter] was from Harry O'Halloran, a prominent Catholic layman and solicitor. He pointed out the close community ties between Tamworth and Moree and said that F's recent conduct in Moree was known to parishioners in Tamworth. . .
• "The other letter was from Fr [Bernard] Flood expressing his serious disquiet that 'the earlier incidents [at Moree] are likely to re-occur [in Tamworth]'."

Despite these warnings, the church continued to allow Father Farrell to have priestly access to children in 1984-87 while he was based at St Nicholas's parish, Tamworth.

Reverend Gerard Hanna, who was Father Farrell's superior at the Tamworth parish, is a significant figure in the Farrell story. Hanna, like Farrell, grew up in the town of Armidale and attended school there. Hanna, who came from a high-profile Armidale business family, was ordained as a priest in 1968 and served in the Moree parish in the late 1970s (before Father Farrell arrived there). Later, after being at the Tamworth parish, Hanna served as the vicar-general (that is, chief administrator) of the Armidale diocese) and was given the title of "Monsignor" Hanna. In 2002 he became the bishop of Wagga Wagga (covering the Riverina region in southern New South Wales). Therefore, Hanna became one of the leaders of the Catholic Church in Australia. He must know a great deal about the story of John Joseph Farrell.

Tamworth was not Farrell's final parish. The church allowed him to continue working in other parishes until 1991, thereby giving him priestly access to more children. By the end of 1991, it was ten years since he had begun working as a priest.

The story of one altar boy, Damian Jurd

Meanwhile, in 1984-87, one of Farrell's former altar boys in 1983-84 (Damian James Jurd, born on 7 March 1972) was having troubles of his own. By mid-1984 (aged 12) Damian ceased being an altar boy and refused to go to church any more. His behaviour deteriorated at home and at school. Damian's parents could not figure out what was troubling the boy.

Eventually, in 1987, Damian ended up on the streets of Sydney, homeless and in distress, aged 15. He was interviewed by child-protection workers and by a children's psychiatrist. While asking Damian about his past, these experts discovered that Damian had allegedly been sexually abused by Father Farrell while he was in this priest's custody in 1983, when he was aged eleven.

Damian's Catholic family had presumed that the child would be safe while in the custody of a Catholic priest. Damian felt unable to tell his "very Catholic" family about what allegedly happened during his weekend with this Catholic priest.

The child-protection experts agreed that the alleged sexual abuse (plus the alleged breach of trust and the accompanying Catholic Church cover-up) had disrupted Damian's adolescence, resulting in severe personal damage.

The church shuns the police

Until mid-1987, the church authorities had successfully protected Farrell from coming to the notice of the police. However, the Sydney child-protection experts referred the Farrell matter to Juvenile Services detectives in the New South Wales Police Service in Sydney.

When these Sydney detectives began their investigation, they notified the police in Tamworth, where Farrell was now ministering (at Tamworth's St Nicholas parish). However, the Tamworth police did not show much enthusiasm for this case. A Tamworth police officer (a Catholic who was acquainted with Farrell) was heard commenting that Father Farrell's accuser "must be telling lies". Because of this inadequate police response in Tamworth, the Sydney detectives decided not to rely on the Tamworth police.

The Sydney detectives visited Moree and contacted some of Farrell's former altar boys and their families but these families were reluctant to help the police. A note written by Bishop Kevin Manning (dated 9 October 1991 and quoted by a church-appointed barrister, Antony Whitlam QC) refers to "the silencing of witnesses in Moree by Monsignor Ryan."

Therefore, the detectives were hamstrung. They could proceed on behalf of only one of the alleged victims — Damian Jurd. The church's code of silence protected Farrell and the church's reputation and assets, but it created problems for Damian Jurd and other altar boys.

Police charges re a car-trip to Narrabri

On 11 August 1987, the detectives arrested Farrell in Tamworth and charged him with having committed sexual crimes on Damian Jurd. Damian's police statement alleged that these incidents occurred during a weekend car-trip from Moree to Narrabri (St Francis Xavier parish). Farrell and Damian stayed in Narrabri overnight, so that Farrell could conduct the weekend Mass for a priest who was away. Damian acted as the altar boy.

On the advice of the church's Catholic solicitor, Farrell refused to answer various questions (about the alleged incidents) which were put to him by the police.

On the evening of 11 August 1987, the arrest of Father Farrell was reported on the news bulletin of a north-west NSW commercial television service. The news item said that the charges relate to sexual abuse allegedly committed against a 12-year-old boy (not named) in the early 1980s.

Damien Jurd's court case

Supported by the church leadership, Farrell indicated that he would plead "not guilty" in court. Farrell's defence team was well resourced. The Armidale Diocese hired a leading Sydney barrister, Mr Chester Porter QC, who had conducted the defence for prominent criminals in Sydney courts.

According to church documents (examined by Antony Whitlam QC), the church paid for Mr Porter to do the Farrell case.

(Where did the church obtain this money for the QC's fees? Did any of it come from money that parents had put into the collection plate at Mass on Sundays?)

A preliminary hearing (called a "committal" hearing, to decide whether the case should be passed on to a judge and jury) was held in a closed courtroom at Narrabri Local Court on 18 February 1988. The magistrate who was listed to hear the case was Raymond George Alexander Blissett. who happened to be (surprise, surprise) personally acquainted with Father Farrell.

(Why did Magistrate Blissett not step aside from hearing the case?)

When Damian's family heard the name of this magistrate, they felt pessimistic about the outcome, because Ray Blissett was a parishioner in the Catholic Church (at "Our Lady Help of Christians" parish in Tamworth South.

In court, after Damian gave his evidence, the church's celebrity barrister cross-examined Damian about his evidence. According to another priest (Father Harry Leis), Chester Porter QC "made mince-meat" of Damian in the witness box. (This is quoted by Antony Whitlam QC in his report for the church in 2012.)

On the other hand, Farrell called no evidence and reserved his defence. (This sometimes happens in a preliminary hearing, when a defendant may decide to retain his/her side of the story until telling it to a judge and jury at a subsequent trial).

At the end of these preliminary proceedings, Magistrate Blissett refused to refer the case to a judge and jury. Explaining his refusal, he said that he preferred to believe "a Catholic priest" (who had pleaded not guilty and who had "no previous convictions"), rather than a troubled 15-year-old boy. This was despite the fact that Farrell had not given evidence and therefore the magistrate had not examined Farrell's side of the story.

Why did the Catholic magistrate choose to believe "a Catholic priest" when this priest had not given evidence to the court.

Accordingly, Magistrate Blissett discharged Farrell, who then walked free from the court, continuing to enjoy the status of "a Catholic priest" with "no convictions", while Damian (having been damaged "like mince-meat") left the court feeling very hurt.

Magistrate Blissett prohibited the media from reporting the court case. Thus, the "good" reputation of the church (as of 1988) was protected.

When the Armidale Catholic dioceseengaged Antony Whitlam QC in 2012 to write a report for the church about the Father F matter, Mr Whitlam reported that the reasons of Magistrate Blissett in discharging 'F' in 1988 were "plainly unsatisfactory and provide no support for his [the magistrate's] stated conclusion" and "reflect a flawed approach to the exercise of his jurisdiction to discharge." Mr Whitlam wrote: "it is difficult to see how a decision was made not to continue the prosecution of 'F' on an ex officio indictment."

The damage control continues

After the Damian Jurd court case, the church authorities arranged for Father Farrell to take a few weekend Masses in Tamworth, so that he would "be seen as vindicated". But after Easter 1988, Farrell was given "leave" from parish work. He was allowed to live in Bishop Henry Kennedy's house in Armidale, where (he said) he would spend his time doing some university studies.

Although Father Farell was never again appointed to a parish position in the Armidale diocese, the church authorities allowed him to work in another diocese (as explained later in this article).

Complaint by a female, 1988

In the late 1980s, while Father Farrell was without a parish, a complaint emerged about him having committed a sexual offence against a 15-year-old girl.

Antony Whitlam QC says, in a report compiled for the church in 2012:

• "In early 1988, Fr [Wayne] Peters received from another priest in Armidale a report of 'F' [Farrell] sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl. The matter was handled [by the church] in accordance with the [church's] 'Towards Healing' protocols, notwithstanding that there was no allegation relevant to F's priestly status. The criminal charges that resulted were apparently dismissed by a magistrate on 4 February 1999 after a two-day hearing in Armidale."(Whitlam report, paragraph 118.)

In stating that "there was no allegation relevant to F's priestly status", Whitlam evidently means that the girl was not a parishioner.

In Sydney, 1989

By 1989, Father Farrell was living as a guest in a parish priest's house in a suburb of Sydney. According to a letter written by Farrell on 29 June 1989, he was living in the presbytery of the Carlingford parish (St Gerard Majella parish) in Sydney's north-western suburbs. Carlingford was within the new diocese of Broken Bay (which had been carved off from the Sydney archdiocese) and the priest in charge of the Carlingford parish was Father Finian Egan. Some Carlingford parishioners say that they remember Father Farrell being in this parish — they had presumed that Father Farrell was officially working in this parish as a relieving priest.

Three months later, on 3 October 1989 (according to church documents), Father Farrell wrote from this Carlingford address to Bishop Bede Heather (of the Parramatta diocese, covering Sydney's western suburbs) seeking to discuss "the possibility of going on loan for your diocese". Bishop Heather spoke to Armidale's Bishop Henry Kennedy about this on 9 October 1989, the church records state.

[Farrell's host at the Carlingford parish, Father Finian Egan, was sentenced to jail in December 2013 for sexually abusing children during his 50 years as a priest in the Sydney region.]

Transferred to the Parramatta diocese

In late 1989 it was arranged that Father Farrell would transfer (on loan) to minister in the Kenthurst parish in the Parramatta diocese, although officially he would still belong to the Armidale diocese.

The Parramatta diocese, formed in 1986 (with Bishop Bede Heather as its leader), comprised about four dozen parishes in Sydney's outer western suburbs. Parramatta proper is merely where the bishop and the cathedral are located.

Western Sydney is 500 kilometres away from Armidale.

Parishioners in the Armidale diocese were not told why Father Farrell was no longer allowed to work in the Armidale diocese, and his new parishioners at Kenthurst in the Parramatta diocese were not told why he was arriving there.

Thus, Father Farrell spent more than two years ministering in the Parramatta diocese:

1. From late 1989 until late 1990, he was an assistant priest at Kenthurst (St Madeleine Sophie parish).
2. Next (throughout 1991 until early 1992) he was an assistant priest in the Merrylands parish (St Margaret Mary parish). At this parish, Farrell encountered another altar boy, Daniel William Powell, who is mentioned later in this Broken Rites article.

Eventually, some parishioners in the Parramatta diocese became concerned about Farrell.

One parent spoke to Father Roderick Bray (who was in charge of St Margaret Mary parish in Merrylands), and threatened to "go public" about Father Farrell. Furthermore, someone in the Parramatta diocese heard about Farrell's problems in the Moree parish in northern New South Wales in 1982-84, and this information began to circulate in the Parramatta diocese.

In late 1991, while he was still on loan to the Parramatta diocese, the church authorities were finally forced to consider some damage-control regarding Farrell.

After Bishop Henry Kennedy retired in 1991 (aged 76), he was succeeded as bishop of Armidale by Bishop Kevin Manning, who conferred with other church officials in Sydney about how to manage the Farrell problem.

Crisis meeting in 1992

By mid-1992, Father Farrell had finished his term at the Merrylands parish and was seeking a new parish in the Parramatta diocese.

He was summoned to a meeting at the Sydney Cathedral presbytery, on On 3 September 1992, attended by three church officials:

• Reverend Brian Lucas (then based at the Sydney Cathedral), who was involved in the administration of the Sydney archdiocese. (According to another church document, Lucas had been a student in the seminary at the same time as John Farrell and he had attended Farrell's ordination ceremony in Armidale.)
• Reverend John Usher, of the Sydney archdiocese, chairperson of the Australian Catholic Welfare Commission.
• Reverend Wayne Peters, a senior priest of the Armidale diocese, whose responsibilities then included the Armidale diocese Tribunal (Peters later became Armidale's vicar-general, the bishop's deputy).

Father Peters wrote a report to Armidale Bishop Kevin Manning (dated 11 September 1992), giving an account of this meeting. In the report, Peters says that Lucas and Usher were representing the "Special Issues Resource Committee" of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.

In the 1990s, the term "Special Issues" was a euphemism for clergy sexual abuse. The Special Issues Committee had been established in conjunction with the church's own insurance company (Catholic Church Insurances Limited), which handles "confidential" compensation payouts to victims of church sexual abuse.

In his report, Father Peters alleges that Farrell made the admissions at this meeting about how he committed sexual actions (such as "sucking off boys' dicks") upon children in his custody in 1982-84.

The church leaders explained to Farrell that it would be too risky for the church to appoint him to a new parish because (as Fr Peters' wrote in his letter) "the possibility always remains that one or some of the boys involved may bring criminal charges against [John Farrell] with subsequent grave harm to the priesthood and the Church."

Thus, the church officials were worried about possible harm to the church (that is, harm to its corporate brand-name and its assets), rather than harm that may have been done to the altar boys.

The church officials showed no interest in checking among the altar boys in Farrell's former parishes to find out if any of them needed help.

And the church officials did not help any of the former altar boys to have a chat with detectives in the Sexual Crime Squad of the New South Wales Police. Why not? The reason was given in the report by Father Wayne Peters — that if police laid criminal charges against Farrell, this would cause "subsequent grave harm to the priesthood and the Church."

Farrell in the 1990s

By late 1992, John Farrell was back in his home-town, Armidale, living in a private house this time (not the bishop's house). Although now living as a private citizen, in the eyes of the Catholic Church he was still a priest (a priest without a parish).

Despite his record, the Armidale diocese allowed him to continue playing an active role (as a layman) in church affairs in Armidale town.

And (according to Antony Whitlam QC) church records state that in May 1997 Father Farrell heard confessions one weekend at a parish in the Broken Bay diocese (in Sydney's north) where a seminary classmate was parish priest. Did these parishioners realise exactly to whom they were confessing their sins?

Farrell's status, as a priest without a parish, continued for another ten years while he lived as a private citizen.

Compensation for Damian Jurd

Meanwhile, during the 1990s, Damian Jurd of Moree was feeling hurt by damage which (he alleged) had been done to his life by the church's protecting of Farrell He hired a Sydney legal firm to tackle the Armidale diocese for compensation. The church resisted this application but it eventually was forced to make a confidential financial settlement with Damian (then aged 26) in 1998. Such settlements serve a business purpose — in order to end (and limit) the diocese's financial liability to the alleged victim.

Damian used his compensation as a deposit to buy a house for his partner and his two young children.

Death of Damian Jurd

Despite receiving compensation, Damian was still feeling damaged by the church's victimisation of him. At the end of 2000, his depression became particularly bad and he was feeling worn out. He had lost the will to continue living. He took his own life and was found unconscious in bed. He died on New Year's Day, 2001, aged 28, leaving two children — a boy then aged nine and a girl then aged eight. The Catholic Church had indeed succeeded in "making mince-meat" of him.

When the story of the "Father F" cover up became public in July 2012, Damian's son and daughter were aged 20 and 19 (and they are still feeling hurt about what the Catholic Church did to their father and their grandparents).

An archbishop knew in 2002

Another altar boy,"Bill" (not his real name) re-surfaced in 2002. Bill had encountered Farrell in the Moree parish in 1982-84. Bill's experiences with Farrell began at the age of eight but the church culture intimidated Bill into remaining silent for many years. Finally, in 2002 (when he was in his late twenties with children of his own), Bill wrote a letter to the archbishop of Sydney, complaining about how Father Farrell (and the church's protection of Farrell) had disrupted Bill's life. The archbishop replied that this was a matter for the Armidale diocese.

So Bill's complaint was flick-passed to the Armidale diocese, which then took an evasive attitude towards Bill. Thus, Bill felt intimidated into not pressing the matter further.

Despite Bill's complaint in 2002, none of the church leaders in 2002 gave him the telephone number of the Sex Crimes Squad of the New South Wales Police. Why not? This squad has a team of detectives to investigate such matters. It is not the role of the Catholic Church to "investigate" its own crimes.

Daniel Powell, altar boy

Meanwhile, trouble was brewing for another of Farrell's altar boys. Daniel William Powell (born on 28 May 1979) was aged 12 when he encountered Farrell in the Merrylands parish in the Parramatta diocese during Farrell's final months there in 1991-92.

In 1997, aged 18, Daniel's life was in a mess. He contacted Farrell, telling him how the priest had damaged the boy's life. According to Daniel, Farrell paid money to Daniel on the understanding that Daniel would not go to the police. Unwisely, Daniel accepted this money from Father F. (Instead, Daniel ought to have asked a solicitor to tackle the Parramatta diocese, not the priest, for compensation.)

Farrell arranged for the police to charge Daniel with the crime of demanding money with menaces.

The matter first went to court for a preliminary ("committal") hearing in October 2003 when Daniel was aged 24. The matter then proceeded to a jury trial in 2004.

To demonstrate that Daniel had been seeking reparation (rather than committing extortion), Daniel's defence barrister (Philip Massey) recited to the court a 24-page statement by Daniel, alleging multiple incidents of sexual abuse by Father John Farrell which had disrupted Daniel's life. Broken Rites possesses a copy of this statement.

Farrell again admits his child-sex assaults

During Daniel Powell's jury trial in 2004, Daniel's defence barrister revealed (and quoted from) Father Wayne Peters' letter of 11 September 1992, containing Farrell's admission that he had committed oral-sex assaults on altar boys.

During the 2004 jury trial, Farrell again admitted these sexual assaults. While he was being cross-examined by Daniel Powell's lawyer, the following exchange occurred (on page 176 of the transcript):

LAWYER: I suggest to you that at that meeting you made certain admissions to those priests [Lucas, Usher and Peters] that you had had oral sex with young boys. What do you say about that?
FARRELL: Yes.

LAWYER: And that's the reason why they [the Armidale diocese] won't let you carry out your duties as a priest, isn't it?
FARRELL: That's part of it, yes…

LAWYER: That, of course, breaks your promise of chastity, doesn't it?
FARRELL: Actually what you are talking about is the promise I took of celibacy, which is not getting married, but if you are saying it was wrong and sinful to engage in wrong practices the answer is yes, and I am deeply sorry for what happened.

This 2004 admission by Farrell (made while under oath) now makes it difficult for Father Brian Lucas to deny the admissions that were cited in Father Wayne Peters' 1992 letter.

The church in damage control

The 2004 jury found Daniel Powell not guilty of the extortion charge.

After the 2004 trial, the church authorities realised that Father Peters' letter about the 1992 meeting with Farrell could become a public-relations problem for the church. Therefore, after the 2004 trial, the church authorities took steps to officially "laicise" John Farrell (that is, remove his priestly status). Thus, he finally became "Mister" Farrell (merely a "former" priest). But this was done to protect the assets of the church. And this was 20 years too late for the altar boys.

And, still, no church official bothered in 2004 to help any of Father F's former altar boys to make an appointment with the NSW Police crime squad.

Compensation and death for Daniel Powell

Daniel engaged a legal firm to tackle the church for compensation for his damaged life. The church resisted this claim but a "confidential" settlement was reached in 2005 when Daniel was 26.

Daniel Powell never recovered from the disruption of his adolescence and he took his own life, by hanging, on 25 November 2007, aged 28. He was the father of two young children.

The significance of Damian and Daniel

Damian Jurd and Daniel Powell lived in different parts of New South Wales and they never knew each other. Damian was born seven years earlier than Daniel. Each of them gave up living at the age of 28.

Whereas Damian Jurd first contacted Broken Rites in 1993, Daniel Powell did not contact us until 2004, and by then Damian Jurd had already died. Broken Rites told Daniel about the trouble in the Moree parish in northern New South Wales and the story of Damian Jurd. Daniel Powell's lawyer then used this information to help get Daniel acquitted from the criminal charges of "demanding money" from Farrell.

Broken Rites arranged for Daniel Powell to have telephone contact with Damian Jurd's family in northern New South Wales. Damian's family expressed sympathy and encouragement to Daniel.

Both Damian and Daniel were damaged not only by the church's culture of clergy sexual abuse but also because of the church's protecting of Father John Farrell from 1981 onwards. While Father Farrell remained in parish work, the lives of Damian Jurd and Daniel Powell were spiralling downwards.

Each died at the age of 28.

Neither the Armidale nor Parramatta diocese seems to show any concern for the future welfare of Damian's two children or Daniel's two.

And, judging from Father Wayne Peters' letter about the 1992 meeting, the church officials showed no interest in trying to find out the names of all the altar boys who may have been affected. In 1993, however, Broken Rites EASILY discovered the names of these altar boys — the names that the church officials in 1992 did not want to know about.

Broken Rites and "Four Corners"

In early 2012, Broken Rites spoke to the producers of the Australian television program Four Corners and this program eventually ran a story about "Father F" on Monday, 2 July 2012 — thirty years after Bishop Henry Kennedy and his deputy (Monsignor Frank Ryan) first ignored the complaints about "Father F". Four Corners displayed the letter that was written by Rev. Wayne Peters to Bishop Kevin Manning about Father F's 1982-84 activities. A link to this letter is given at the end of this Broken Rites article, under the sub-heading "Further reading".

The "Four Corners" program prompted other media outlets to take up the "Father F" story. A day after the "Four Corners" program, a Sydney Morning Herald journalist stated in his article: "The [Father F] saga has intensified calls for a royal commission into sexual abuse in the Catholic church and allegations of widespread cover-ups."

Go to "a police station"

After the "Four Corners" program, many people wondered how the church had managed to keep the "Father F" story away from the police for 30 years.

When Broken Rites is helping any church-abuse victim, we give them a police telephone number, where (if they wish) they can arrange to have an private interview with a Crime Squad detective who specialises in investigating crimes against children. Too often, however, the Catholic Church has been off-putting about a police interview. For example, when interviewed on ABC Radio's "AM" program on 6 July 2012, Father Brian Lucas was asked why the church had not helped each victim of Father F to arrange an interview with police investigators. Lucas replied, unhelpfully that "those men [the victims of Father F] today ought to go to a police station and report this abuse ."

Go to "a police station"? The local cop shop? And queue up at the reception counter, waiting for the person ahead of them to report a stolen bicycle?

Father Brian Lucas's attitude is discouraging.

The church investigates itself

After the Four Corners program in 2012, the bishops of Armidale and Parramatta announced that they would engage a senior barrister (Mr Antony Whitlam QC) to conduct an investigation for the church on certain aspects of the Father F matter.

The church released the Whitlam report to the media on 17 January 2013. The Whitlam report was based on church correspondence, plus Antony Whitlam's interviews with some bishops and priests, Damian Jurd's parents and Daniel Powell's mother, and a number of other persons.

Royal Commission

Meanwhile, in late 2012, the Australian federal government decided to establish a national Royal Commission to investigate the issue of child abuse in religious and other organisations more generally. The commission would examine the manner in which these organisations have handled (or mis-handled) the problem of child sexual abuse.

The Royal Commission began its work in early 2013. Any victim around Australia could apply to have a private interview in order to tell his/her story to the commission behind closed doors (and some victims of Father Farrell took this opportunity). Also, the Royal Commission would hold a series of public hearings on particular case studies (and Case Study #44, at a public hearing in September 2016, was to examine how the Catholic Church handled the matter of Father John Joseph Farrell).

The church leaders' 30-year silence

The church authorities have some explaining to do:

WHY did the church authorities remain silent about Father John Joseph for thirty years? Why did no church official ever arrange for any of Farrell's altar boys to have an interview with the NSW Police sex crimes squad? In New South Wales law, concealing an alleged crime can itself be a crime.

WHY was it left to the television program "Four Corners" to reveal the "Father F" matters in July 2012?

DO the church authorities feel any responsibility towards the parents and siblings and (especially) the children of Damian Jurd and Daniel Powell? The lives of these families have been damaged by the church's behaviour in harbouring and protecting Father Farrell. The next generation is still feeling the impact of the church's cover-up. Likewise, some of Farrell's other altar boys now have children of their own and the impact of the church's behaviour (in keeing quiet about Father Farrell for 30 years) is being felt by these children, too.

In memory of Damian Jurd and Daniel Powell

Broken Rites has a policy of not publishing the real names of victims. However, Damian Jurd told us in the 1990s that he WANTS his name to be published when his story is told. Likewise, Daniel Powell told us in 2005 that he, too, wants his name published.

Therefore Broken Rites is publishing this article in memory of Damian Jurd and Daniel Powell, two boys who did not deserve their tragic deaths.

Further reading

• To see the letter by Fr Wayne Peters (on 11 September 1992) about Father Farrell admitting child-sex assaults (as displayed on the "Four Corners" program in 2012), click HERE. In 2012, for legal reasons, the "Four Corners" website redacted (that is, deleted) John Farrell's name. A more complete version of this letter is filed among the exhibits of the Royal Commission's case study #44 in 2016, where the letter is given the number CTJH.240.01001.0123_R.pdf.
• To see some additional information from Broken Rites about the altar boy Damian Jurd, click HERE.
• To see a detailed Broken Rites article about the altar boy Daniel Powell, click HERE.
• You cam still watch the ABC "Four Corners" program in 2012 (based on Broken Rites research) including our material about the church leaders' cover-up of John Joseph FARRELL. The 45-minute program is in three sections:
  *SECTION 1 is an introduction about church victims in Ballarat VIC;
  *SECTION 2 (starting at 5min 50sec) is about John Joseph FARRELL (referred to, for legal reasons, in this program as "Father F"); and
  *SECTION 3 (starting at 32min 50sec) is about a different priest, Father Julian Fox.
  To watch "Four Corners", click HERE.
• After Farrell was jailed in May 2016, the ABC "7.30" program ran a major item about the church's cover-up of Farrell. To watch "7.30", click HERE.
• And to see the Royal Commission website regarding a public hearing in 2016 about the Catholic Church's handling of the Farrell matter, click HERE.

The Broken Rites research (as outlined on the "Four Corners" program in 2012) was one of the factors which finally prompted the Australian government to establish a national Royal Commission to investigate how churches have managed to cover up the child-sex crimes committed by members of the clergy. Broken Rites will continue doing research about how the Catholic Church covered up the crimes of Father John Joseph Farrell.

• To see a Broken Rites summary of the court proceedings in the jailing of John Joseph Farrell in 2016 and 2018, click HERE.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 5 January 2019

In the 1960s, Brian Spillane began training towards a career in the Catholic priesthood. In 2019, he is in jail in New South Wales for sexual crimes which he committed against boys (and also some girls) during his religious career. While he is in jail, police have investigated some additional allegations about Spillane. Now, in 2019 (aged 75), he is awaiting another court appearance, where he is to be charged with having raped a ten-year-old boy in Sydney in 1964.

The case involves one offence of buggery allegedly committed against the ten-year-old boy in a public toilet during a picnic for boys on Shark Island, off Rose Bay, Sydney Harbour, between August and December 1964.

The court's case number is: 2018/00263034.

Some background

Reverend Brian Spillane, C.M, was a priest in the Catholic order of Vincentian Fathers and Brothers (also called the Congregation of the Mission — hence the initials "C.M." after his name). The Vincentians are an Australia-wide order, not confined to a particular diocese. As well as establishing the St Stanislaus boys' boarding school in Bathurst, NSW, the Vincentians have also provided priests for several parishes in Sydney, Melbourne and Queensland.

Broken Rites has researched Spillane's life in electoral rolls and church documents.

Born about 1943, he began training for the Vincentian religious order in Sydney in 1960. The Australian electoral rolls from 1964 to 1968 listed Brian Joseph Leonard Spillane as a student, located at a Vincentian address in Balaclava Road, Marsfield, Sydney.

After completing his training, he was evidently ordained as a priest in the late 1960s (the 1969 Australian electoral roll listed him at St Stanislaus College, Bathurst, as a priest).

According to a St Stanislaus College yearbook, Father Spillane served two periods at this school, totalling 19 years. The first was from 1968 to 1978, during which he had various roles: a form master of various forms from year 7 to year 12; a dormitory master; a full-time teacher of many subjects, mainly language; a sports coach; the dean of discipline; a lieutenant in the cadet unit; and supervisor of the band.

The pupils boarding at St Stanislaus came from towns and farms throughout New South Wales.

Vincentian priests and brothers were living in bedrooms on the St Stanislaus College premises.

From 1979 to 1983, Father Spillane was away from St Stanislaus, doing parish and mission work including a period at St Anthony's parish in Marsfield, Sydney.

For three years from early 1981, Spillane joined a "renewal team" led by the Australian head of the Vincentian order which visited Vincentian parishes around Australia, promoting Catholic teachings. These visits to various parishes (and to families) gave him access to girls as well as boys (Spillane was a danger to both genders).

From 1984 to 1991, he was again at St Stanislaus College as the school chaplain. He was the Superior (that is, the leader) of the Vincentian clergy living at this school.

After leaving St Stanislaus College, Spillane was still remembered in the school's 1992 yearbook, in which the two Year Seven classes were each named after a teacher (one of these classes was labelled in the 1992 yearbook as "Year 7 Spillane").

In the early 1990s, Father Spillane ministered at a Vincentian parish (Mary Immaculate) at Southport on Queensland's Gold Coast. From 1995 to 1997, his postal address was the Catholic Mission, Oxenford, near the Gold Coast.

From 1998 to 2004 he was listed as the Parish Priest at a Vincentian parish (St Vincent's) in Ashfield, Sydney.

The above-mentioned addresses were Father Spillane's official workplaces but these were not necessarily his only residential addresses. For example, from the late 1980s onwards, Father Hugh Murray of the Vincentian order conducted a community centre in Tempe House, at Arncliffe, Sydney; and Fr Murray has said that Vincentian priests who spent time living at this address included Brian Spillane.

In 2004, Brian Spillane left the Vincentian order and began living privately in Sydney.

Spillane's previous court proceedings

In 2008 and 2009, after an investigation by NSW Police detectives, the NSW Office of Public Prosecutions charged Brian Joseph Spillane with sexual offences against a number of boys and girls.

Spillane had a legal team to fight the court proceedings on his behalf. He pleaded Not Guilty to all charges.

Spillane's legal costs (to 2016) are estimated to have exceeded a million dollars. It would be interesting to find out where these dollars came from. Did the defence funds include money placed on the collection plate in parishes? Or from school fees paid by parents? Did a friendly bishop or archbishop make a contribution from diocesan funds?

The prosecutors chose to hold the girls' case first. In 2010, a jury convicted Spillane regarding the girls and he was jailed for these particular incidents.

The prosecutors then began preparing for the St Stanislaus College boys' case which was more complex. Spillane's legal team tried to obstruct, or delay, the process. For legal reasons, the boys were eventually divided into several groups, with each group being handled by a different jury. These trials were to be held one-at-a-time.

St Stanislaus College (and the Vincentian religious order) had already gained public notoriety for child-sex crimes, and fears were expressed in court that this notoriety might affect the consecutive juries, thus damaging the whole procedure. Therefore, the court placed a temporary media-suppression order regarding all the St Stanislaus boys' proceedings, so as to prevent any jury being influenced by media reports of a preceding St Stanislaus trial.

The media-suppression order was finally lifted on 5 December 2016 after the final Spillane trial was finished. Spillane is still in jail, and on 16 February 2017 he was sentenced regarding the most recent St Stanislaus trials.

Convicted regarding female victims

In Sydney in November 2010, a New South Wales District Court jury found Brian Joseph Spillane (then aged 67) guilty of indecently assaulting three girls aged between six and seventeen.

The jury convicted Spillane on nine counts of indecent assault against three girls. The alleged events occurred in the 1970s and early 1980s in various circumstances:

• Some of the offences against girls allegedly occurred when Spillane visited a family in a rural area in north-western New South Wales. Spillane had become acquainted with this family as a result of his work in Bathurst.
• Other offences against girls allegedly occurred while Spillane was working (in 1979 onwards) from a Vincentian base in Marsfield, a Sydney suburb. He became the leader of a group of Vincentian priests and brothers at Marsfield and he also carried out duties in the local Catholic parish (which was staffed by Vincentians) and at the local parish primary school.

The court was told that Spillane gained access to children through his role as a Catholic priest. The prosecutor, Brad Hughes, told the court that Spillane "would not have been within a bull's roar of these girls if he hadn't been a priest."

The court was told that friendly families welcomed him to their homes. He conducted Mass in their sitting rooms, played games with their children and, according to the evidence, abused their daughters. Spillane would sometimes appear at a family’s house uninvited, the court was told. One mother told the court how Spillane brought presents for the parents and the children.

The court heard how Spillane’s role as a priest protected him. Some of the children mentioned vaguely to their parents that Father Spillane had touched them. There was no evidence in court that any of the parents (or any of the church authorities) reported Spillane to the police at the time of the incidents.

The court was told that, while hearing Confession of children in his parish, Spillane would invite children as young as eight to sit on his lap. Spillane told the court that this “was my pastoral approach to break down the barrier between the fearful God and the loving God."

The court charges in the Sydney court proceedings were confined to incidents that allegedly occurred within New South Wales. The court heard about an incident involving a girl in Queensland but this matter is outside the jurisdiction of the NSW courts.

Bail refused in 2010

On 30 November 2010, after the jury verdicts, the court heard an application by Brian Joseph Spillane, seeking to be released on bail while he would be waiting for further court proceedings. Spillane was refused bail and was removed from the court in custody pending his next court appearance.

Attempt to stop the proceedings

Meanwhile, in 2010, Spillane's legal team raised certain objections regarding the proposed sentence proceedings (involving the female victims) and also regarding subsequent proposed court proceedings (involving a number of male victims).

These objections needed be debated at length in the courts, including the New South Wales Court of Appeal, and this caused a delay in the proceedings.

Finally, in early April 2012, the NSW Court of Appeal cleared the way for the Brian Joseph Spillane proceedings to resume.

Sentenced regarding the girls, April 2012

On 19 April 2012, after Spillane had been in custody for 17 months, Judge Michael Finnane sentenced him in the Sydney District Court regarding the female victims.

In his sentencing remarks, the judge called each assault "serious, planned and callous". He said Spillane's position as a priest and his "standing in the community" allowed him to gain access to the homes of his victims, many of whom came from devout Catholic families.

Some of the offences occurred when Spillane was alone with his victims in their bedrooms for night-time prayers. One happened in a car after he had said Mass at a memorial service.

"He was very trusted and the parents of each of the victims readily gave him access to their daughters because of that trust and the esteem in which he was held," Judge Finnane said.

"The victims in this trial were all girls to whom he got access when he was conducting parish missions or ... when he was visiting a country town.

"It was sexual abuse carried out by a trusted priest and was a major breach of trust."

The judge said Spillane had shown no remorse and no contrition for his offending "which means that there can be little hope of rehabilitation".

Jailed regarding the girls, 2012

Judge Finnane sentenced Spillane, then aged 69, to jail for nine years with a right to eventually apply for release to serve the final part of his sentence on parole. (This jail sentence was reported in the media.).

Charges regarding boys, 2013-2016

The cases regarding St Stanislaus College were held between 2013 and 2016, using separate juries (hence the need for a non-publication order during these trials, so that the cases would not be jeopardized by the media).

The boys' cases resulted as follows:

• After a trial in 2013, Spillane was convicted of assaults on five St Stanislaus College boys.
• In 2015 he pleaded guilty to assaults on four St Stanislaus boys, committed in the late 1980s.
• During 2016, he was convicted of assaults on five St Stanislaus boys, committed between 1974 and 1990.
• In early December 2016, a jury found him guilty of 11 charges, including sexual assault, indecent assault and buggery on four St Stanislaus boys between 1976 and 1988. He was acquitted of one charge of buggery.

The media-suppression order was finally lifted on 5 December 2016 after the final St Stanislaus trial was finished. Spillane was already in jail, still serving his sentence for his crimes against the girls.

Another jail sentence, 2017

On 3 February 2017, Judge Robyn Tupman held a pre-sentence procedure for Spillane regarding the boys. This was an opportunity for any victim to submit an impact statement showing how Spillane's crime (and the church's cover-up) affected this victim's life. The Judge takes these impact statements into account when preparing Spillane's sentence.

On 16 February 2017, Judge Tupman sentenced Spillane to at least nine years in jail (with a maximum of 13 years) for 16 offences (including buggery) against the male victims. As the sentences (for the girls as well as the boys) will run partially concurrently, Spillane's eligible release date has been extended by five years to November 2026.

The judge said Spillane abused his position of trust as a teacher and chaplain and "used religious rituals to increase his power over his victims".

"Most of the complainants were boarders [at St Stanislaus College], a long way from home and in many cases away from home for the first time," she said.

"Many of the complainants didn't realise what was happening was inappropriate, in large part because he was a priest.

"They didn't tell anyone for many years. Perhaps more insidiously, they didn't expect to be believed.

"He knew that he could act with impunity and there was almost no chance his offending would be revealed."

A victim speaks out, 2017

Outside the court, after the sentencing on 16 February 2017, one St Stanislaus College victim (Damien Sheridan) was interviewed by television, radio and newspaper reporters. He authorized the media to publish his name and photograph. Damien also released copies of the typewritten Victim Impact Statement that he had submitted to the court's February 3 pre-sentence hearing.

Damen said: "I was a shy, well-mannered boy from a small country town of Forbes with very little wisdom in the ways of how the world works. I was raised a Catholic with strict catholic morals, although no one ever told me to be aware that there are wolves dressed as sheep out there."

Damien said that Spillane's abuse (and the church's cover-up) devastated his later development, leaving him with post-traumatic stress disorder. He has had difficulty getting and keeping employment.

Charged again in 2018

In 2019, Spillane is in jail but police have charged him in 2018 regarding a ten-year-old boy who was allegedly sexually abused by Spillane in a public toilet in Sydney in 1964 while Spillane was a trainee with the Vincentian religious order. The case had a brief procedural mention in Sydney Central Local Court on 20 November 2018, with a committal hearing to be held on a later date.

The investigation was conducted by officers attached to the NSW Police Force Marine Area Command. The officers issued a Future Court Attendance Notice to Brian Joseph Spillane, who was in a Correctional Centre at South Nowra, NSW.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 30 January 2019

Australian Marist Brother David Austin Christian was recruited by the Marist Brothers at the age of 15 and became a fully-fledged Brother at 18. During his career (including as a school principal), he was sexually abusing young boys. Years later, some of these victims began to speak (as adults) to child-protection detectives in the state police force. This resulted in David Christian being jailed when he was in his seventies. But how many other victims of Brother David Christian have NOT spoken to the police? For example, one of Brother David Christian's ex-students died by suicide at the age of 21, leaving a suicide note about how his life had been damaged by Brother David Christian.

More details about the suicide are given at the end of this article.

This Broken Rites article demonstrates how it is best for victims to exercise their right to consult the detectives.

For many years, the Marist Brothers in Australia were divided into two Provinces. The northern province was for New South Wales and Queensland. David Austin Christian (date of birth 3 December 1942) belonged to the southern province which supplied Marists Brothers to various schools in Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia.

Brother David Christian's court appearances were in Western Australia. He was charged after police received statements from several former pupil's of two Catholic schools:

• St Joseph's parish primary school in Bunbury, south of Perth, in 1982; and
• Newman College junior school ( Marist Brothers) in Churchlands, Perth, in the 1990s.

These were not necessarily the only schools where David Christian offended. These are merely two schools where some of his victims eventually spoke (as adults) to detectives from West Australian Police. Broken Rites has heard of other alleged victims from these two schools who have not taken up the opportunity of speaking to the detectives.

First court case, 1995

Brother David Austin Christian, formerly principal of Marist Brothers' Newman College junior school in Perth, pleaded guilty to multiple counts of aggravated indecent assault against two boys (aged 10 and 11) in the principal's office. In a Perth court in 1995, Christian was fined $10,500 ($1,500 per incident) but the Marist Order said it would pay the fine for him. Brother Christian moved to live with the Marist Brothers in Templestowe, Melbourne. According to Marist websites (accessed in 2011), Brother David Christian continued to be accepted by his superiors and colleagues as a member of the Marist order.

Second court case, 2014

In the W.A. District Court in 2014, Brother David Christian was convicted of one count of indecently dealing with a child (a ten-year-old boy). This offence was committed in 1982 at St Joseph's primary school in Bunbury, south of Perth. The court gave David Christian a nine months suspended jail sentence.

Third court case, early 2017

In the same court on 10 January 2017, Brother David Christian was convicted of two offences of indecently dealing with a another child (a ten-year-old boy). This abuse was committed in 1982 at the same primary school (St Joseph's in Bunbury) as the third court case.

Sentencing David Christian, Judge O'Neal told him: "You were the principal of the school that this ten-year-old boy attended. You wrapped yourself in a public profession of Christian religiosity as a Marist Brother."

The judge said the offending has had a "catastrophic effect" on the psychological health and wellbeing of the victim.

"Despite high academic achievement as a child, [the victim] left school early with an understandable problem with authority figures like teachers... He [has] had a complete breakdown. He has been struggling with drug and alcohol issues, and his life is at a very low point", the judge said.

"This case is among the most serious examples of breach of trust."

"In view of the seriousness of these offences, a term of imprisonment is the only appropriate disposition."

The judge sentenced Christian to 16 months jail for each of the two incidents. The judge reduced each term to 12 months, to be served consecutively, making a total of two years, with parole possible after 12 months behind bars.

Fourth court case, late 2017

While David Christian was in jail, another of his victims was speaking to the police regarding two incidents that occurred in 1991 at Perth's Newman College junior school when this boy was aged 12 in Year 7. Brother David Christian was the junior school's principal.

On 5 December 2017, David Christian (then aged 75) pleaded guilty in the W.A. District Court to two incidents of indecently dealing with this boy.

The boy had already been a victim of bullying at the school, the court was told. Brother David Christian summoned this boy to his office. The boy was placed on Christian's lap, and the indecent dealing then occurred.

District Court Judge Mark Herron said David Christian knew the child was particularly vulnerable before the abuse occurred. He said Christian traumatised and confused the victim through his gross abuse of trust.

“Given your position of trust you should have been protecting the child and ensuring he was safe,” Judge Herron said. “Your actions undermine the trust and confidence members of the public, particularly parents, have when they place their children in the care of schools.”

Judge Heron sentenced David Christian to an additional six months jail.

Out of jail

In January 2019. a victim informed Broken Rites that Br David Christian has been released from jail and is returning to live with other Brothers at a Marist residence in another state.

That is, Brother David Austin Christian is still accepted as a member of the Marist Brothers order, despite being a convicted criminal. But there is mothing unusual about this — the Marist Brothers organization already retains a significant number of child-sex offenders as Brothers.

Suicide

Broken Rites has learned that one former student at Perth's Newman College (during Brother David Christian's time as primary principal there) has died by suicide. Broken Rites will refer to this ex-student as "Basil" (not his real name).

In November 2018, Broken Rites interviewed Basil's mother. This mother said (and Broken Rites is changing the boy's name to "Basil"):-

"In 1991, Basil was in Year 7 (aged twelve) at Newman College, Perth, and his class was being taught by a lay teacher. When Basil misbehaved, this teacher sent Basil to Brother David Christian (principal of the primary-level classes) to be disciplined for this misbehaviour. Evidently, Brother David Christian began to sexually abuse Basil, although we did not know this at the time. This abuse evidently disrupted Basil's life. He became alienated from schoolwork and he became a hermit. By the end of Year 7, we had to transfer Basil to a government high school.

"Basil continued to remain silent about his Year Seven abuse. He concealed the abuse from us because he presumed that our very devout Catholic family would not welcome this news and that we would not believe him. During his later teenage years, Basil's behaviour deteriorated even more. His life became in a mess. By the age of 21, he had attempted suicide. The family did not know why.

"Finally, on 10 November 2001, aged 22, he succeeded in dying by suicide. His body was found by his sister. He left a note, telling us (for the first time) that he had been abused by Brother David Christian in Year 7. Unfortunately, his sister was no upset that she destroyed the suicide note. But we managed to find out more from a psychiatrist who Basil had been seeing. The psychiatrist confirmed that Basil's was feeling damaged by the abuse he suffered under Brother David Christian. At last, we learned (too late) the story behind Basil's troubled life."

Broken Rites is continuing its research about Marist Brother David Christian.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated on 26 January 2019

Catholic Church authorities knew for years about Christian Brother Desmond Eric ("Neil") Richards'sexual crimes against schoolboys in New South Wales but the crimes were concealed from the police (and from the public). Eventually, Richards was transferred to Rome (away from the NSW police) but NSW detectives arrested him when he returned to Australia in 2013. Richards was jailed in Sydney in 2014 for some of his crimes. On 16 December 2016 (aged in his mid-seventies), he was sentenced to additional time in jail after more of his victims contacted the NSW detectives. Richards pleaded guilty regarding all these victims. On 17 October 2018, he was sentenced again to more jail time for more of his crimes. Other victims of Richards have remained silent but it is still possible for them to speak to the detectives; therefore, the investigation will continue.

Brother "Neil" Richards has spent more than half a century as a Christian Brother, including as a headmaster, in Catholic schools in Sydney and regional New South Wales. According to statements made in court, Richards began teaching as a Christian Brother in 1961 and (it was stated) one of his first sex crimes was committed against a boy in 1962.

In those years, a new Christian Brother would normally adopt a new forename. Hence, Desmond Eric Richards became Brother "Neil" Richards.

Richards' offending continued, in several schools, during his teaching career, and eventually (after he retired from teaching duties) the Christian Brothers organisation transferred him to Rome to be in charge of their website for their Oceania province (that is, for Australia and the Pacific). Thus, a Catholic international website was administered by a child-abuser.

How the police investigation began in 2013

Some years ago, one of Richards' victims contacted Broken Rites, which advised him to have a private interview with a Detectives Office of the NSW Police. Later, another victim from a different school came forward. Detectives then investigated and found two more of Brother Richards' victims.

These four victims were abused between 1972 and 1982.

In 2013 the detectives learned that Richards was working at the Catholic Church headquarters in Rome. When he re-visited Australia, police arrested him in November 2013.

During early and mid-2014, Richards appeared before a magistrate in a Local Court, charged (under his birth name, Desmond Eric Richards), regarding the four victims who had spoken (separately) to the police. The court was told that, after the boys had been sexually assaulted by Brother Richards, they were regularly beaten with a strap.

The court was told that one 12-year-old boy, who had never been the subject of any punishment before the indecent assault, was later strapped on more than 60 occasions at St Patrick’s Christian Brothers College in Albury, while Richards was headmaster there in the early 1970s.

Another boy was regularly singled out for punishment and ordered to stand in the corner of the classroom, while a third was strapped once a fortnight and made to stand outside class, the court was told.

One boy, then aged 11, was assaulted while on a school camp (at Arcadia in north-west Sydney) when Richards got into bed with him.

Richards pleaded guilty to the abuse of four boys aged 11, 12 and 13 at St Patrick’s Albury and Bishop Henschke school in Wagga Wagga (both of these schools are in southern New South Wales) and at St Patrick’s Strathfield (in Sydney). In mid-2014, Richards was placed on bail pending the sentence proceedings to be held later in the year.

On 7 November 2014, Judge Peter Zahra conducted a pre-sentence procedure for Richards in the Sydney District Court. The judge was hearing submissions from the prosecutor and the defence lawyer about what kind of sentence should be imposed on Richards.

During these submissions, the court was told that the Catholic Church authorities had known for many years about Richards being an offender.The church authorities kept the matter "in-house" and it was not reported to the police. Later, the police evidently did learn about one of Richards' victims, and, as a result, in 2006 Richards pleaded guilty to a criminal charge about a previous indecent-assault offence at Gosford on the New South Wales Central Coast, but he was not sent to jail.

In his submission to Judge Zahra on 7 November 2014, Richards' defence lawyer recommended that, because of Richards' guilty plea to the 2014 charges and his remorse, he should be given a non-custodial sentence.

But Judge Zahra disagreed, stating that the need to deter others from committing such serious offences demanded a jail sentence.

"The need for deterrence and community retribution weighs very heavily in favour of full-time custody," he said.

The judge revoked bail and ordered that Richards be taken into custody.

On 27 November 2014, Judge Zahra gave Richards a jail sentence of 3 years and 3 months, with a minimum of two years behind bars before he becomes eligible to apply for parole.

Jailed again in 2016

After Richards' 2014 sentencing, Broken Rites was contacted by a former student who encountered Richards at St Edward's Christian Brothers school in Gosford, on the NSW central coast, in the late 1970s. Broken Rites told this ex-student where he could contact the appropriate unit of NSW Police detectives.

In 2015, another former student of the Gosford school contacted Broken Rites, who again explained where to contact the detectives.

Later, police charged Brother Richards regarding the Gosford offences. The case went through a Local Court, where Richards pleaded guilty on 7 April 2016 regarding two Gosford victims. A week later, the case had a brief procedure with a judge in the Sydney District Court.

Meanwhile, during 2016, police found several more Richards victims. Therefore, he appeared in court during 2016 regarding six victims.

In the Sydney District Court on 16 December 2016, Richards was sentenced to more jail time for these six additional victims. These assaults happened in various years (from the 1960s to the 1980s) and, according to the NSW criminal statutes, the offences were in various categories of seriousness. Therefore, the judge had to impose a different amount of jail time for each incident (according to the penalty that was prescribed in the NSW criminal statutes in the year when a particular incident occurred). And the judge was obliged to give a reduction to the total jail time because of the Guilty plea.

Richards was given a maximum jail sentence of six years.

It is still possible for any more of Brother Richards' victims to speak to the detectives (the investigation is continuing).

More jail time in 2018

On 17 October 2018 in Parramatta District Court, Desmond Eric Richards was sentenced to additional jail time for certain offences at St Patrick’s College Strathfield in 1986 and 1987. This abuse occurred in primary years 5 and 6. Richards will be eligible to apply for release on parole after 15 December 2021.

Broken Rites research

Brother "Neil" Richards has spent more than half a century as a member of the Christian Brothers, where he was sometimes listed (in Christian Brothers documents) as "Brother D.N. Richards".

He has been located in many parts of New South Wales. For example, in the early 1980s he was the headmaster of a Christian Brothers primary school at Concord (in Sydney's inner-west).

Evidently Richards was living at Gosford in 1990, because a list of Australian Christian Brothers in 1990 mentioned "Brother D.N. Richards, Gosford" in that year.

In the 1990s, Brother Richards was associated somehow with the Broken Bay Diocese, which covers parishes in Sydney's northern suburbs and the NSW central coast. In 1997 a church website, reported the minutes of a Broken Bay Diocese committee (held at Waitara) and it said: "A folder, on internet and access, is being put together by Brother Neil Richards from the Diocesan Office."

After retiring from teaching in schools, Brother Neil Richards worked on the Christian Brothers website for their Oceania province (that is, for Australia and the Pacific). On 11 November 2014, well after Richards had been arrested, Broken Rites was still able to access a Christian Brothers worldwide website, which gave the contacts for Christian Brothers webmasters in various parts of the world. One item said:"Christian Brothers Oceania Province Centre ...Webmaster: Neil Richards cfc."

In December 2009, an announcement by the Christian Brothers stated: "A large gathering of Brothers came together today to say farewell to Neil Richards and to congratulate him on his new position on the [Christian Brothers] Congregation website in Rome."

Presumably, even though he was now located in Rome, Richards would still have been able to work on the Christian Brothers' Australian website from Rome, amongst any other duties in Rome.

Brother Desmond Eric ("Neil") Richards' new location in Rome meant that he was out of the reach of the Australian police. But the police were waiting for Desmond Eric Richards when he returned to Australia in late 2013.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 24 January 2019

When Frank Keating became a De La Salle Brother in his late teens, he was given the religious name "Brother Ibar", in honour of an ancient Irish saint. But Brother "Ibar" Keating was no saint — he was committing sexual crimes against his pupils. His superiors knew this but they allowed him to continue offending in Catholic schools around Australia for many years more. Eventually, some of Keating's victims in Victoria and Queensland reported him to the police, and he was jailed in Victoria in 1998. Since his jailing, additional victims from the 1970s have spoken to police, and therefore Keating was jailed again in Victoria on 20 April 2018, aged 75. Now, since late 2018, he is being prosecuted again by Queensland police. This Broken Rites article gives the full story of the church's cover-up of Brother "Ibar" Keating.

Background

Frank Terrence Keating (born in Melbourne on 10 September 1942) worked as a reverend Brother, teaching in De La Salle schools in several Australian states from the 1960s to the 1990s.

For years (according to evidence given in court in 1997) Brother Ibar Keating habitually put his hand inside his pupils' pants and interfered with their genitals. The offences happened at school, in sports changing rooms, at school camps, in the Brothers' residence and in the victims' homes. Under criminal law in Australia, this crime is called indecent assault of a child, and it is particularly serious when it is committed by a person who has authority over the child.

Keating left the De La Salle Order in 1991 and then worked in ordinary Catholic schools as a lay teacher ("Mister Keating") until the police caught up with him in 1997 for offences committed in his earlier years. These earlier offences led to him being convicted in Victoria and again in Queensland (for offences committed in those two states), and he was jailed in Victoria.

Keating's barrister said in court that Frank Keating came from a family of five children. He was originally a pupil of the De La Salle Brothers at St Ignatius primary school in Richmond, Melbourne. At age 14, he was recruited as an aspirant for the brotherhood and became a boarder at the De La Salle junior seminary at Castle Hill in western Sydney, where he completed his secondary education. This was followed by two years of religious training and two years of teacher training.

In 1964-67, Brother Ibar was on the staff of a De La Salle boys' school in Western Australia. Since then, this school has amalgamated with a girls' school and has became known now as La Salle College, Middle Swan (Midland, WA).

In the late 1960s, he taught at Oakhill College, Castle Hill (Sydney).

In the 1970s, Brother Ibar Keating taught Year 7 and Year 8 students at De La Salle College in Malvern, Melbourne. And it was some of his  Melbourne victims who eventually (in their adult years) got Keating convicted in 1997 for his crimes against them.

Charged in Melbourne, 1997

In the 1990s, when Broken Rites began researching church sexual abuse, we began receiving calls from former students of Brother Ibar Keating in Victoria. We gave these callers the contact details for the Victoria Police Sexual-Offences and Child-Abuse Investigation Teams (the SOCIT units).

One ex-student finally contacted the Victoria Police in 1997, and detectives easily located a large number of Victorian victims, 12 of whom signed formal statements.

One victim told police that Brother Ibar "indecently assaulted most of the boys in my class". One boy said he had been indecently assaulted while he sat at his desk with other students looking at him and sniggering.

The victims told the police that the Catholic culture prevented them from contacting the police in the 1970s.

In the Melbourne Magistrates Court in December 1997, Keating (then aged 55) pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting twelve boys (aged 12 and 13) at De La Salle College in Malvern, Melbourne, between 1972 and 1978.

The victims were not required to appear in court.

On 17 February 1998, Keating appeared before Judge Crossley in the Melbourne County Court for sentencing.

A Broken Rites researcher was present throughout the Melbourne court proceedings, taking notes.

Victoria Police alleged (and Keating's barrister, Edward Delany, confirmed) that the De La Salle order knew during the 1970s that Brother Ibar was sexually abusing boys in Melbourne but it let him continue teaching.

After a parent protested in 1978 about his son being abused, the De La Salle order still did not get rid of Brother Ibar. Instead, it rewarded him by supporting him for two years' study at a university in South Australia.

Next, in 1981 the De La Salle order appointed Brother Ibar to its school (now called Southern Cross Catholic College) in Scarborough, near Brisbane, Queensland, where he became deputy principal and then principal.

Brother Ibar left the brotherhood in 1991 and worked as a lay teacher ("Mr Keating") at Catholic schools in Port Augusta and Port Pirie (South Australia) in 1992-3 and in Ferntree Gully and Werribee (Victoria) in 1993-5. He then worked as an administrator in the Catholic Education Office, Melbourne, until the Victoria Police charged him in 1997.

Keating's barrister told the Melbourne County Court that Keating was "not a real paedophile" because (he said), while at Scarborough, Brother Keating had a ten-year heterosexual relationship with a woman. (The barrister did not explain how this ten-year flouting of Keating's vow of celibacy should influence the court in Keating's favour.)

Impact statements, 1998

Some victims in the 1998 case submitted a written impact statement to the Melbourne County Court, explaining how Brother Ibar's abuse affected their life. The purpose of such statements is to help the judge to decide an appropriate sentence.

One victim said he had been silently upset about the assaults for 20 years. He said: "My memory is that Ibar's superiors knew what was happening. That they did nothing to stop it continuing has totally destroyed my faith and trusts in teachers and religious teachers in particular."

Judge Crossley commented that Keating sometimes bribed victims with money or gifts to silence them.

In sentencing Keating, Judge Crossley commented about the action of the De La Salle order in recruiting Keating into the order at such an early age. The judge told Keating: "I accept that your sexual development was confused and retarded over many years. That circumstance was no doubt contributed to by the fact of your early recruitment into the Brotherhood and the vows you took upon your final entry into the order."

Jailed in Victoria, 1998

The Melbourne County Court proceedings in 1998 ended when Judge Crossley sentenced Frank Keating to three years' jail, eight months of which was to be served behind bars with the remainder suspended.

The Melbourne County Court case related only to crimes committed in Victoria but a Victorian victim alerted the media in the other states where Ibar/Keating had worked — Queensland and South Australia. Keating's Victorian conviction was widely reported in the media in Brisbane, Scarborough, Adelaide and Port Pirie. This was likely to encourage more victims to contact the police.

Therefore, De La Salle's Australian head office in Sydney tried to harness other victims of Keating. It issued a press release in Victoria, Queensland and South Australia, apologising for Keating's "misconduct" (no mention of criminal offences). The statement urged all victims to phone a De La Salle number in Sydney to arrange free "counselling".

The statement would have been more genuine if it had given the phone numbers for the police child-abuse units. Experience proves that, when victims report sexual crimes firstly to the church or to a church "counselling" service, the victims choose not to notify the police.

Convicted in Queensland in 2000

After reading about the Victorian conviction, one Queensland victim contacted Broken Rites, which gave him the phone number of the Queensland Police child exploitation unit. This victim put the police in touch with more Queensland victims and Keating was then charged in Queensland.

In Brisbane District Court in April 2000, Frank Terence Keating (then aged 57) pleaded guilty to molesting 12 boys on 33 occasions in the 1980s at De La Salle College, Scarborough, Queensland.

Keating's defence counsel said that in late 1991, after a decade at Scarborough, Keating was given six months "sabbatical" leave in the USA. Back in Australia, he stayed at a De La Salle house in Sydney and then left the order. In 1992 he became a lay teacher at Catholic schools in South Australia and Melbourne.

In sentencing Keating, Judge Robertson criticised the De La Salle Brothers for remaining silent about Keating while he continued committing crimes against children. The judge said it was another sad case where church organisations should have taken steps to prevent such behaviour but did not.

Judge Robertson sentenced Keating to 12 months’ jail but he suspended this because Keating had already been behind bars in Victoria in 1998 for Victorian offences.

In court again in 2017-2018

In December 2017, Frank Terrence Keating appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court because more of his Victorian victims had spoken to the Sex Crimes Squad of the Victoria Police. The investigation was conducted by detectives in the Sano Taskforce. In court, Keating pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting eight boys at a Catholic boys-only school (De La Salle College in Malvern) in the early 1970s. The victims were aged 11 to 15, and Brother "Ibar" Keating was then aged between 28 and 35.

In December 2017, the magistrates court ordered that Keating be placed in custody to await his sentencing.

In March 2018, Keating appeared in the Melbourne County Court to confirm his guilty plea. The court heard impact statements written by victims, each telling the court how this offending by a Catholic religious Brother (plus the church's cover-up) had damaged each victim's later life and also how it affected each victim's relationships within a religious Catholic family.

On 20 April 2018, Keating appeared before County Court Judge Gregory Lyon for sentencing .

Judge Lyon outlined Keating's pattern of offending and the lack of disciplinary action against him. Keating brazenly abused some boys during class while other students were present.

"[One victim] felt helpless as you were his teacher and this was occurring in class," Judge Lyon said.

Another boy was abused under the pretext of Brother Keating adjusting the student's uniform at the front of the classroom.

Keating, who was also a football coach, abused another boy in the change room before and after games.

Jailed again, Melbourne 2018

On 20 April 2018, for these Victorian offences, Judge Lyon sentenced Frank Terrence Keating (aged 75) to a maximum of five years and three months in jail. He was ordered to serve at least three years behind bars (dating from December 2017) before becoming eligible for parole.

Update 2019: More charges in Queensland.

On 4 September 2018, Queensland Police began prosecuting Frank Terrence Keating with a brief administrative mention in the Redcliffe Magistrates Court. The case is regarding offences which allegedly occurred at De La Salle College Scarborough in 1989. The next steps in the court process were to be scheduled for a later date. Broken Rites does not know whether this prosecution will continue in 2019 or whether the next steps will have to wait until Keating completes his Victorian jail sentence. Under Queensland law, there are some restrictions on media reporting of the progress of court cases while these cases are in the preliminary stages in magistrates courts.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 31 January 2019

This Broken Rites article is the most comprehensive account available about how the large Catholic order of Salesian Fathers harboured an Australian paedophile priest, Father Frank Klep, for many years — allowing him to commit sexual crimes against defenceless boys. Gradually, with help from Broken Rites, some of his victims managed to expose Klep and the Salesians during three court cases. Now he is in jail. In a fourth court case on 26 October 2018, Klep has pleaded guilty regarding three more of his victims. He will be sentenced again in early 2019.

Frank Gerard Klep was ordained as a priest of the Salesian teaching order in Melbourne in 1972.Years later, ex-students began to reveal that they had been sexually abused by Father Klep when they were children in his "care". During his career, Klep's colleagues and superiors had turned a blind eye to his crimes.

Eventually, in 1994, two ex-students managed to get Klep convicted in Melbourne for indecently assaulting them, when they were aged 13, in the sick dormitory of a Salesian secondary school, Salesian College (also known as "Rupertswood"), at Sunbury in Melbourne's north-west. The offences occurred in the 1970s but were covered up until the 1994 court case.

On the day of the 1994 court case, a Broken Rites researcher was visiting the court building (for a different case) and discovered that a Catholic priest (Father Frank Klep) was in an adjoining courtroom on child-sex charges. Therefore, Broken Rites began researching Frank Klep and the church's cover-up. Broken Rites later found more victims of Klep.

The Salesians eventually transferred Klep from Australia to the Pacific island Samoa -- and they illegally concealed his Australian criminal conviction from the Samoan authorities. In Samoa, he was out of reach of the Australian police. In 2004, after more Melbourne victims contacted the Australian police, Samoa deported Frank Klep back to Australia, where he eventually pleaded guilty regarding the additional victims. He was again convicted. Even as Klep entered jail in December 2005 (eleven years after his first conviction), his Salesian superiors still had not removed him from the priesthood.

In court again on 2 December 2013 (after more of his victims contacted Broken Rites and the police), Klep pleaded guilty to more crimes against boys, including rape and attempted buggery.

This story raises questions not just about Frank Klep but about the Catholic system that sheltered him from justice.

The priest's background

Broken Rites has compiled the following account from court submissions and witnesses' testimonies. Broken Rites was present in court during the main court proceedings.

Broken Rites has ascertained that Father Frank Gerard Klep was born in Holland on 3 October 1943, in a family of nine children. He arrived in Australia with his family when he was aged ten. He went to school at Salesian College, Chadstone (in Melbourne's south-east), and, by age 16, the Salesian Fathers viewed him as a future priest. He began boarding with the Salesians and spent his final two school years (years 11 and 12) in a special classroom of  "aspirants"  for the priesthood. At 18, he joined the Salesian order, the formal name of which is the "Salesians of Don Bosco". Klep's Catholic family (according to his barrister in court in 2005) enjoyed the prestige of having a future priest in the family. One of his younger siblings became a nun.

Klep's Salesian training in the 1960s included teaching in a Catholic school in South Australia. He is also believed to have taught at Dominic College, Glenorchy, Tasmania.

In 1968, aged 25, he went to the United States for theological studies, including at Pontifical College (a Catholic seminary in Ohio).

Catholic priests are advertised as living a life of "chastity" but Klep's barrister told the court in 2005 (at time of sentencing) that, while Klep was in the U.S. in 1968, he met a fellow male student-priest who fondled him sexually. (This kind of experience is not uncommon in the Salesian order.) Klep's barrister said that this was Klep's first experience of "sex" and his first orgasm.

Ordained as a priest in 1972, aged 29, Father Frank Klep worked as a teacher at "Rupertswood", where he was the "religion" co-ordinator. "Rupertswood" then was a boys-only school, with boarders as well as day students. The boarders included many from distant farming communities in northern Victoria and southern New South Wales.

The boarders slept in dormitories, partitioned at the end by a curtain, behind which a Salesian priest or brother slept to maintain order. There were about 19 priests, brothers and lay brothers at "Rupertswood".

Klep was in charge of the infirmary, where sick boys were kept. Klep slept in a partitioned section in the infirmary. He administered medication to sick or injured boys.

The prosecution alleged that Klep used to touch the genitals of some boys while the boys were in bed asleep and that, in some cases, he performed oral sex on the boys. Furthermore, some boys alleged that Klep gave them sedatives, or a drugged drink, to put them into a deep sleep before abusing them. Some alleged that he inserted a medical suppository into their anus.

At that time, Frank Klep's victims were unable to report the sex-abuse to their parents or the police. As boarders, the boys were a long way from home. Furthermore, their parents were devout Catholics who would not welcome - or even believe - the complaints. The boarders also knew that a complaint would result in reprisals from the school administration.

Klep transferred from "Rupertswood" at the end of 1979 to become the principal of Salesian College in Brooklyn Park, Adelaide. He is recorded as taking part in many activities with Adelaide boys, including one trip with boys in May 1981 to visit the Salesian houses around Melbourne.

Complaints surfaced in the 1980s

In the 1980s, some "Rupertswood" parents were alarmed that their sons, now becoming adults, seemed to have had their personal development disrupted at the school. Gradually, these ex-students admitted to their parents that Father Klep sexually abused them in the infirmary in the 1970s. Being adults now, the ex-students felt safe to reveal what they could not have said when they were children.

In 1982-6, Klep was back at "Rupertswood" as principal. Alarmed by this promotion, a dozen parents confronted the Salesians' Australian administration and demanded Klep's removal but the Salesians refused. Klep denied everything. These parents also reported Klep to the then chief administrator of the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese but he ignored the complaints.

Eventually, after the parents threatened legal action, the Salesians "solved" the problem by awarding Klep a "study" trip to Rome and the United States.

Returning to Australia in 1989, Klep helped to train priests at Salesian Theological College in Oakleigh (in Melbourne's south-east).

Despite the complaints of 1986, he was again put into contact with boys in 1992 -- as head of the Salesians'Don Bosco Hostel and Youth Centre, 715 Sydney Road, Brunswick, a blue-collar suburb of Melbourne. This centre included some potentially vulnerable youngsters.

One ex-Rupertswood parent, "Cath", said she and the other parents were horrified by this Youth Centre appointment. She complained in writing to the Salesians in 1992 and (she said) received a scolding from the order's Australian head at the time. She dropped her protests.

"I just tried to do the right thing, but we never got anywhere," Cath said later. "They absolutely had it covered, like the Mafia."

Conviction in 1994

In 1993, some Klep victims from "Rupertswood" in the 1970s contacted Victoria's child-protection police, instead of merely telling the Salesians or the Melbourne archdiocese. The child-protection police, unlike the church authorities, took the matter seriously.

First, two siblings ("Kerry" and "Paddy") made sworn police statements at what is now called the Sexual Offences and Child-abuse Investigation Team (SOCIT) unit. These boys, who were boarders at "Rupertswood", were from a Victorian country town, where their parents were "pillars of the church". Kerry encountered Klep in Year 9 in the mid-1970s, when he was 13. Paddy, who is four years younger, encountered Klep four years later, in Year 9 when he too was 13. Both boys said they were indecently assaulted in the infirmary.

Paddy said that Klep gave him sedatives. In addition to indecent touching of genitals, Klep inserted a medical suppository into Paddy's anus, the boy said.

Klep denied everything and pleaded not guilty. The Salesians left him on duty throughout the court process in 1994.

Senior Sergeant Steve Iddles, the prosecutor, later said: "He [Frank Klep] forced himself on them [the boys]. Lie down and do as I tell you."

In the Melbourne Magistrates Court on 12 December 1994, a magistrate found Frank Klep guilty and sentenced him to nine months jail, which he was allowed to serve in community service, gardening at nursing homes.

The Salesians' barrister immediately told the court that Kelp would appeal against the conviction. This discouraged the media from reporting the conviction.

A Broken Rites researcher, who attended the Magistrates Court on the day of the conviction, followed up on the progress of the appeal. Broken Rites eventually found that, in fact, Klep did not proceed with the appeal.

By this time, the metropolitan media had lost interest in the case. However, Broken Rites tipped off a local weekly newspaper, the Sunbury "Regional" (circulating in the district around "Rupertswood"), and this newspaper published four paragraphs about the Klep case on 20 December 1994.

After the conviction, Klep had discussions with Catholic Church psychiatrist Richard Ball but (according to statements made in court in 2005) this did not constitute "treatment" because Klep's plea of "not guilty" indicated that he showed no remorse. The Salesians arranged no subsequent on-going professional treatment for Klep -- and this indicates that the Salesions, too, felt no remorse.

One victim, Kerry, told Broken Rites : "Klep's actions have altered my life in many ways. I feel cheated by the Catholic Church which for years must have known of this problem with many clergy and yet took no stand to remove those responsible or even to apologise to the victims concerned."

Another victim comes forward

After the 1994 conviction, Father Frank Klep was transferred to a position at Auxilium College (a training and retreat centre for clergy) at Lysterfield, south-east of Melbourne.

In 1996, another former "Rupertswood" student ("Pierre") contacted the police Sexual Offences and Child Abuse unit. Pierre alleged that, when he was in the infirmary in 1973 aged 14, Klep had fondled him, performed oral sex on him and penetrated his anus with a finger.

Police interviewed Klep in June 1996 but, once again, he denied the allegations. When the investigating detective was transferred to a country area, the file lay dormant in Melbourne for a while.

Klep in Samoa

About May 1998, the police began instituting charges against Frank Klep (regarding the victim "Pierre") but the Salesians arranged for Klep to work at Moamoa Theological College in Samoa. In August 1998, Melbourne police tried to serve a criminal summons on Klep in Melbourne (for five sexual assaults on Pierre) but Klep was already in Samoa -- and Australia has no extradition treaty with Samoa. Police then issued an Australia-wide arrest warrant for Klep.

The people of Samoa were not aware that the newly-arrived friendly priest was a convicted child molester who was wanted on more charges back in Australia. Neither he nor the church felt an obligation to tell anyone about all that.

In 2002, Broken Rites was contacted by a United States journalist, Reese Dunklin of the "Dallas Morning News", Texas, who was investigating the Catholic Church's habit of allowing sexually-abusive priests to move from one country to another. Broken Rites told Dunklin about Father Frank Klep and certain other Australian Salesians who had gone to Pacific islands. Dunklin eventually flew to Samoa and published a long article about Klep in the "Dallas Morning News" on 18 June 2004.

To satisfy Klep's victims, the Salesians' Australian headquarters had previously claimed that Klep would never again deliver Mass publicly or participate in any activity that may bring him into contact with children. But Dunklin found that Klep was helping during Mass at a Samoan church and at the nearby Salesian schools. A photo in the "Dallas Morning News" showed Father Klep in Samoa handing out sweets to children after Sunday Mass. The paper reported that teenaged boys were waiting for Klep outside.

Samoa's top Catholic, Archbishop Alapati Mataeliga, told Dunklin that he was startled to learn about Frank Klep's criminal conviction. He said the Salesians should not have hidden the conviction from him.

The archbishop said he had just learned, from the media, about the Salesians' promise that Frank Klep would not deliver Mass or participate in any activity that may bring him into contact with children. The archbishop said he should have been told this earlier.

Dunklin's article pointed out that the Salesians of Don Bosco, one of the largest Catholic religious orders, concentrate on educating and housing some of the world's most needy and vulnerable children. Yet influential Salesian officials, worldwide, have spoken out forcefully against cooperating with law enforcement agencies investigating sex-abuse allegations.

Dunklin said that Salesian officials worldwide had spoken out against co-operating with police investigating sex-abuse allegations. He quoted Salesian Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez of Honduras - then regarded as a possible candidate to be the next pope - as saying: "It would be a tragedy to reduce the role of a pastor to that of a cop. I'd be prepared to go to jail rather than harm one of my priests."

Broken Rites showed Dunklin's article to several Australian journalists who began investigating Australian aspects of the Klep story.

Frank Klep back in Australia

In late June 2004, the Samoan government deported Klep because he had failed to disclose his 1994 conviction. On his visa application for Samoa, Klep had sworn that "I ... have never been convicted of a criminal offence." The lie was witnessed, and endorsed, by Klep's then Salesian boss.

Returning to Australia on 25 June 2004, Frank Klep was immediately arrested on the 1998 charges involving Pierre. The publicity about Klep's return from Samoa resulted in more victims contacting the police Sexual Offences and Child Abuse unit.

Embarrassed by the publicity about Father Klep, the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese wrote to Klep immediately after his arrival, stating that he was no longer authorised to function as a priest within the boundaries of the Melbourne diocese. (However, this prohibition related only to Melbourne; the Melbourne diocese had no power to ground a Salesian priest in other dioceses or other countries.)

At the Melbourne Magistrates Court in April 2005, Frank Klep was charged with 28 incidents of indecent assault [i.e., touching of genitals] and one of buggery [i.e., Pierre's allegation of digital penetration]. These alleged offences were against eight "Rupertswood" boys, mostly aged 14 to 15, in 1973. Klep's lawyers (hired by the Salesians) contested the charges fiercely but, after hearing evidence, the magistrate decided that there was certainly enough evidence for a jury to convict Klep and he therefore ordered Klep to stand trial.

Pleaded guilty

When the matter was scheduled for a higher court (the Melbourne County Court) later in 2005, Klep decided to plead guilty.

The guilty plea meant that the evidence would not need to be argued in court. The defence and prosecution submitted an "agreed statement of facts", describing certain incidents of indecent assault committed by Klep. These were "representative" charges -- just one or two incidents per victim, although some of the victims had allegedly been assaulted numerous times during several years.

As these court proceedings were getting under way, two more "Rupertswood" victims contacted police. In December 2005, Frank Klep finally pleaded guilty in the County Court to 13 incidents of indecent assault involving ten Rupertswood boys. All were boarders and all were assaulted in the infirmary.

Klep's barrister asked the court for a wholly-suspended sentence, particularly in view of the long delay in reporting the offences to the police. The publicity and the disgrace were a sufficient punishment, the defence claimed.

However, Judge Francis Hogan quoted a letter from the Salesians' Australian head, Father Ian Murdoch, dated 13 December 2005, which stated that the Salesians had not yet decided what to do about Klep's future as a priest. Murdoch failed to explain why Klep was still a priest in 2005 (11 years after the 1994 conviction) and why there was still a hesitation about removing him from the priesthood.

The prosecution sought an immediate jail sentence, pointing out that the boys were particularly vulnerable because they were ill and because, as boarders, they had no parents on hand to whom they could complain; and, furthermore, the delay in reporting was because the boys could not tell their devout parents about church sex abuse.

Off to jail

Early in December 2005, just before Klep was due to be sentenced, another "Rupertswood" victim contacted police, and his case was included in the sentencing, making 14 incidents involving eleven victims.

Sentencing Klep on 16 December 2005, Judge Francis Hogan said Klep had violated the innocence of his students. The judge told Klep: "You betrayed their trust in a most appalling way. Not only were you in a position of trust but you were also in a position of power."

The judge also said: "Offences of this kind are difficult to detect because they are committed against children who are scared and do not complain."

Judge Hogan sentenced Klep to a total of 36 months jail, with one year behind bars and the remainder possibly on parole. However, this sentence was later increased considerably by the Victorian Court of Appeal [see below in this article].

Judge Hogan ordered that Klep's name be placed permanently on the Register of Serious Sexual Offenders and that a sample of his saliva be taken for DNA testing. (Detectives took Klep's fingerprints in 1994.)

Klep's conviction was widely reported in radio and television bulletins and in newspapers.

Sentence increased

On 19 April 2006, the Director of Public Prosecutions for the State of Victoria appealed aginst Judge Hogan's sentence as being too lenient. Three Supreme Court judges heard submissions from the prosecution and the defence.

The defence counsel submitted that the sentence should be reduced because Klep had received an additional punishment - "losing his job". However, the defence counsel admitted that Klep had not been expelled from the Salesian order.

That is, according to the defence, Klep was still a priest. And this was four months after his December 2005 conviction -- and eleven years after his 1994 conviction.

The appeal judges increased Klep's sentence to a total of 5 years 10 months jail, with parole possible after 3 years 6 months.

How the church hurt the victims

Klep's victims submitted written impact statements to Judge Hogan before the sentencing in December 2005. Each victim described how Klep and the Salesians had adversely affected the victim's subsequent life. The impact was caused not only by Klep's actions but also by the church's culture of cover-up. The effects included: losing trust in other people; disrupting the boys' relationship with their families; becoming socially withdrawn; sexual identity problems; substance abuse; and destroying their relationship with their fellows in the Catholic community.

In her sentencing remarks, Judge Hogan emphasised that Klep had left his victims with profound and lasting psychological scars.

For many victims of Father Frank Klep and other Salesians, the anchor of their lives has been cut, leaving them spiritually and emotionally adrift. They consider it a high price to pay for the bad faith of Salesian priests and administrators.

One victim, Kerry (from the 1994 case), told reporters on 16 December 2005 that his mother, a church person all her life, has lost all trust in the Catholic Church, as have the rest of Kerry's family.

In court again in 2013

In early 2013, after some more of Klep's victims had contacted the police, Klep was investigated again by detectives from Task Force Sano in the Sex Crime Squad of the Victoria Police.

In the Melbourne Magistrates Court on 2 December 2013, Klep (then aged 70) pleaded guilty to 14 charges, including one count of rape, one count of attempted buggery and 12 charges of indecent assault.

[Victoria's criminal statutes have been revised since the 1970s. The definition of an offence, such as "rape" or "buggery", always depends upon the definition that was used in Victoria's criminal laws in the particular year in which each offence was committed.]

These 14 charges were not the only offences in the prosecutors' charge-sheets. When Klep pleaded guilty to these 14 charges involving the 14 victims, prosecutors withdrew another 22 charges against him.

After the December 2013 hearing, Klep was released on bail, until he would be called to face a judge in the Victorian County Court in 2014 for sentence proceedings.

Pre-sentence hearing, April 2014

On 3 and 8 April 2014, Frank Gerard Klep (aged 70) appeared in the Victorian County Court, where he pleaded guilty to 12 counts of indecent assault, buggery, attempted buggery and rape.

Judge Frank Gucciardo heard submissions from the prosecution and the defence about what sort of sentence should be opposed upon Klep regarding the additional victims.

And several victims each made an impact statement to the court, explaining how this church-abuse had affected them in their teenage and adult years. These victims told the court about the depression, substance abuse and failed relationships they have experienced in the years since Klep's crimes.

"Frank Klep, you left a lasting impression on me that will never be erased," one victim said. "I'm often ashamed of myself. How did I let this happen to me?"

One man spoke of the shame and helplessness he felt when Klep attended his grandmother's funeral after assaulting him. This victim told Klep: "I can never forgive you for having the gall to turn up and participate in the funeral. I can still see you standing there."

Another victim told the court he abused alcohol as a coping mechanism for the trauma. He said: "When I had dark days I would drink myself into unconsciousness." He recalled waking in cold sweats after dreaming he was back at the Sunbury school.

Klep preyed on many of the boys as they lay ill in the school's sick bay, which he operated. Several of the boys awoke during the night to find Klep had removed their pants and was interfering with their genitals. One boy was pinned to his bed and raped. Another boy was sexually abused by Klep when he used a pay phone outside his office to call home.

During this hearing, Klep read out a written apology for his crimes. But several victims were upset by this and they walked out of the courtroom, exercising a power they never had when Klep was their principal and teacher.

Defence barrister Julie Sutherland said the apology was evidence of Klep's true remorse for what she claimed were "stale and antique" offences.

But Judge Gucciardo said: "There's nothing 'stale or antique' about the hurt echoing in the court this morning."

Referring to the victims' walk-out, the judge said: "The human wreckage he [Klep] leaves behind him gets to file out of court" he said. "Where's their [the victims'] rehabilitation program?"

Jailed again, May 2014

Sentencing Klep on 26 May 2014, Judge Gucciardo said Klep knew that his position of authority as a priest and teacher would prevent his victims from coming forward. The boys who tried to tell their parents were not believed, the judge said.

In determining the length of Klep's new jail sentence, Judge Gucciardo took into account several factors regarding these 15 new victims: the number of victims this time; the seriousness of each crime in this batch; the length of the 2005 jail sentence; Klep's early guilty plea this time; his current age (turning 71 in October 2014), et cetera.

After making these calculations, Judge Gucciardo gave Klep a new jail sentence of 10 years and six months, with a non-parole period of six and a half years.

When the 2005 sentence and the 2014 sentence are added together, this means that Klep's maximum jail sentences will have totalled 15 years 6 months, with a total of 10 years 6 months behind bars.

Further victims

In Klep's three court appearances (in 1994, 2005 and 2014), a total of 25 victims helped the police to bring Klep to justice. But these were not Klep's only victims; these 25 were merely those who bothered to have a chat with the detectives. According to research by Broken Rites, most Catholic Church sex-abuse victims remain silent for many years (or perhaps forever).

Some of the victims in the above-mentioned court cases, from 1994 onwards, have told Broken Rites that they know of other Klep victims who, for family reasons or other reasons, have not contacted the police. Such a victim might remain silent because, perhaps, he has still not told his devout Catholic parents about being sexually abused by a Catholic priest. And some victims might have (unwisely) reported Klep's crime to the Salesians (that is, to Klep's mates), instead of to the police.

Victims said that they know of several "Rupertswood" former students who have committed suicide since leaving the school and who are believed to have been victims of sexual abuse.

More charges against Klep in 2017-2018

On 25 August 2017, Frank Gerard Klep appeared in Melbourne Magistrates' Court (via video-link from jail), charged with committing indecent assaults against some additional male students at Melbourne's Salesian College "Rupertswood" between 1976 and 1982. The new charges were laid by detectives from the Sano Taskforce in the Victoria Police. In the Melbourne County Court on 26 October 2018, Frank Gerard Klep (aged 75) appeared via video link from jail. He pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting three boys under 16 . He is due to reappear in court on 7 March 2019 for a plea hearing ahead of sentencing.

• By a Broken Rites researcher

Broken Rites is doing further research about a Sydney Catholic priest, Father Kevin Cox, who sexually abused vulnerable girls. For example, one victim (Broken Rites will refer to her as "Mandy") has revealed that Father Cox sexually abused her for six years from the age of eleven. Furthermore, the sexual abuse resulted in a pregnancy at age 17 — and then the priest paid for an abortion. But the church continued to protect Father Cox. Church leaders and fellow-priests continued to regard Father Cox as a church hero.

After abusing "Mandy" for six years, Father Cox reluctantly apologised to the family for his sexual abuse of the girl. He also reluctantly admitted the sexual abuse to his bishop. However, the diocese granted him a transfer to another parish and allowed him to continue working as a priest for the next 15 years, until Mandy finally reported the sexual abuse to the police when she was nearly 32.

After the police charged Father Cox in court with his earliest sexual crimes against the child (at the age of 11 to 13), his supporters in the church sprang to his defence. After a jury convicted him of these crimes, church leaders and priests wrote "good-character" references for him, asking the court for a lenient sentence. A judge gave Cox a part-time jail sentence but church lawyers appealed to a higher court against the criminal conviction and won an acquittal for the priest.

Privately, a church leader apologised to Mandy's mother, acknowledging that the priest had broken his priestly vows in doing what he did to Mandy.

And, to cap it all off, when Father Kevin Cox died in 2008, the Catholic Church gave him a grand funeral service, jointly conducted by three bishops and more than fifty priests. He went to his grave as a church hero.

The priest's background

Broken Rites has ascertained that Father Kevin Nicholas Cox was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1930, of an Irish father and Australian mother. Immediately after leaving school, he entered the Catholic order of Cistercian monks (also known as the Trappist order) at Roscrea, County Offaly, Ireland, to train for the Catholic priesthood.

He was transferred to Australia, when the Cistercians established a monastery at Yarra Glen, near Melbourne, in 1954. A year later, aged 25, he was ordained in Melbourne as a Cistercian priest, with Melbourne's Irish-born Archbishop Daniel Mannix performing the ordination ceremony. Cox adopted the "religious" name Father "Dominic" Cox, after the medieval monk Saint Dominic.

After 20 years in the Melbourne monastery, Father Cox transferred from the Cistercians, on loan, to the Sydney archdiocese, changing his name back to Kevin. The Sydney diocese used him as a relief priest at Kogarah (St Patrick's parish) in 1974-75 and Caringbah (Our Lady of Fatima parish) from 1975 to 1982.

Here is Mandy's story

Mandy's life has been shattered by Cox's sexual abuse, the breach of trust, the loss of faith, her disrupted adolescence, the pregnancy, the abortion and the church's hypocrisy and cover-up.

Broken Rites has digested the following account from typed, sworn statements, made by Mandy, her mother Beryl and other family members, and witnessed by a police officer. The statements were later submitted in the preliminary court proceedings.

Mandy, born in mid-1964, is from a large, devout Sydney Catholic family in Caringbah (in Sydney's south), where the family's life revolved around the "Our Lady of Fatima" parish.

When Father Kevin Cox (then aged 45) joined their parish in 1975 as an assistant priest, he began visiting this family. He eventually took a particular interest in "helping" Mandy, aged 11, who was then a pupil at Father Cox's parish school.

The family trusted Father Cox with Mandy "because he was a Catholic priest". He began meeting Mandy for an early-morning jog at an oval near the Caringbah parish school. After one of these jogs, he jokingly put his hand inside Mandy's shorts and underpants for the first time.

He began spending more time alone with Mandy than the family was aware of — almost daily, either before school or after school or at weekends.

He molested her regularly in the Sacristy (a room near the church altar), telling her that, if anybody knocked on the door of this room, she was to hide. Later, other offences occurred regularly in a spare room at the school, in the presbytery, and in a parked car (sometimes after Saturday evening Mass),

At first, the abuse consisted of Father Cox fingering Mandy's genital area. At first, innocent Mandy did not realise that this was "sex", especially because he was a Catholic priest. On later occasions, the priest made Mandy touch his genitals, and he would ejaculate on her naked body. He told her: "If you tell anybody about this, it will cause a scandal for you."

This forced Mandy to bear the burden of secrecy and deception. She was prevented from telling her parents about the abuse.

Meanwhile, during the years of abuse, Father Cox continued to be a "friend" of Mandy's gullible family. He conducted a wedding ceremony for one of Mandy's sisters and baptised one of Mandy's nephews.

Pregnancy and abortion

Until Mandy was 16, the abuse always stopped short of sexual penetration but, at age 16, it progressed to full sexual intercourse. The intercourse continued for about a year and, at 17, Mandy became pregnant. Around this time, she was finishing Year Eleven at high school.

Father Cox then told Mandy to have an abortion. One of her sisters has made a sworn statement that the priest handed cash to the sister for the abortion, which was performed (after her 17th birthday) at a clinic in Surry Hills in inner-Sydney.

After the abortion, Mandy's mother Beryl was told about it. She was devastated because abortion was contrary to Catholic Church teachings and she was doubly shocked to learn that her daughter had been sexually abused by Father Cox. This undermined the whole basis of the family's Catholicism. At this stage (with Mandy aged 17) her mother presumed that the sexual abuse was relatively recent (perhaps for a year), not realising that it had been going on for six years.

The mother told the police in her sworn statement:

• 'I was very shocked, and upset... I remember he [Fr Cox] picked me up in his car and drove to the Camelia Garden, Caringbah. We sat in the car and talked. I said to him something like, "You were a friend of all of us, I don't know how I'm going to tell [my husband], he'll want to kill you."

  'I don't remember what he [Cox] said exactly, he was making excuses. He said, "I'm sorry, it's a terrible thing."

After Cox mumbled his apology, the mother demanded that he tell his bishop about the sexual abuse, which he did. She also demanded that he leave this parish. The mother's statement says: "Father Cox must have spoken to the bishop because he left the parish very soon afterwards. I believe he went to the Pyrmont area [in inner-Sydney]."

Cover-up

The Caringbah parish gave Fr Cox a farewell party but the parishioners were not told the real reason why he was leaving.

The sex abuse did not affect Father Cox's career. Indeed, at his later parishes, he was rewarded with a promotion from "Assistant Priest" (at Caringbah) to "Administrator" or "Parish Priest" (that is, in charge) of Sydney parishes. Broken Rites has found him listed at:

• Pyrmont (St Bede's), 1982-87;
• Auburn (St John of God), 1988;
• Woollahra (Holy Cross parish), 1989-91, acting as the parish administrator on behalf of retired archbishop James Carroll; and
• Enmore-Tempe (St Pius V parish), as the Parish Priest in charge, 1992-96.

The congregations in these parishes were not told the reason why Father Cox had been rescued out of the Caringbah parish.

The impact on Mandy

Because of the priest's sexual abuse, Mandy's personal development was crippled. For example, when assaulting Mandy, the priest used to tell her: "Look what you are making me do — you naughty girl, you!" This blaming of Mandy convinced her that she is a "bad" person, and she is still suffering from the effects of this guilt.

Mandy's mother still did not realise that the sexual abuse began at the age of 11, not just 17. The mother had been puzzled for years why Mandy developed into such a disturbed and "naughty" girl from about age 11 onwards.

Another impact was that the priest monopolised Mandy's adolescent years, so she did not develop proper relationships with boys and girls her own age. And because her first "sexual" experience was with a Catholic priest, this damaged the way in which she would later be expected to develop a sexual relationship with an appropriate person of her own choosing.

She married in 1986 (aged 22) but the marriage broke up. One problem was that the trauma about the priest haunted Mandy's mind and it hindered her sexual relationship with her husband.

Mandy was now living in poverty with her two children, whereas the church was still providing accommodation and income for the priest. Depressed, Mandy tried to take her own life.

The church shuns Mandy

For many years after the abortion, Mandy remained silent about what Father Kevin Cox and the Catholic Church had done to her life. Like many church-abuse victims, she felt powerless to tackle the Catholic Church.

Early in 1996, Mandy began having counselling with a Sydney nun (Sister "Mary") but Mandy's emotional health was deteriorating. After consulting Mandy's family, Sister Mary notified the Sydney archdiocese about what Father Cox had done to Mandy and her family. Around Easter 1996, the archdiocese withdrew Fr Cox from the Enmore-Tempe parish, announcing that he was going "on leave".

To help her healing, Mandy wished to have a meeting with church officials, with Fr Cox present, so that Cox would offer her an apology in person. However, no such a meeting or apology was granted.

During 1996, the Australian bishops announced a new strategy on managing church sexual-abuse complaints (the "Towards Healing" project). On 26 November 1996, one of Mandy's close relatives (let us call her "Abbie") wrote (in confidence) to a leading spokesman for "Towards Healing", pleading for help for Mandy through "Towards Healing". This letter (and Broken Rites has examined a copy) explained how Mandy's life had been disrupted by Cox (damaging her faith and leaving her in poverty) and asking the church to help her to achieve "healing".

However, the archdiocese failed to help Mandy. This neglect was contrary to the "Towards Healing" document, which had promised (in paragraph 17 on page 4 of the 1996 edition): "The church authority shall immediately enter into dialogue with victims concerning their needs and ensure they are given such assistance as is demanded by justice and compassion."

Police charges

From this time on, Broken Rites received an occasional phone call from one or other of Mandy's relatives, reporting on developments and discussing strategies for obtaining justice.

Rejected by the archdiocese, Mandy no longer felt any obligation to maintain the church's code of silence about its sexual abuse. Therefore, she contacted Sydney's Petersham police station and was interviewed by Detective Stephen Rae. In May 1997 (aged 31) she made a sworn, signed police statement, outlining her encounters with Father Cox from the age of eleven onwards.

Following a police investigation, prosecutors selected three of the many incidents in Mandy's statement. The prosecution charged Father Cox with indecent assault (i.e., non-penetrative sexual activity) involving a child under 16. From the numerous encounters between Cox and Mandy, the prosecution charged Cox regarding three incidents:

1. the first jogging incident at the Caringbah oval (when Mandy was aged 11);
2. the first incident in the church sacristy (aged 11); and
3. one of the early car-parking incidents (at Wanda Beach, aged 13).

The prosecution alleged that these assaults up to age 13 included Cox fingering the girl's genitals and also him rubbing his own genitals against her until he ejaculated on the outside of her body.

The prosecutors confined the charges to these early incidents because the penetrative sex after the age of 16 is more difficult to prosecute if the defendant claims to have had the 16-year-old victim's consent (whereas "consent" is not allowable as a defence if the victim is a child under 16). Nor was it a criminal offence for a priest to pay for an abortion.

When Mandy's mother Beryl (at the age of 71) learned the details of these charges, she realised for the first time that the priest's sexual abuse of Mandy began at age 11, not 17.

Preliminary court hearing

Late in 1997, preliminary proceedings were held before a magistrate at Sutherland Local Court.

Cox's defence was arranged by the legal firm Carroll and O'Dea, who were the solicitors for the Sydney Catholic archdiocese. He was represented in court by a senior (and up-and-coming) barrister, whose sibling was a very senior priest in the Sydney archdiocese.

Cox was driven to court every day by a fellow priest, who sat in the courtroom as Cox's personal support person.

The clergy, however, did not comfort Mandy or her mother or sisters. In fact, in court the church's legal team was clearly trying to defeat Mandy.

In court, armed by the church's legal team, Father Cox entered a plea of "not guilty".

Journalists knew that the charged priest was named Father Kevin Cox, but during these preliminary proceedings, the magistrate imposed a media-suppression order, prohibiting media outlets from naming the priest or the parish. A barrister from News Limited (publishers of the Sydney Daily Telegraph) went to the court, applying for the suppression order to be lifted, but the magistrate refused.

The intercourse, the pregnancy and the abortion at age 17 were mentioned at the magistrate's hearing, and this information helped to demonstrate Father Cox's propensity for sexual abuse.

Following normal practice in a contested case, the magistrate then "committed" Cox (that is, he scheduled him) to undergo a jury trial in a higher court, the New South Wales District Court.

Jury trial

The jury trial was held, chaired by a judge (not a magistrate), in the District Court at Campbelltown (in Sydney's south-west) in October 1998. For jury purposes, the prosecutors again confined the charges to the three incidents that had been selected for the 1997 preliminary hearing.

Before the jury was selected, the judge made rulings about the trial procedure. The judge ruled that the jury must not be allowed to know about the intercourse and the pregnancy, both of which occurred after Mandy's 16th birthday. The judge's reason for this is that the three charged incidents were confined to Mandy's earlier years (at the age of 11 to 13) — well before the pregnancy and the abortion. In any sexual assault case, the victim's 16th birthday is an important cut-off date, because after this birthday a defendant can try claiming that he had the victim's consent, which is not possible to claim under the age of 16.

The judge refused to let the jury hear evidence from Mandy's mother or two sisters.

He allowed the church lawyers to ask Mandy very personal questions about when she entered puberty.

The church lawyers tabled a letter (mentioned earlier in this article) which "Abbie" (a relative of Mandy) had written in confidence to "Towards Healing" about Father Cox's abuse of Mandy and the effects on Mandy's subsequent life. In court, the church lawyers used this letter in an attempt to discredit Mandy, claiming that Mandy's allegations must have been merely a trick to obtain "compensation".

Guilty verdict

In October 1998, the District Court jury found Cox guilty on the first two incidents and it let him off on the third.

The judge heard submissions from the prosecution and from the defence regarding what sort of sentence should be imposed.

Ms Robyn Denes, who appeared in court representing the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions, told court that the seriousness of Father Cox's offences could not be under-estimated.

She said: "The breach of trust is all the more stunning because of the awe and respect the children [in the parish] held him in. He was a priest in a parish who committed offences against a young girl who was part of the parish. The evidence discloses a systematic abuse of a young child. She was eleven years old when it happened."

Ms Denes said that there had been no evidence of contrition or remorse from Father Cox.

The church's legal team had assembled a thick file of "character" references from bishops and priests, all urging a lenient sentence for the priest. This file was submitted in court by the church's defence lawyer Paul Byrne, Senior Counsel. Byrne, who was hired for this trial (though not for the previous preliminary prodeedings), was one of the most prominent criminal lawyers in Sydney.

A part-time sentence

Instead of sentencing Cox to a normal jail term, the judge gave him two years of periodic detention — that is, part-time jail, which could be served (for example) at weekends.

The state prosecutor then asked the judge to lift the media-suppression order on the publication of Cox's name but the judge refused, thereby protecting the priest and the church. At this stage, therefore, Father Cox's name (and his conviction) could not appear in the media. The sentence was reported in the Sydney Daily Telegraph on 31 October 1998, page 15, with the priest not named.

Appeal

The NSW Director of Public Prosecutions appealed to a higher court about the leniency of Cox's sentence, while the church lawyers appealed against the conviction.

Three judges heard the appeal. This was not a re-trial and there was therefore no jury. The three judges reviewed the transcript of the jury trial and based their decision on this reading, plus legal submissions by the prosecutors and the church lawyers.

The appeal judges delivered their written judgement on 31 March 1999. The appeal judges noted that, although Cox was charged with three incidents, Mandy had difficulty in distinguishing each of the three charged incidents from the numerous other similar uncharged occasions.

The judges allowed Cox's appeal on the ground of the complainant's inability in evidence to state precise dates and times of the three charged offences.

They also decided that the two convictions were unreasonable because they were "inconsistent" with the acquittal on the third charge. Therefore, to achieve "consistency", the judges overturned the convictions on the first two charges.

One of the appeal judges, in his written judgement, made several puzzling statements, including:

• This judge rejected the allegation that Cox's sexual assaults occurred almost daily. He wrote: "While this intensity of sexual activity is, of course, possible, to my mind it is improbable." (Really?)
• This judge mistakenly referred to the jogging incident taking place at the "Canterbury" oval instead of the Caringbah oval. (How carefully did His Honour read the trial transcript?)

Media reports

At the appeal hearing, the church lawyers neglected to seek an extension of the media-suppression order. Therefore the appeal result was reported in Sydney newspapers, which published Father Kevin Cox's name for the first time. The Daily Telegraph named Cox on (1 April 1999, p. 15.

Later, Mandy's family was keen for the church's behaviour to receive more detailed media exposure. Mandy gave an interview to the Sunday edition of the Sydney Morning Herald (the Sun-Herald), which published a feature article by senior journalist Alex Mitchell. This article, too, named Cox.

Thus, the cover-up was exposed.

Despite Cox "getting off" in the criminal courts, the church hierarchy acknowledged privately that Father Cox did indeed break his priestly vows in his sexual abuse of Mandy. According to the church's "Towards Healing" document, the breaking of priestly vows constitutes sexual abuse.

A senior member of the Sydney archdiocese hierarchy later visited Mandy's mother and apologised on behalf of the church for what Father Cox had done to Mandy and to the family.

"Still a priest"

From the time he was charged by police in 1997 until the appeal court result in 1999, Father Kevin Cox was listed in the annual Australian Catholic Directory as "on leave", although still living in church premises. Mandy's family members believe that, during his court proceedings, Cox was residing in the Leichhardt parish (in Sydney's inner-west), where a friend of Cox was working as a priest.

After his successful appeal, the Sun-Herald reported that Cox would continue as a priest, possibly overseas. (This indicated that Cox still had the blessing of the Catholic hierarchy in Sydney and elsewhere.)

The Sun-Herald article about Cox alarmed many readers, who were concerned about the issue of child protection, especially as some of the Catholic Church's abuse victims were starting to report these crimes to the police, instead of just reporting them to a church official. This public exposure of Father Cox (and the church's cover-up) embarrassed the church, which issued a written statement a week later at the Caringbah parish, acknowledging the Cox court case but declaring the matter "closed".

Another victim

The Sun-Herald article about Mandy prompted an anonymous woman to write to her after tracing Mandy's family through the telephone directory. This letter provided proof that Mandy was not the only person who was sexually abused by Father Cox. The letter, received by Mandy on 26 May 1999, said:

• "I was saddened and a little distressed to read of your recent experience with the law and the church. Not only because of the apparent injustice of the situation, but because I believed that you were most likely to be telling the truth.

  "And the reason for this belief is that I, too, had a liaison with the person in question [that is, Father Cox]. However, since I was married, in my early twenties, at the time, I've always thought that it was my responsibility and my fault. I did not realise that I had other feelings about it all until I read of your experiences. Perhaps I could have expected to be protected from such an experience. Perhaps I could have expected better behaviour from a priest, maybe that he would protect me from my own self-destructiveness, not collude with me in it. Maybe it wasn't ALL my fault.

  "I'm really not too sure of the purpose of this letter, except to tell you that I support you and feel for you. I can't imagine what it must be like to have gone through all that, and then have it turned back on you. I only hope that, in some way, you can now put it behind you, and become the woman you were meant to be, unfettered by memories of the past, and strengthened by the courage and conviction you demonstrated in telling your story.

  "I have this vision of you receiving great bags of mail, just like this one, from all the women who most likely have a similar story to tell. Perhaps they, too, will in some way be freed by your story, and now be able to recognise that it was not their fault. They did not, and do not, deserve to be treated in this manner. My hope is that the burden you have carried will be lifted from you, and that you will now be free to achieve your potential.

  "No-one can really understand what you have endured, but in sending you these thoughts of love, and encouragement, and thanks, perhaps I can return a little of what you have given to me

  "P.S. Because I lack your courage, I will remain anonymous."

Broken Rites is wondering: How many other victims did Father Kevin Cox have?

No more parishes

After the publication of Cox's name in the Sydney newspapers, the church did not appoint him to any more parishes in Sydney. Every year since 1999, Broken Rites has checked Fr Kevin Cox's listing in the annual edition of the Australian Catholic directories. From 2000 to 2008, these volumes continued to list Fr Kevin Cox as a priest of the Sydney archdiocese. His address was listed as "retired, care of the Sydney archdiocesan office".

The Catholic Church continued to look after Father Cox. About 2002, when he was aged 72, the church provided accommodation for him in a residence for retired priests at Culburra, a popular holiday destination on the New South Wales south coast.

A grand farewell for a church hero

In 2008, Reverend Father Kevin Cox (still a priest and still "reverend") died, aged 78. His funeral took place in one of his former Sydney parishes — at St Pius' Church, Enmore — on Thursday, 4 December 2008. A glowing obituary of Father Cox appeared in the Sydney Catholic Weekly, 21 December, 2008.

Cox's Requiem Mass was concelebrated (that is, jointly conducted) by three of Sydney's auxiliary bishops (Bishops David Cremin, Julian Porteous and Terry Brady) and more than fifty priests.

Bishop Cremin, who was one of Sydney's three auxiliary bishops at the time of Mandy's pregnancy, was born in Ireland (the same country as Kevin Cox) in 1930 (the same year as Cox). Cremin retired in 2005.

Auxiliary Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, who retired in 2004 (and who often has expressed sympathy for church victims), is not mentioned in the report of the funeral. Presumably he did not attend.

The Catholic Weekly obituary stated: "His [Fr Cox's] requiem was a prime example of good liturgy. It was free-flowing and personal, like Fr Cox himself. "

The obituary said: "The Mass, led by Bishop David Cremin, from the placing of symbols to the final commendation, led by Fr Tom Feunell, was personal, reverent and prayerful. Bishop David let it flow and proceed without in any way interfering with the harmonious liturgy arranged by Fr John Ford and colleagues."

According to the 2010 edition of the annual Australian Catholic Directory, the above-mentioned Father John G. Ford has retired from parish work. His former Sydney parishes include Pyrmont, Stanmore and Leichhardt.

At the requiem, a homily was delivered by Fr Kevin O'Grady (a Sydney priest for more than fifty years), who told those present: "Kevin Cox was my friend. You are here today because he was your friend also."

Summing up Father Cox's life, Fr O'Grady told the congregation: "What a wonderful mixture of a life so joyful."

Broken Rites is wondering what Mandy and her mother and sisters would make of this final day of cover-up.

• By a Broken Rites researcher

The Catholic order of Marist Brothers kept a Brother — John Desmond Dyson) — as a member after he was convicted of indecently assaulting boys in a Catholic school. The Marist Brothers continued to list Brother John Dyson as being involved in "the education and welfare of school-aged children".

Brother John Dyson was a teacher at Red Bend Catholic College (in Forbes, New South Wales) in 1974-8, at Assumption College (in Kilmore, Victoria) in 1979-83 and at Newman College (in Perth, Western Australia) in 1984-8, and was principal of the "Our Lady of the Sacred Heart" Catholic High School (in Alice Springs, Northern Territory) from 1988 until police interviewed him in August 1996.

In Seymour Magistrates Court in central Victoria on 15 May 1997, Marist Brother John Desmond Dyson (then aged 47) pleaded guilty to charges of having indecently assaulted three boys, aged 12 to 14, in the 1980s. In this case, the crime of "indecent assault of a child" refers to an adult invasively interfering with a child's genitals.

These victims were boarders at the Assumption College boarding school in Kilmore, central Victoria, where Dyson was a teacher. These three boys were not necessarily Dyson's only victims — they were merely the three who happened to be interviewed by the Victoria Police.

In their police statements, these three victims said they were abused by Dyson on numerous occasions, and not just at the school. And not just in Victoria — one of the three boys was abused when he later visited Dyson in Western Australia, and one of the others was abused when he visited Dyson in the Northern Territory. However, in connection with Dyson's guilty plea, the prosecution reduced the numerous incidents to only four charges in court (two assaults on one victim and one assault on each of the other two victims). These charged incidents occurred within the Victorian jurisdiction.

The court was told that Dyson was a dormitory master at Assumption College. He would prowl around the dormitory during the night. While boys were asleep, Dyson would invade his victim's bed in the middle of the night, pull down the boy's pyjamas and indecently assault the boy's penis by hand.

In written statements, tabled in court, the three victims made it clear that Dyson's assaults were for his own sexual gratification. The three victims said they did not welcome the assaults and did not regard Dyson as having done the boys a favour.

Dyson (born 21 March 1950) was sentenced to a year's imprisonment, to be served as an intensive-correction order in community work.

New role

The Marist provincial-superior said in a court document that the Marist administration intended to keep Dyson as a Marist Brother and he would be re-skilled for a new role. Dyson's lawyer told the court that, at the time of the court case, Dyson was already training in the clinical pastoral education program at Melbourne's Mercy Hospital and would become a pastoral worker in hospitals.

[Being a pastoral worker is a position of trust, which the church's 1996 "Towards Healing" document says offenders will NOT be appointed to. And judging by the Catholic Church's past performance, hospital patients would not be warned that Dyson is a convicted sex offender who has breached his duty of care.]

Six years later

In 2003, six years after his conviction for child-sex crimes, the Marist Brothers were still listing Dyson as "Brother John Dyson".

A Marist Brothers document, dated 9 January 2003 (entitled "Submission to National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention from Marist Brothers' Province Centre"), was signed by "Brother John Dyson" and six other Marist Brothers. Paradoxically, the document says: "As an institution involved with the education and welfare of school-aged children, our many years of collective experience tell us that for children to thrive they need to be and feel safe, secure and loved."

A former victim of Marists Brothers (in Sydney), who found this 2003 document on the internet, commented to Broken Rites: "Isn't it somewhat late for 'Marist Brother' John Dyson to become concerned about the welfare of school-aged children and making children feel 'safe'? What does this do for the credibility of Marist Brothers?"

A 'celibate' offender

The court was told that Dyson refused at first to co-operate with police. When asked about his sexuality, he said he was "celibate religious".

On 25 May 1997, two months before the Dyson court hearing, a relative of one of the victims notified Broken Rites that the case was coming up and sought our help in preventing the customary church cover-up. A researcher from Broken Rites accompanied the victims to the court and took notes during the proceedings.

The three victims were not required to give evidence in court but their typed police statements were tabled. The court was told that the three boys were from difficult family backgrounds, without fathers. Dyson befriended the boys' relatives, and the relatives trusted Dyson because of his status as a Marist Brother.

Two victims in the dormitory

Two of the victims ("Ron" and "Ernie") were siblings. They were born when their father was old, and their father had died when they were very young. In the early 1980s when they were in their early teens, their mother was dying of cancer. The brothers had a sister ("Mary") who was 20 years older than the two boys and she became the boys' guardian. During their mother's final days, Mary arranged for the boys to go to Assumption College as boarders. Mary presumed that a Catholic boarding school would be a safe environment for young boys.

The victims' statements gave a new slant to Brother Dyson's description of himself as "celibate religious". Ron and Ernie described how they were each indecently assaulted by Dyson in their bed during the night on as many as three occasions per week throughout 1983 — that is, countless times, but the prosecution charged Dyson with one representative incident per victim.

The prosecution said that in 1984, while Dyson was teaching in Perth, he visited the home of Ernie's sister "Mary" in Melbourne, where he again indecently assaulted Ernie's genitals during the night.

In 1987 or 1988, Mary arranged for Ernie to visit Dyson in Perth, Western Australia, for a week. Mary did not know that Dyson had been abusing her brother, and Ernie was unable to tell her and unable to refuse to make the trip. The prosecutor told the court that Dyson indecently assaulted Ernie's genitals in Perth on three occasions.

Third victim was abused at home

The third victim ("Matthew"), who was also a boarder at Assumption College, said Dyson had taught older members of Matthew's family and had known Matthew since the boy was three. When Matthew was about three, his father left the marriage. So, with the father gone, Dyson was a trusted father figure to Matthew, becoming a frequent visitor to the family's home in Melbourne. Dyson eventually broke this trust.

In 1987, when Matthew was 12, Dyson (on holidays from Perth) visited Matthew's family in Melbourne. The prosecution said Dyson would go to Matthew's bedroom at bedtime and manipulate Matthew's genitals.

Assaults in Northern Territory

Although the Victorian court case was confined to the Victorian offences, Matthew's police statement (submitted in court) told how in 1989 his family sent him to visit Dyson in Alice Springs. There, Matthew stayed with Dyson in a church house in which other Catholic Brothers or priests were also living.

Matthew stated that on two occasions in Alice Springs, Dyson entered Matthew's bedroom during the night and indecently assaulted the boy's penis by hand.

Matthew said in his police statement: "At no time did I give John any permission to touch me on the penis. I felt betrayed by John. I trusted him. He was like a father figure to me, yet he abused my trust."

Silence in the church

Because of Dyson's status in the church, the three victims were all intimidated into remaining silent about the abuse. Even the two brothers, Ron and Ernie, never discussed it with each other, although each suspected that the other had been abused.

Originally, Matthew did not tell his mother about Dyson because he thought his mother would blame herself for not protecting her son, and Matthew did not want to upset his mother. But about 1993, when he was 18, Matthew learned that Dyson was about to make an overnight visit to Matthew's Melbourne home. Angry by now, Matthew told his stepfather, and later his mother, about Dyson's abuse.

Matthew's mother reported Dyson to the vicar-general of the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese, Monsignor Gerald Cudmore, who was a friend of Matthew's family, but Gerry Cudmore discreetly covered up the crime. Thus, Dyson remained as a school principal in Alice Springs for three more years.

Early in 1996, Ernie was at a police station on a business matter and, while there, inquired about making sexual assault complaints. The police station referred him to the police Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (SOCA) Unit. Ernie then spoke to his brother about Dyson's abuse for the first time. The two brothers' wives were present during this conversation and heard about the abuse for the first time.

Ernie and Ron then made signed statements at the SOCA unit. Detectives began making inquiries among former Assumption College students and they soon located Matthew. These three victims believe that there were many more victims.

In August 1996, Victorian senior detective Peter Colliver went to Alice Springs to interview Dyson. At first, Dyson said "no comment". Dyson returned to Melbourne, where he lived at the Marist Brothers' monastery in Templestowe, awaiting his court appearance.

The defence

The Marist Brothers engaged a Queen's Counsel (senior barrister) to represent Dyson in court. The barrister told the court that the defence accepted the facts of the prosecution's case.

The barrister then outlined Dyson's background. He said Dyson came from a strict Catholic family, the eldest of eleven children. He was an altar boy to the age of 17.

His schooling included four years (Year 7 to Year 10) at a Marist Brothers school (then called St John's Marist Brothers School) at 571 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn, Melbourne [the Marist Brothers later left this school and the premises became St Joseph's parish primary school].

At school, the barrister said, Dyson did not have close friendships with fellow students and preferred to mix with the Brothers.

The barrister said Dyson then went to St Leo's College (Christian Brothers) in Box Hill, Melbourne, but failed Year 11. He repeated Year 11 and then left school without doing Year 12. He became apprenticed in a trade. He was in the Scout movement and became employed in the Scout shop in Melbourne until late 1968. He then inquired about becoming a Marist Brother and entered a Marist Brothers juniorate (a senior secondary class for boys "aspiring" to become Brothers) to do Year 12 studies, then went to a Marist novitiate (a religious training college) at Macedon (Victoria) before beginning teaching at a Catholic school in Warragul in Victoria in 1972 (now called Marist-Sion College).

After completing a teacher's certificate in 1973, he taught at Red Bend Catholic College (a Marist Brothers boarding school) in Forbes, western New South Wales from 1974 to 1978.

In 1979, he joined Assumption College in Kilmore, Victoria, where he became the co-ordinator of Years 7 and 8.

The barrister said Dyson was "sexually ignorant". He said that, at Assumption College, Dyson worked long hours, including being in charge of a dormitory at night. Dyson resorted to alcohol and became a heavy drinker.

In 1984 he was transferred to the Marist Brothers'Newman College, Perth, Western Australia, where he taught Years 8 and 9 and was the religious education co-ordinator. In 1987-88 he studied in Western Australia for a postgraduate qualification in education.

In 1988 he was appointed as principal of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart High School (OLSH) in Alice Springs (Northern Territory), where he remained until the Victoria Police contacted him on 15 August 1996. After the police interview (the barrister said) Dyson returned to Melbourne and began living at the Marist Brothers community house in Templestowe, Melbourne.

Character references

The Marist Brothers arranged for a group of Northern Territory church people to fly to Victoria to support Dyson at the court hearing. [At the time of the court case, the Marists had spent nothing to support the victims.]

The Marist Brothers also engaged a Melbourne legal firm to prepare a thick volume of character references and other documentary material for the court, seeking leniency for Dyson.

The Marist Brothers' barrister told the court that this volume included character references from:

• Bishop Edward Collins (Ted Collins), of Darwin (Collins's diocese includes Alice Springs).
• The vicar-general of the Perth archdiocese (relating to Dyson's time at Perth's Newman College).
• Marist Brother Paul Gilchrist, who succeeded Dyson as the principal of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart High School. Brother Paul Gilchrist later became the head of the Marist Brothers' southern province in Australia. The Alice Springs school is within the southern province.
• Several Catholic education administrators.

The defence lawyer handed up this volume to the magistrate. Magistrate John Murphy remarked that the defence should also have given a copy of this volume to the victims.

The Marist Brothers in Australia are divided into two provinces — a northern one (with headquarters in Sydney, operating schools in New South Wales and Queensland) and a southern (one with heaquarters in Melbourne, operating schools in Victoria, plus the school in Forbes in New South Wales and the Alice Springs school in the Northern Territory). Dyson belongs to the southern province.

Statements about the assaults

Some months before the court case, the three victims had made written, sworn police statements, describing Dyson's assaults in detail. The prosecution tabled these statements in court as evidence of the crime.

One victim, "Ron", ended his police statement with this comment: "I resent Brother John for doing what he did. The position that he held, being our dorm master, meant that I had to ask his permission for everything. I felt that I was in a position that I could not risk upsetting him, due to the role that he had in our lives as boarders. I felt that, because [my brother] and I had no parents, we both had to be disciplined and could not cause trouble, because we may have got kicked out of school..."

Impact statement by Ron

Before an Australian court passes sentence on an offender, the victims are entitled to submit an additional written statement — called an impact statement — showing the court how the crime affected the victims' lives.

The three Dyson victims each wrote about how Dyson's breach of trust had caused hurt and suffering.

"Ron" told the magistrate in his impact statement: "Being a young teenager, having lost my father and unable to be looked after by my dying, frail mother, it was devastating for me to understand and accept the fact that my brother and I had to go to boarding school at Assumption College, away from our mother.

"Leading up to starting at Assumption, my brother and I were extremely emotional, often crying and pleading to our mother to let us stay at home with her. Little did we understand that she only had months to live.

"Upon our first visit to inspect the facilities available at Assumption, we were shown around the school grounds and we were told how great the facilities and care would be.

"Mum and my guardian sister ["Mary"] only wanted the best education and upbringing for my brother and I.

"I am still deeply upset at the abuse and the feeling of helplessness we endured by the actions of Brother John Dyson.

"The abuse started early in the year and it continued until we left at the end of that year. It was living hell waiting in fear every night for the monster to attack his prey. After he had been, I would pray, crying to my parents in heaven to please come back and take us home, away from this play of hell.

"I know my schooling suffered severely as a result of poor concentration and tiredness cause by the abuse and constantly lying awake in fear of the monster.

"I knew at the time of my abuse that my brother was also being abused by Brother John Dyson. It may seem strange to you that I never discussed what was happening with my brother or anybody else at the time but I felt, and still do, disgusted and ashamed.

"Because of these feelings, I have kept the secret to myself, not even being able to tell the person closest to my heart, my wife. Unfortunately, she found out from my brother and not myself. Fortunately, she has been very understanding and supportive.

"On the surface, I tried to believe that it hadn't affected me to date but deep down I now realise it has. Not just the physical abuse but more importantly the emotional damage that it caused me.

"My wish today is to convince the appropriate authorities that Brother John Dyson is a sick and dangerous man and should not be placed in a position ever again to repeat this abuse on any more vulnerable youths, destroying more lives."

Impact statement by Ernie

Ron's brother "Ernie", in his impact statement, told the magistrate:

"My life has certainly suffered through the crimes committed on me at such an important and vulnerable stage of my life, especially when I was trying to overcome the trauma of losing my parents at an early age and having to grow up at Assumption College boarding school.

"I hold no respect for the religious order and it still haunts me to hear how the religious sector can hide and transfer these pedophiles to another school and cover up all that has happened without any justice taking place.

"My wish is that, with the authority you (the magistrate) hold, these pediophiles (particularly within the religious order) be brought to justice and removed completely from a system that involves minors. These crimes should not be allowed to be covered up and the sexual offenders moved to other schools within their organisation."

Media coverage

Until the Seymour Court case on 15 May 1997, the police charges against Dyson were not known to the public or to parents in the various schools where he worked. In the past, in cases such as this, the church had too often managed to cover up the case and therefore parents (in the various schools or parishes where the offender had worked) were not informed that their children might have been at risk.

However, the Dyson victims were determined that, this time, they would prevent any cover-up. Media newspaper newsrooms were notified that the Dyson case was coming up in the Seymour Magisrates Court.

Outside the court, when the court opened on the morning of 15 May 1997, was an ABC Television camera crew.

Inside the courtroom, there was a reporter from the Melbourne Herald Sun.

When the Marist Brothers and their barrister arrived at the court to support Dyson, it was clear that the public was going to learn about the case.

During the hearing, the Marist Brothers' barrister commented on the presence of media representatives at the court. Requesting a lenient sentence for Dyson, the barrister told the court that the media's reporting of the case would be a hardship for Dyson.

The court hearing was relatively brief, because of Dyson's guilty plea.

The television camera crew was from the ABC's "Seven-Thirty Report". Inside the nearby police station, the ABC crew (with reporter Alison Caldwell) recorded interviews with the victims and with Matthew's mother. The interviews (with faces obscured and no names given) were shown nationally (including in Alice Springs) on that evening's "Seven-Thirty Report". Thus, the parents of Dyson's previous schools around Australia (including in the Northern Territory) learned about Dyson's conviction.

A report appeared next day in the Melbourne Herald Sun and also in the Sydney Daily Telegraph.

Reports were also published in local media in areas where Dyson had taught — newspapers in the Kilmore-Seymour area, Forbes NSW and the Northern Territory; plus ABC radio news around Forbes NSW. The story made front page news in the Forbes Advocate on 17 May 1997, in the Northern Territory News (daily) on 17 1997, the Darwin Sunday Territorian on May 18, the Alice Springs Advocate on May 20 and the Alice Springs News on May 21.

The Northern Territory media

A Marist Brothers representative, Brother Des Howard, claimed in a public statement (after the conviction) that Dyson had stopped offending against children before going to Alice Springs and that none of his offences occurred in the Northern Territory. However, the Sunday Territorian on 18 May 1997 pointed out (in a page-one article) that one of Dyson's Victorian victims (meaning "Matthew") was abused in Alice Springs while visiting Dyson there.

The Northern Territory News raised the question of the Marist Brother's duty of care towards their Northern Territory pupils. The newspaper reported on Saturday 18 May 1997:

• "The Northern Territory school where Dyson worked after he molested the three boys said yesterday it would not be looking for Territory victims.

  "Principal Brother Paul Gilchrist said he did not expect more victims to come forward.

  "He said: 'My understanding is that there were no offences committed in the Northern Territory. If there were, I have no doubt they would have surfaced by now. It's not fair for us to be actively seeking out whether others from the Territory were involved'."

The Northern Territory News referred to a "veil of secrecy" surrounding the Dyson case. The newspaper said:

• "Brother Gilchrist also told how the veil of secrecy surrounding the charges was lifted only on Thursday [15 May 1997] when Dyson entered Seymour Magistrates Court in Victoria.

  "Before leaving Alice Springs for the court hearing this week, Brother Gilchrist had drafted a letter telling parents of the charges... It was kept sealed by school staff until a phone call from the new principal [Brother Gilchrist] just after noon on Thursday."

Brother Gilchrist's comments were recalled a day later in the Sunday Territorian. Quoting Bishop Ted Collins, this newspaper said:

• "Bishop Collins sought to clarify Brother Gilchrist's comments yesterday and said the church was not trying to hide anything... He [Bishop Collins] said: "...But I don't think it is in anyone's interest to try to dig up material and muddy what is already a very emotional issue for a lot of people."

In an editorial, the Sunday Territorian criticised Bishop Ted Collins for giving a character reference to the court seeking a lenient sentence for Dyson. The editorial said: "History has shown that the Catholic Church has stuck together when one of its own has been accused of molesting children. And that has often led to more children being molested."

More comment from Alice Springs

On 21 May 1997 another newspaper, the Alice Springs News, reported that "the large Catholic community of Alice Springs is in deep shock" over Dyson's conviction. The paper said:

• "Several parishioners, all of whom asked the Alice News to refrain from publishing their names, and some of whom say the church had lied to them by withholding available facts for several months, were outraged that the present principal of the school, and its campus head, travelled interstate last week to support Br Dyson.

  "Several in the Catholic community suggested instead that the two should have been offering counselling to the student victims...

  "Many in the Catholic community here were surprised at the sudden departure of the high school principal, but were told that Br Dyson had gone on 'stress leave'. It was only on Thursday last week when Br Dyson pleaded guilty in Seymour Magistrates Court to four charges of indecently assaulting three boys, that parents and others in Alice Springs learned the news from television reports that evening...

  "Br Paul Gilchrist, present principal of OLSH, Alice Springs flew to Victoria ... and a written reference was also presented from Bishop Ted Collins, in Darwin...

  "To say the Alice Catholic community is in shock over these revelations and the way in which they've been handled would be an understatement. The Alice News has spoken to a number of prominent Catholics in town and their reactions have all been very similar. An Alice businessman whose son attended OLSH said he was 'shocked and appalled. I would not like to think that the church hides such things.
  'It's rotten stuff, and as Catholics we all feel very embarrassed about it.
  'None of us knew anything about it beforehand, but it did seem strange to me at the time when he (Dyson) left town so quickly'."

• By a Broken Rites researcher

An Australian sex-abuse victim has stated that he was made to feel like he was robbing the Catholic Church when he applied for compensation for his damaged life.

In Sydney on 16 December 2013, this victim (who is being referred to as "Mister DG") gave evidence at Australia's national Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The commission has begun examining the "Towards Healing" process established by the Catholic Church to handle the church's sex-abuse victims.

"Mr DG" said he was sexually abused in his family home by Brother Raymond Foster in 1970, when he was 13 years old. DG was attending a Marist Brothers school in Queensland at the time.

And Broken Rites knows that DG was not Brother Foster's only victim.

Broken Rites research

During the 1990s, Broken Rites ascertained that  Raymond Sidney Foster was born on 26 November 1931. He was originally called by an alias  ("Brother Celestine") but eventually the Marist Brothers began changing back to their real names. Foster taught at Catholic schools in Queensland and New South Wales.

In early 1999, Broken Rites learned that police had recently interviewed Foster (then aged 67) at a Marist Brothers retirement home in Mittagong, NSW) and charged him with indecent assaults, committed at a Queensland Catholic school in the 1970s.

On 23 March 1999 Foster was found dead (hanged with a bed-sheet), just hours before he was due to appear in a New South Wales court to be extradited to Queensland. Thus, he avoided facing justice.

Broken Rites alerted the media about Foster's criminal charges, and several news items about Foster were published in newspapers.

As a result, other victims of Brother Foster contacted Broken Rites, including two who were boarders at a "prestigious" Marist Brothers college - St Joseph's College in Hunters Hill, Sydney.

Royal Commission hearing

Mr DG told the Royal Commission on 16 December 2013 that on one occasion in 1971,  he was called to  Brother Foster's residence to carry books to a classroom, and was "wrestled" onto the man's lap.

The abuse continued until he left the college in 1973, taking place in a school science lab and in the storeroom of the school canteen.

DG, aged 55 in 2013, says he told police in 1993.

DG told the hearing that the abuse affected his sexual abilities and led to the breakdown of his first marriage. He also felt alienated from his parents, engaged in substance abuse, and experienced a "destruction" of his religious beliefs.

Marist Brother's suicide

DG told the commission: "I was really angry with Brother Foster for choosing suicide over facing me or the Queensland courts about the abuse he inflicted on me."

"I felt like he had chosen a path designed to free him from prosecution and inflict guilt upon me."

In the aftermath of Foster's death, DG says fellow Marist Brothers were quoted in newspapers as saying he had not committed suicide but had died of "natural" causes. They described him as a "wonderful man".

Foster left a suicide note, which was held by a leader of the Australian Marist Brothers, Brother Michael Hill.

"I bear no ill will against the person who had me charged, as he had every right to do so," the suicide note said.

The note then asked for "forgiveness".

DG told the hearing that he has never been told Brother Foster's expression of regret in this suicide note.

"When I got the documents from the Commission, that was the first time that I had any acknowledgment that he had acknowledged the abuse in any way, shape or form," he said.

"Compensation"

DG was later paid a relatively small amount in a settlement agreement, which he entered into reluctantly, as this amount did not make up for the damage which the church-related abuse had done to his life.

He says he received legal advice that  the Catholic Church, unlike other corporations, was immune from being tackled in a civil court for damages. Therefore, Towards Healing was the "only process available".

DG says he entered into the Towards Healing process optimistically after discovering that a former Marist Brother at the college would be taking part, as he remembered the man fondly.

At the 2002 mediation session in Brisbane, the Brother said he had interviewed Foster, but made no notes and could not recall the conversation.

DG recalled how he felt at the time.

"That's a blatant lie," he said.

"That you could go and interview a Brother of yours over a sexual abuse case and then say you can't remember a word that was spoken."

He says a representative from Catholic Church Insurance also acted appallingly.

"She made me feel like I was there to rob the Catholic Church," he said.

"The payment was made on the condition that DG not pursue any more action against Brother Foster. I found the whole thing pretty disgusting.

"I could never quite work out where the healing part came into it, because I certainly didn't feel healed by that process."

An apology, eventually

On 3 July 2002 the Marists' new Australian head, Brother John Thompson, sent a written apology to DG for Brother Raymond Foster's sexual abuse and also for the Brothers' 1998 attempt to cover-up the suicide.

The letter stated: "I understand that some erroneous and misleading comments were made during the eulogy at the Mass for Br Foster. I apologise for any hurt which these may have caused or intensified."

Broken Rites is continuing its research into how the Marist Brothers harboured Brother Raymond Foster throughout his career.