By a Broken Rites researcher

Broken Rites Australia is doing further research about how the Catholic Church authorities continually harboured a criminal priest, Father Paul David Ryan, thus enabling him to commit more crimes on more children in more parishes. The church authorities continually concealed Ryan's crimes from the police. Under Australian criminal law, this concealment can itself be a crime — and perhaps, some day, certain powerful people in the church could be prosecuted by the police for this cover-up.

When Ryan was charged (and convicted) in an Australian criminal court, Broken Rites examined the prosecution file. This article is based on that research, plus numerous Broken Rites interviews.

Ryan has admitted guilt.

One of his Australian victims ended up committing suicide — and this boy's mother (Mrs Helen Watson) has finally forced the church to apologise.

With the permission of his Australian superiors, Father Ryan made seven trips to the United States — and he ministered in parishes there. In between these trips, his Australian superiors kept placing Father Ryan in various Australian parishes, giving him access to Australian victims. In Australia, the church even promoted him to a higher rank in the priesthood.

Father Ryan’s movements were revealed in an Australian criminal court case, held on 8 September 2006. Ryan appeared in the Warrnambool Magistrates Court in the state of Victoria, aged 57. He was jailed for at least a year after pleading guilty to indecently assaulting two altar boys in his parish house at Penshurst, a rural district in south-western Victoria. Three incidents concerned one boy (“Drew”) and two incidents concerned the other boy (“Anton”).

These two were not Ryan’s only victims. These were merely the two who were chosen by the prosecutors for the purposes of this court case. It is impossible to estimate the number of boys who were targeted by Ryan in both countries.

The tragic story of another Australian victim (Peter), who committed suicide, is told towards the end of this article. Ryan was never prosecuted for the sexual offences against Peter.

What the priest did

In Australian states, the crime of “indecent assault” involves an invasive touching of another person’s genitalia – that is, offences falling short of rape or buggery. Typically, Ryan used to invite a boy to his parish house, where he would show him videos containing sex scenes. He would offer alcohol (and, in the United States, marijuana) to the boy before undressing him and mauling him – in the lounge room or in bed or while the boy was having a bath.

Ryan’s offences were facilitated by the fact that his status as a “celibate” priest placed him above suspicion in the Catholic community. Unsuspecting parents would allow their son to have an overnight stay in Father Ryan’s parish house, thinking that their son was in safe hands, but the victims were reluctant to report the assaults because they felt embarrassed or because they did not want to upset their parents or because they thought their complaints might not be believed.

The cover-up disrupted the adolescent development of these victims, and some had to undertake years of psychological counselling to repair the damage.

The inside story of this criminal priest

When Broken Rites began operating an Australia-wide telephone hotline in 1993, it soon began hearing mentions of Father Paul David Ryan in the Diocese of Ballarat. This diocese covers the western half of the state of Victoria.

Broken Rites kept contact with some of these callers. Eventually, in 2005, detectives from Victoria Police began investigating Ryan. Broken Rites co-operated with that investigation, giving the detectives some possible lines of inquiry.

Broken Rites can reveal now the full story of Father Ryan and the church's handling of this case.

According to his passport application (of which Broken Rites possesses a copy), Paul David Carl Ryan was born 12 September 1948 in Melbourne. In his younger years, he evidently spent some time in Adelaide, South Australia. After working in his late teens, he began training for the priesthood at the Adelaide Catholic seminary (St Francis Xavier's seminary, conducted by the Vincentian Fathers) in 1969, aged 20. In June 1971, half-way through third year, the Adelaide seminary asked Ryan to leave.

Meanwhile, Ryan became a close friend of prominent priest of the Melbourne archdiocese, Father Ronald Dennis Pickering, who had already been a priest for 20 years. Ronald Pickering had contacts in the Catholic hierarchy. For example, Pickering knew the new Bishop of Ballarat, Bishop Ronald Mulkearns. Pickering and Mulkearns had both studied for the priesthood at the Melbourne seminary in the early 1950s. Pickering became Ryan’s main mentor and career adviser for the next 20 years.

Trainee priest, Melbourne 1972-6

In late 1971, Paul David Ryan moved to Victoria to take up a temporary teaching position in the Diocese of Ballarat. This position was at St Joseph’s College, Mildura, in the far north-west of this state. In October 1971, Ryan applied to Bishop Mulkearns to sponsor him as a Ballarat candidate for the priesthood at the Melbourne seminary (Corpus Christi College). Paul David Ryan’s Adelaide references were not good but Ballarat accepted him as a candidate and he spent the next five years at the Melbourne seminary.

According to seminary documents, Ryan’s seminary teachers reported that they found him abrasive and difficult to deal with. In mid-1975, as the end of Ryan’s training approached, the Ballarat Diocese and seminary authorities had to decide what to do about him. Before ordination, he was given a three-months probationary period in St Columba’s parish, Ballarat North, and he spent some of this time teaching at a Ballarat Catholic school.

On 28 May 1976, aged 27, Ryan was ordained in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Ballarat. In that very week, a Ballarat woman (Mrs M) contacted the diocese in distress, complaining that Ryan sexually abused her son (“Sid”) at the Ballarat North parish. After this abuse, she said, Sid had a breakdown and had to leave his university course. The mother blamed Ryan for this and she threatened to “go to the newspapers” about Ryan if he was allowed to minister in parishes. Despite Mrs M’s complaint, the church took a tolerant attitude towards Ryan, hoping that he might mend his ways.

Sex in the seminary, 1972-6

After his ordination, like all seminarians, Ryan remained at the Melbourne seminary until the end of 1976 to complete his studies. About October 1976, according to seminary correspondence, the seminary authorities learned that Father Ryan had been engaged in sexual relationships with about six trainee priests during his seminary course [more about this later].

At the end of 1976, having completed his seminary course, Paul Ryan was living with Fr Pickering, who was the parish priest at St Peter's parish at Clayton, in Melbourne. Ryan was to also to become a frequent visitor at a later parish of Pickering's, in Gardenvale, Melbourne. Ryan frequently carried out priestly duties in Pickering's parish, including conducting services.

At the end of 1976, church authorities were considering which parishes their newly-ordained priests would be assigned to for the coming year. But where could they put Ryan? According to seminary documents, the seminary arranged for him to see its consulting Catholic psychologist, Ronald Conway who, in turn referred Ryan to a Catholic psychiatrist, Dr Eric Seal. On 18 November 1976, Dr Seal wrote to the rector of the Melbourne seminary (Fr Kevin Mogg), saying that he had a comprehensive report from Ronald Conway – “and I have also spoken at length about him to Fr Pickering who is an old friend and confident of his [Ryan’s].” Seal supported a suggestion by Pickering that Ryan should have at least a year’s “spiritual formation” in a religious community overseas.

The American solution, 1977

The Melbourne seminary happened to know a Father John Harvey in the U.S. who specialized in “ministry to homosexuals”. Harvey (who was located at De Sales Hall school of theology in Hyattsville, Maryland, USA) later founded a Catholic group, called "Courage", for ministering to homosexuals.

In January 1977, Fr Harvey was asked where Paul David Ryan could undergo “spiritual formation” in the United States. The Ballarat diocese was keen to place Ryan in the U.S. quickly because Ballarat usually made its parish appointments at this time (January) and some awkward questions could be asked if Ryan was not assigned to a parish or to further study.

Father Harvey suggested that Ryan could stay at a certain Catholic “spiritual center” in the state of Maryland. Harvey's letter suggested that, as well as “spiritual formation”, Ryan should do “some form of work or study while here.” (This idea about Ryan working in the U.S. would eventually result in more sexual abuse – against U.S. victims.)

Fr Harvey requested details from Australia about Ryan’s kind of sexual activity. Did it involve adults or minors? The Melbourne seminary replied to Harvey (on 19 February 1977), stating that the sexual behaviour of Ryan and his fellow seminarians had included “mutual masturbation … but it seems certain that more serious acts occurred not infrequently”. The letter said that Ryan was sexually active “even on the night of his ordination.”

The Melbourne seminary’s letter added: “As to how long homosexual acts have been occurring, I do not know. A close friend of Paul’s, Fr Ron Pickering, told me that some seven years ago he met Paul in Adelaide and the company he was mixing with at that time was definitely questionable . . . I know that during his stay at Ballarat incidents occurred.” [But the letter did not mention that the Ryan incidents in Ballarat included offences against a teenager – Mrs M’s son Sid.]

Ryan went to the U.S. in February 1977 for 15 months (trip no. 1). When he returned to Australia in June 1978, the Ballarat Diocese considered appointing him to one of its parishes but a senior priest pointed out that Mrs M (the above-mentioned mother of Ryan’s victim “Sid” in 1975-6) might protest, thereby creating a public scandal for the church.

Ryan remained in Victoria, for the next 12 months and spent much of this time at Fr Ronald Pickering’s new parish -- St James's parish in Gardenvale, Melbourne. Ryan used to bring boys to the Gardenvale parish house -- and so did Pickering.

Ryan continued to visit the Melbourne seminary for several years, even in the 1980s, and acted as a mentor to younger seminarians. Through Pickering, he came into contact with prominent clerics – and this networking continued into the 1980s.

Offences in the U.S., 1979

From June 1979 to April 1980, Paul Ryan was again in the U.S. (trip no. 2) and did some theological studies there.

During these U.S. study trips, Ryan lived and ministered in parishes. One was the Star of the Sea parish in the city of Virginia Beach (Diocese of Richmond) in the state of Virginia. His role there included work as a counsellor with a local Catholic school, the Star of the Sea school. This was a primary (or “grade”) school, going up to Year 8. While he was still in this parish, it was discovered that Father Ryan was sexually abusing boys at the school in 1979.

As background for the September 2006 court case, Australian police obtained information from several ex-students of this school.

One boy (“B”) was in 7th and 8th Grade, aged 14, at the Star of the Sea Grade School when Ryan was there. B stated that Ryan plied him with alcohol and marijuana and took the boy to bed, where he sexually abused him.

Two other boys (“M” and “R”) stated that Ryan held “counselling” and “religious instruction” sessions with the two boys (when they were aged 14 to 15) and sexually abused them.

Victim “B” wrote in a letter to his local diocese in 1995: “Although the general population of the church [at Star of the Sea parish] was shielded from knowing the specific details for Fr Ryan’s removal, it was more or less common knowledge among certain known victims and their families.”

Ryan's Australian superiors exchanged letters with his U.S. supervisors throughout 1977-1980 and, presumably, his offences in the U.S. were reported back to Australia. (If not, why not?)

“Sex education” classes, 1980-5

In April 1980, Paul David Ryan returned to Australia, and, despite his record, the Ballarat Diocese appointed him as an assistant priest in St Joseph’s parish in Warrnambool, a substantial city on Victoria’s south-western coast. This included acting as a chaplain for Warrnambool Christian Brothers College and St Anne’s College (these two schools later merged as Emmanuel College). Ryan conducted “sex education” classes and took Confession from students. Hearing these Confessions enabled Ryan to identify boys to whom he would give special attention.

According to the prosecution documents, one such student, “Daryl” (then aged 17) divulged to Ryan in Confession that he felt he was attracted to males. Within a month of this, Daryl’s parents went away for a weekend and arranged for Father Ryan to mind Daryl and his younger brother at their home. On the first night, Ryan told Daryl to take a bath before he went to bed. Daryl told police (in 2006) that Ryan got into the bath with him and handled him indecently.

In 1985, after five years in the Warrnambool parish, Ryan applied for leave from the Ballarat Diocese to do a “Doctorate in Ministry” course in at the United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, USA. The diocese granted this leave and Ryan left for the U.S. (trip no. 3). Ryan told the Ballarat Diocese that he hoped to find a parish position while in the USA. During this trip, Ryan's address was: Church of the Holy Angels, 218 K Street, Dayton, Ohio.

In January 1986, Bishop Mulkearns appointed Ryan as an assistant priest at St Thomas’s parish in Terang, in south-western Victoria, under Monsignor Leo Fiscalini. Ryan then returned to Australia from Ohio to take up this post. A Terang man (“Paddy”) has told Victoria Police that, at age 16-17, he attended a youth group for which Father Ryan was the convenor. He said that Father Ryan gave him alcohol at the parish house and on several occasions performed sexual antics in front of him, such as walking around naked, with an erection, and masturbating in front of him.

In April 1988, Ryan went to the U.S. for a few months (trip no. 4) to complete his “doctorate in ministry”. He then returned to the Terang parish.

Promoted, 1989

Despite Ryan’s record, Bishop Mulkearns appointed Ryan to the rank of Parish Priest (i.e., in charge) at St Joseph’s parish, Penshurst, as from 14 January 1989. The Penshurst parish was a small rural one but this was a promotion to a higher status (previously, at Warrnambool, he had been merely an ASSISTANT priest). At Warrnambool and Terang, he had been under the supervision of other priests but at Penshurst he was on his own – unsupervised. The Penshurst parishioners were ignorant about Ryan’s past.

At Penshurst (according to the September 2006 prosecution file), Ryan used to coax one or other of the altar boys to the parish house to watch sexy videos and for an overnight stay.

One altar boy, “Drew”, told police in 2006 that he had several sleepovers at Ryan’s parish house in 1989-1990, aged 16. He said Ryan walked around the house naked (with an erection), made the boy take a bath with Ryan, took the boy to bed and groped the boy while the priest masturbated himself. Drew tried to evade Ryan’s unwelcome assaults. The prosecution’s summary of charges states that Drew “was in fear, out of respect for Father Ryan, as he was the parish priest and someone whom all the community looked up to.”

In a very similar manner, Ryan assaulted another Penshurst altar boy, “Anton”, aged 13-14, during sleepovers in 1990. When Ryan’s attacks on Anton became increasingly forceful and invasive, Anton escaped and ran home. Not wishing to tell his mother the full extent of the attacks, Anton merely told her that Father Ryan had wanted to have a bath with him. Several days later, the mother went to the bishop’s office in Ballarat and expressed her concern about Ryan.

In early 1991, Mulkearns decided to move Ryan from Penshurst but delayed the move until Easter time (a time when other changes are often made) so that this move would not seem extraordinary.

Despite the Penshurst complaint concerning Anton, the Ballarat Diocese then assigned Ryan as a relieving priest at the Immaculate Conception parish in , western Victoria. Again, Ryan proceeded to target boys at this parish. One witness, “Sam”, told police in 2006 that he went to Ryan’s parish house after being kicked out of home. Father Ryan told him that he could stay at the Presbytery for the night but that he would have to stay in Ryan’s bed.

Another boy who was invited to Ryan’s parish house at Ararat was Peter. Eventually, Peter died by suicide and his story is told towards the end of this article.

Overseas again, 1991

Early in 1991, Ryan's superiors and colleagues were wondering what to do with him. Someone in authority suggested sending Ryan “to work somewhere on the African mission for a while” but Fr Ron Pickering asserted that the Africa idea was unsuitable for Ryan, who really needed “a period of leave, say a year” to recuperate “spiritually”. [It is not clear what Pickering meant by “spiritually”.]

Later in 1991, Ryan went to the U.S. (trip no. 5), where he received some “advice” from a certain priest, and he then did a retreat in Rome with another priest. [But three years later, on 3 February 1994, while Ryan was being interviewed by the sexual-abuse committee of the Ballarat Diocese, Ryan had difficulty remembering the name of either of these two priests.]

In September 1991, while Ryan was overseas, Bishop Mulkearns received a complaint from a mother about Ryan sexually abusing her son [the above-mentioned matter of “Daryl”] at Warrnambool Christian Brothers College in the early 1980s. Daryl (aged 25 in 1991) was himself in trouble with the police in 1991 and was about to face charges in a Melbourne court for sexually assaulting a boy. Daryl was telling police that, at school, he himself had been sexually abused by Father Paul David Ryan. Bishop Mulkearns was concerned that Daryl's accusation against Ryan might cause scandal for the church.

Another parish, 1992

In December 1991, Paul Ryan returned to Victoria and stayed at Fr Ron Pickering's parish house in Gardenvale, Melbourne. Bishop Mulkearns appointed Ryan to an ongoing position at the Ararat parish as an assistant priest (instead of merely being a relieving priest) as from 18 January 1992. This was despite the fact that Ryan had not cleared his name regarding the various sex-abuse allegations, including the new allegation by “Daryl”.

Ryan moved into the Ararat parish house (under the supervision of the resident parish priest) but, immediately, his Ararat career was scuttled when the secret of his sexual abuse of “Daryl” started to leak out. In early January 1992, Daryl appeared in court charged with sexual assault of a boy and was jailed. Daryl’s barrister told the court, in defence of Daryl, that Daryl himself had been abused by a priest. Newspaper coverage of Daryl’s trial did not name the abusive priest but Ryan's superiors and fellow-priests knew that it was him.

In jail, Daryl was telling everybody that he had been sexually abused by Fr Paul David Ryan. It seemed possible that, in the future, Daryl might well lay criminal charges against Ryan. Bishop Mulkearns was concerned that it would be hard for Ryan to defend himself because Ryan sexually abused Daryl after hearing the boy’s Confession about same-sex leanings -- and the Catholic Church has always claimed that a priest was not supposed to reveal (or take advantage of) anything that he learns from a penitent during Confession.

Ryan continued living in the Ararat parish house as a guest, instead of having an official appointment there. He also continued making visits to Fr Ron Pickering’s parish at Gardenvale, Melbourne.

Early in 1992, Ryan began having “counselling” with a Ballarat priest-psychologist, Father Daniel Torpy. Following the publicity about the Daryl court case, Ryan realised that it would be impossible for him to minister in the Ballarat diocese. He decided that it would be "best" to work in the U.S., with which he had some familiarity.

Therefore, in late January 1992, the Ballarat Diocese contacted a religious order, called the Servants of the Paraclete, which runs a refuge in Jemez Springs, New Mexico, USA, for sexually abusive priests. Ballarat asked if Ryan could visit this refuge to discuss his options for “exercising his ministry” in the USA. It is unclear whether anything eventuated from this application. (Another sexually-abusive Ballarat Diocese priest, Fr Gerald Ridsdale, had already spent time at this refuge.)

More travels, 1993

Later, the Ballarat Diocese applied to admit Ryan to the St Luke Institute, Maryland USA (another refuge for priests with sexual problems). Ryan arrived at this institute in early 1993 (trip no. 6) and underwent an evaluation process but was unable to gain admission to the institute’s program. The St Luke Institute did a medical examination of him and advised him that he had an alcohol problem and that he should cut down his drinking. However, Ryan said he kept on with his normal drinking pattern.

Leaving the St Luke Institute, Ryan returned to Australia but did not contact Bishop Mulkearns. During 1993, he spent time in Western Australia, where his mother and brother were living.

Returning to Victoria from Western Australia, Ryan still did not contact Bishop Mulkearns but evidently stayed as a guest in the home of a Warrnambool family.

Meanwhile, Ryan's "spiritual advisor", Fr Ronald Pickering, was in trouble. Early in 1993 a Melbourne man alleged that, as a teenager in the 1960s, he had been sexually abused by Pickering. After learning about this complaint, Pickering suddenly left his Melbourne parish in May 1993 and went to England. Later in 1993 Paul David Ryan made a trip to England (without informing Bishop Mulkearns) to spend some time with Pickering, who was living near Margate.

In the 1994 Directory of Australian Catholic Clergy (and also in the 1995 edition), Father Paul David Ryan was still listed as a priest of the Ballarat Diocese ("on leave from the diocese”). On 3 February 1994, while Ryan was “house-sitting a friend’s house in Warrnambool”, he was called before the Ballarat Diocese Special Issues Committee (an in-house committee, responsible for dealing with complaints about clergy sex-abuse in the diocese). The committee questioned Ryan about the matter of “Daryl” at Warrnambool and also about Ryan’s plans for the future.

On 19 July 1994, the Ballarat Diocese vicar-general (chief administrator), Fr Brian Finnigan (who later became an auxiliary bishop in Brisbane), signed an “Employment Separation Certificate” on behalf of Ryan, making it possible for him to apply for Australian Government social security benefits. The certificate stated that Ryan’s church employment began on 28 May 1976 (his ordination) and ended on 31 December 1993. In ticking boxes to give the reason for the termination, the diocese ticked “unsuitability for this type of work”. It did not tick “unsatisfactory work performance”. Nor did it tick "misconduct".

[This Employment Separation Certificate is significant -- and not just for the Ryan case. The Catholic Church usually claims that its priests are not employees but self-employed freelancers. Thus, the church seeks to limit its legal liability when victims claim damages from the a diocese for its negligence in inflicting an abusive priest on to vulnerable parishioners. Ryan's Employment Separation Certificate describes Ryan as an "employee" and it describes the Ballarat Diocese as his employer. This document will be useful for any victim claiming compensation from the Ballarat diocese.]

Counselling for U.S. victims, 1995

Meanwhile, during the 1980s and '90s, Paul Ryan's victims at Virginia Beach (in the U.S. Diocese of Richmond) were still needing psychological counselling to try to repair the damage done to their lives by Ryan in 1979. In 1995, the U.S. victims sought payment from the Catholic Church for the cost of counselling. A Virginia Beach lawyer, J. Brian Donnelly, acted for these victims.

The Richmond Diocese insisted that these expenses should be paid by the Ballarat Diocese, because Rev. Paul D. Ryan had come to the United States with the permission of the Ballarat diocese.

The Ballarat Diocese accepted responsibility and made one modest lump-sum payment to each of the Virginia Beach victims. These payments were not compensation but merely a contribution towards the victims' on-going counselling expenses. By mid-2006, one Virginia Beach victim alone had already spent three times as much on psychiatrists' fees as the amount that he received from the Ballarat Diocese.

When the Ballarat diocese made these payments, it required the U.S. victims to sign a Deed of Release, certifying that the Ballarat Diocese had no further liability. However, the church concealed the fact that Ryan had also committed offences in Australia. The Virginia Beach victims were led to believe that they were Ryan's only victims. Therefore, these Deeds of Release were based on deception, which may undermine their validity.

More victims

How many other children did Reverend Paul D. Ryan target in the U.S.? According to U.S. documents, Virginia Beach was not the only parish in which Ryan lived while in the U.S. Father Paul T. Gaughan, who supervised Ryan at the Virginia Beach parish in 1979-80, has stated that Ryan was also involved in a parish in Dayton, Ohio, where he might have committed further offences. In a statement to U.S. church authorities, dated 26 September 1995, Father Paul Gaughan said: “Paul spent some time on more than one occasion in Ohio under the pretext of study. He was living in a parish. I am afraid that the same problem might very well have happened there but I guess you might as well let the dead dog lie.”

It is possible that the parish in Dayton, Ohio, was the Church of the Holy Angels.

At last, Ryan’s name was deleted from the 1996 edition of the Directory of Australian Catholic Clergy.

In early 1996, Ryan asked the Ballarat Diocese for financial help for a course of studies. The diocese agreed to continue quarterly payments to Ryan until the end of 1996 to help him re-skill himself in another field.

In 1997, Ryan was in the USA (U.S. trip no. 7).

A suicidal victim

On 22 May 1997, the Catholic Church’s newly-formed Professional Standards Resource Group for Victoria (also called "Towards Healing") received a complaint from Mrs Helen Watson who had discovered that her son (Peter) was abused (and badly damaged) by Father Paul David Ryan at Ararat in the early 1990s. Mrs Watson told the diocese that, by 1997, Peter had made at least two attempts to take his own life, the last time being when he tried to shoot himself. Mrs Watson said that Peter “is in this condition because he was abused by Paul David Ryan when he was relieving at Ararat for a few months for Father Brendan Davey."

At the end of May 1997, Ronald Mulkearns took early retirement from the position of Bishop of Ballarat and moved to a seaside house at Aireys Inlet, Victoria. In an open letter to fellow priests and parishioners on 30 May, he alluded to the pressures of the criminal investigations into sexual abuse by priests and religious brothers in the Ballarat diocese. He said: “My own emotional energy has been sapped by the pressures of leadership over 26 years and especially the draining effect of endeavouring to cope with the effects of the tragic events which have come to light in recent years” (Herald Sun, Melbourne, 31 May 1997).

Mulkearns was referring mainly to the scandal of Father Gerald Ridsdale, but also various other priests and religious Brothers in the Diocese of Ballarat.

Ryan moved to far north Queensland and worked for several years as a government-funded mental health officer for Aboriginal communities. In Queensland, he called himself “Dr” Paul-David Ryan, on account of his American “Doctorate in Ministry” degree. He also hyphenated his forenames – as Paul-David Ryan.

This criminal priest is brought to justice

In 2003, yet another woman was telling the church’s Professional Standards Resource Group how Ryan’s sexual abuse had damaged her son. Understandably, her son had kept silent about the abuse for more than a decade – and this secrecy disrupted his personal development. This mother was wondering whether other boys had also been damaged by Ryan. However, this mother says that a representative of the PSRG told her, “on several occasions”, that “this particular priest's name [Ryan] had never been reported, or come up, before.”

Eventually, in late 2005, this woman’s son was ready to have a chat with the Victoria Police sexual offences and child abuse (SOCA) unit at Warrnambool, where he lodged a formal written statement about Ryan. The Warrnambool Criminal Investigation Unit then began making inquiries in the parishes where Ryan had ministered. Broken Rites gave the detectives several lines of inquiry.

The detectives learned that the Ballarat Diocese had been receiving complaints about Ryan since his ordination in 1976 and, furthermore, that the Professional Standards Resource Group had indeed received a complaint about Ryan (from Mrs Watson, about her suicidal son Peter) in 1997.

The detectives soon located various victims of Ryan. In April 2006, aged 57, Ryan was arrested at his unit in Cairns, Queensland, and was charged with Victorian incidents of indecent assault. While on bail, awaiting a court hearing, he taught English in Cairns. Extradited to Victoria, he appeared at Warrnambool Magistrates Court on 8 September 2006.

For procedural reasons, the Victorian state prosecutors confined the charges to two Penshurst victims. The magistrate was not required to take into account that Ryan had abused other teenage boys and that he had been exposed as a child-abuser long before he went to Penshurst. Nor did the magistrate have to consider that after resigning as the parish priest at Penshurst, Ryan was moved to the Ararat parish and assaulted another boy (Peter) who later committed suicide. The matter of Peter was never prosecuted.

Similarly, the earlier incidents in the U.S. were not relevant to the Victorian court. The U.S. incidents were dealt with as civil matters, resulting in the Catholic Church making payments towards the victims' counselling expenses.

Referring to the two Penshurst victims, Magistrate Michael Stone said Ryan’s behaviour had been "classic grooming of young people for sexual pleasure". He told Ryan: "You were in a position of trust. You grossly abused that trust.

Mr Stone sentenced Ryan to 18 months jail, with possible release on parole after 12 months. He said Ryan would be a registered sex offender for the next 15 years.

Ryan was escorted from the court in custody – on his way to prison.

The court hearing was finished by 11.00am. Because Ryan had pleaded guilty, the victims were not required to give evidence in court. The prosecution merely had to submit a file of documentation to the magistrate.

Previously, on behalf of victims, Broken Rites had alerted all media outlets about the court hearing. As a result, the west Victorian TV network (WIN TV) had a camera crew at the court. Footage of Ryan (arriving at the court) was shown in that evening’s news bulletin. The conviction was reported in newspapers in Melbourne, Warrnambool and Ballarat. Thus, the Ryan case – and the church’s cover-up of sexual abuse – became a topic of conversation throughout Victoria. The cover-up was over.

One victim's story

One victim, Drew, was in court as an observer, together with his family. After the court hearing, Drew (now 32) said that, looking back, he had been an easy target for Ryan at the age of 15-16, being the eldest of a large family and living a fairly isolated existence on a farm.

Drew said: “His [Ryan’s] whole idea was that my interests were his common interests. I was happy, innocent, fresh. When everyone was going out to parties at 16 and 17, I was watching a video and drinking cola. That was my idea of having a good time.”

Drew’s mother told Broken Rites: “Ryan befriended our family, he made out that he shared common interests with my husband such as gardening, renovation etc. He certainly worked on gaining our trust, now that we look back. He shared many meals with us.

“At that time, another of our children had an adverse medical diagnosis. Fr Ryan was so supportive, as it was a difficult time for us. All the time, it was just part of his disgusting plan.

“My husband and I have been so sick with guilt for ever trusting Ryan. However, we have moved on from this emotion, now we are very angry and bitter towards the Catholic Church. All the pain and suffering endured by Ryan's victims and their families could have been prevented if the Catholic hierarchy had removed Ryan’s priestly status.

“My son is a wonderful man. He endured so much in those 15 years of silence. Our family is so open and up front, one would never imagine any one of them to be so afraid to speak out. I guess this is the case with most of the victims.

“We are appalled by what has unfolded about Paul David Ryan. We are also appalled by the covering up, deceit and lack of care for families in the church community who trusted this person with their sons.”

“The last 3 years have been an emotional roller coaster for our family, trying to come to terms with the devastating results of Ryan's abuse. Learning that the Catholic Church had full knowledge of his behaviour over the years and kept him circulating around devastates us beyond belief. “

“My son is a beautiful person There have been many hurdles in his personal life, but these hurdles that would have been non-existent if the Catholic Church had done the right thing by the community.”

The victim who ended up dying by suicide

Also present in the Warrnambool Court hearing was Mrs Helen Watson, whose son Peter died by suicide in 1999 after his life had been damaged by Paul-David Ryan’s sexual abuse at Ararat. After the court case, Mrs W spoke to Broken Rites, telling the story of her son.

About 1991, Peter (then aged 15-16) was a student at Marian College, a Catholic secondary school (for Years 7 to 12) in Ararat – situated next door to Father Paul David Ryan’s parish house. Until then, Peter had been a normal boy with a quick wit and a love of sport.

One day, Ryan (smelling of alcohol) drove Peter home to the family’s farm after the boy had stayed overnight at the parish house. On arriving home, Peter immediately started acting in a disturbed manner and he “was never the same after that."

Peter did not tell his parents about Ryan's sexual abuse, and his parents were puzzled why Peter's personality suddenly changed. He became a disturbed teenager, with low self-esteem. He got into drugs and he abandoned sports. By age 18, he was leading a transient life, was unable to work and tried several times to kill himself.

In his late teens, a psychological report on Peter said he spoke about having been sexually abused "by a priest" (un-named). It was only at about age 20 that Mrs Watson realised that the abuser was Paul David Ryan. By then, Peter's life had been badly damaged. Like most church victims, Peter had remained silent about the priestly abuse because he thought it would upset his parents to know about the priest. Furthermore, like many church victims, he felt guilty himself for what the priest had done to him.

In 1997, when Peter was 22, Mrs Watson contacted the Catholic Church's newly-established Professional Standards Resource Group for Victoria (the "Towards Healing" process) and told them how Father Paul David Ryan had damaged her son's life. A member of the resource group interviewed Mrs Watson but all he did was to offer to arrange "counselling" for herself. Mrs Watson believes that it was the church hierarchy, not she, who needed "counselling".

A lonely death

Meanwhile, Peter was deteriorating. By age 24, he was in a psychiatric unit but in March 1999 he went missing and his mother never saw him alive again.

Six years later, police ascertained that Peter had taken his own life. It turned out that, in October 1999, a young man had been found hanged in a bathing box on a Melbourne beach but this body could not be identified at the time, so it was buried in a pauper’s grave. In late 2005 a check of fingerprints revealed that this body was Mrs Watson's son Peter.

Peter’s body was exhumed, so his mother could give him a proper funeral, which was held in December 2005.

In February 2006, two months after Peter's re-burial, Mrs Watson went to see the Bishop of Ballarat, Bishop Peter Connors (who had succeeded Mulkearns as bishop in 1997). She wanted to tell the church what it had done to her son. At that time, Mrs Watson did not know that the police were investigating Ryan. But the diocese knew -- and it realized that the Ryan cover-up was about to become public. Mrs Watson says Bishop Connors offered to arrange "counselling" for her. She says: "The church still does not get it."

Later, Mrs Watson received a letter from Bishop Connors, dated 20 March 2006, apologising on behalf of the Ballarat diocese for the harm done by Father Paul David Ryan.

But Mrs Watson can neither forgive nor forget. The church, she says, knew that Ryan was a danger when it ordained him in 1976.

Ms W said she believed that her son was one of many unknown victims of sexual abuse by the clergy.

She said: "Hopefully, Peter's tragedy will encourage other victims of sexual abuse to find the courage to come forward and speak up against pedophile priests and cover-ups by the Catholic Church."

Two families meet

At the Warrnambool court hearing, Mrs Helen Watson met the family of one of the Penshurst victims (“Drew”) for the first time.

"It was overwhelming. I take my hat off to the whole family" Ms Watson said. "It was a hugely emotional experience. I realise now that victims are not alone. Here is a young lad who took a huge risk living in a small country community."

Ms Watson said she had drawn a lot of strength from Drew’s family.

"I'm in awe of how they handled it. Hopefully other people can come forward," she said. "It means there is some gratification in Peter's life, that people don't get away scot- free."

Final words from a grieving mother

At the courthouse, Mrs Watson hoped to make a statement to Paul David Ryan as he was being escorted to jail but this was not possible. Mrs Watson later showed Broken Rites a copy of what she wanted to tell Ryan:

“I do not want you to speak to me, as nothing you say will right the wrong you have done to my son Peter; nothing could ease the pain that I have endured; nothing could bring my son back to life; and, last but not least, nothing you say could change my opinion of you.

“You are an evil predator who used your position of power and trust in the Catholic Church to force young males into submission with your atrocious acts.

“You are a disgrace to yourself, you profession and your family, especially your mother.

“The one decent thing you can do now is to confess your crimes of sexual abuse against Peter to the authorities and serve the appropriate sentence. . .”

Mrs Watson later posted this statement to Ryan in prison.

Broken Rites will continue to investigate the career of Father Paul-David Ryan .. and the church's cover-up of sexual crimes.

Broken Rites protects the privacy of victims -- that is why we uusually change the names of victims in the reports of our cases on this website. However, Mrs Helen Watson has already gone public about the church's abuse of her son Peter, and therefore Broken Rites is publishing Mrs Watson's name.

Broken Rites has also researched Father Ronald Pickeringwho helped to recruit Paul David Ryan to the priesthood. Pickering's victims, also, became suicidal. 

• This background article, by a Broken Rites researcher, was updated on 1 November 2015.

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 18 September 2015)

This Broken Rites article is the most comprehensive account available about how the Christian Brothers organisation concealed the crimes of Brother Edward Dowlan (now known as Ted Bales). From the start, the Christian Brothers knew that Dowlan was committing criminal sexual assaults against Australian schoolchildren but, instead of dismissing him, the Christian Brothers kept transferring him to more schools, thus giving him access to more victims. His victims were usually aged about 11 or 12 but some were as young as 8 or 9. In the 1990s, when some victims finally reported him to the police, the Christian Brothers supported Dowlan and tried to defeat the victims. The victims eventually won by getting him jailed in 1996 and again in 2015. Prosecutors considered Dowlan's 2015 jail sentence to be inadequate, so they lodged an appeal and gained a longer jail term. Many of Brother Dowlan's victims have had their lives damaged by the church's cover-up — and several of his victims ended up in suicide. Some other Dowlan victims have not yet contacted the detectives.

In the mid-1990s, twenty years after his first crime, Broken Rites arranged for one of Dowlan's victims to have a private chat with detectives from the Victoria Police child-abuse investigation unit, who then interviewed some more of Dowlan's victims. This resulted in Dowlan being jailed in 1996. After being released from jail in 2001, Dowlan changed his surname to "Bales" to avoid media scrutiny and, with help from the Christian Brothers organisation, he moved into a private residence of his own as Mister Ted Bales. In 2014, after more of his earlier victims finally contacted the police, Edward "Bales" pleaded guilty to some more of his crimes and was remanded in custody to await his next sentencing, on 27 March 2015, when he was given a further jail sentence. On 18 September 2015, the length of this jail sentence was increased.

It was Broken Rites that first documented the Christian Brothers policy of continuing to support any criminal member in their ranks, even after a court conviction. A senior Christian Brothers official explained this policy in the Melbourne County Court in July 1996, when Brother Edward Vernon Dowlan faced charges for indecently assaulting boys in Victorian Catholic schools. A Broken Rites researcher was present in court, day after day, taking notes during the 1996 proceedings. The following article is based on those notes, together with further notes made in court in 2014 and 2015..

According to submissions made in court in 1996, Dowlan was openly molesting boys (in the presence of other boys) at his first two schools (in 1971-72), and therefore the Christian Brothers' Victoria-Tasmania administration moved him to another school — a boarding school (St Patrick's College, Ballarat) in 1973, enabling Dowlan to commit more crimes on more boys, including boarders. The parents of at least one St Patrick's victim confronted St Patrick's head Christian Brother about Dowlan's offence. The Christian Brothers' headquarters then kept transferring Dowlan to more schools (and more victims) — until the police finally caught up with him in 1993.

Until the 1990s, the Christian Brothers (and other sections of the Catholic Church) managed to discourage church-abuse victims from revealing the crimes of priests and Brothers. But, in 1993, Broken Rites began researching this Catholic cover-up. Among the first church-victims who contacted Broken Rites in 1993 were former students of Brother Ted Dowlan. Broken Rites advised each victim that he had the right to have a chat with specialist detectives in the child-abuse investigation unit of the Victoria Police, with a view to bringing the criminal to justice. Thus, police eventually arrested Edward Vernon Dowlan and charged him in court. Broken Rites alerted the media, which published articles about the Dowlan court proceedings from 1994 to 1996, with television footage of him arriving at court.

Brother Ted Dowlan's background

In the 1996 court case, Brother Edward Vernon Dowlan was charged with indecently assaulting young boys while he was a teacher in Victorian Catholic schools between 1971 and 1982. 

According research by Broken Rites, Edward Dowlan was born on 4 January 1950. He grew up in Melbourne, where he was educated by the Christian Brothers, with ample opportunities to absorb the Brothers' sexually-abusive culture. While he was in the Brothers' primary school at suburban Alphington (up to Year 8) , the school chaplain there was the prolific child-abuse criminal Father Desmond Gannon (later jailed). During Dowlan's secondary schooling (at Parade College, East Melbourne, near Melbourne's cathedral), the school staff included some sexually-abusive Brothers.

At Parade College, Ed Dowlan developed an "aspiration" to have a career as a Christian Brother. So, instead of doing Year 12 in a secondary school, he did it in a Christian Brothers "juniorate" and became a member of the Victoria-Tasmania province of the Christian Brothers. (At the time of the Dowlan jailing in 1996, there were three other Christian Brothers provinces in Australia — New South Wales; Queensland; and Western/South Australia.)

It was normal for new Christian Brothers to adopt another name (e.g., the name of a "saint" or the name of a a previoius senior Brother). Thus Edward Vernon Dowlan was listed in Christian Brothers documents as Brother "E.G. Dowlan". It is not known what the letter "G" stands for.

After doing further religious education plus teacher training, Brother Ted Dowlan taught at various schools including the following (this list was compiled by Broken Rites):-

• St Alipius primary school (Ballarat East) in 1971 (where he became a full-time offender);
• St Thomas More College in Forest Hills (Melbourne) in 1972 (this later become Emmaus College);
• St Patrick's College (Ballarat) in 1973-74);
• Warrnambool Christian Brothers College in 1975-76 (later re-named Emmanuel College);
• St Brendan's in Devonport (Tasmania) in the late 1970s;
• Chanel College, Geelong in 1980;
• St Augustine's boys'orphanage in Geelong for part of 1981;
• Parade College preparatory school, Alphington, Melbourne, for part of 1981;
• Cathedral College (East Melbourne) in 1982-85;
• St Mary’s Technical School, Geelong, in 1987-8;
• St Vincent's boys'orphanage, South Melbourne, in 1989; and
• Geelong Catholic Regional College in 1990-3.

The court was told that the police investigation began after several alleged victims, from different schools and acting separately without knowing each other, contacted the Victoria Police sexual offences and child-abuse team (now known as SOCIT) in 1993. The SOCIT unit soon found more alleged victims. In August 1993, Senior Sergeant Blair Smith interviewed Dowlan, but at this stage Dowlan denied the allegations.

What Brother Dowlan did to his victims

When charged by police in early 1994 regarding a few of his victims, Dowlan faced 64 charges, including two of buggery, against 23 boys. At first, the church lawyers indicated that they would contest all these charges fiercely.

According to court documents, Dowlan indecently assaulted the boys in classrooms, sports rooms, showers and the boys' family homes. Typically, Dowlan would upset a boy (either physically or verbally), perhaps make him cry and would then cuddle and molest him.

He invasively handled the boys' genitals and sometimes inserted his finger into a boy’s anus.

Many of Dowlan's offences occurred at the back of the classroom, where other pupils where asked not to look back. Other offences occurred in empty classrooms where Dowlan would ask the boys to discuss family problems.

The prosecution alleged in court that, as a Christian Brother in a Catholic school, Dowlan had the power to intimidate a child into going to the place where the abuse would occur – e.g., at the rear of a crowded classroom during a lesson. He was able to do this under the guise of discipline. The victim was in a state of subservience and was unable later to make a complaint (or unable to get his complaint accepted). Sometimes, in a classroom, there would be 20 to 30 witnesses to the offence but these witnesses (the prosecution alleged) were also under Dowlan’s control. Therefore, as a Catholic religious Brother, Dowlan was confident about not getting into trouble, the prosecution said

Four paedophiles in one school

The first school in Brother Edward Dowlan’s criminal charges was St Alipius primary school (pronounced Saint Al-LEEP-ee-us) in Ballarat in 1971, when Dowlan was aged 21. Dowlan was there at the same time as Brother Robert Best, who also was convicted in 1996.

Indeed, in 1971 the school's entire male personnel were child-sex offenders. The school had only four classrooms. Brother Best taught Grade 6, Brother Edward Dowlan taught Grade 5, a woman teacher taught Grade 4, another pedophile (Brother Gerald Leo Fitzgerald, now deceased) taught Grade 3, and the school's visiting chaplain was the pedophile priest Father Gerald Ridsdale (jailed in 1994). A later teacher, Christian Brother Stephen Francis Farrell, was also a child-sex offender. All these men (except Brother Fitzgerald, who died 23 August 1987) were later convicted of sex crimes.

The prosecution alleged that three St Alipius boys were each sexually abused by the same three offenders — Brother Ted Dowlan, Brother Robert Charles Best and Brother Gerald Francis Ridsdale.

Crimes were ignored

Details of Dowlan’s offences were given in court documents in 1996, including a "statement of agreed facts" submitted jointly by the prosecution and the defence.

Court documents in 1996 indicated that the Christian Brothers administration knew about Brother Dowlan's offences early in his career but the Order continued to give him access to children.

For example:

• After offending at his first school (St Alipius in Ballarat East in 1971), Dowlan continued offending at his next school (St Thomas More in Forest Hills, Melbourne in 1972). One Forest Hills victim, "Max", said in his police statement (submitted to court in the prosecution file) that after Dowlan had been molesting pupils (including Max), one family complained to the Christian Brothers — and Dowlan was removed from the Forest Hills school early in 1973. The boys were told that he had gone on a "religious retreat". The prosecutor stated that later in 1973, Dowlan was posted to St Patrick's boarding school, Ballarat. [But the Ballarat parents were not told about Dowlan's record as a child-abuser.]
• At St Patrick's College, Dowlan was assigned to be a dormitory master and had a bedroom near the dormitory. In 1974, the court was told, Dowlan indecently assaulted a 13 year-old-boy, "Peter", in a dormitory in the middle of the night. Peter immediately phoned his parents who arrived at the school at 6 am. The prosecutor, Mr Graeme Hicks, told the court that the parents interviewed the St Patrick's headmaster, Brother Paul Nangle (who was named in court), and complained to him about Dowlan's assault of their son. Peter's parents then moved him to a new school.
• "Roger" (assaulted at St Patrick's College in 1973) testified in his police statement that his parents wanted to press criminal charges against Dowlan, but a priest talked them out of it. And a Ballarat mother stated that her sons told Dowlan's colleagues at St Patrick's in 1974 about him being a child abuser.
• Despite knowing about Dowlan’s activities, the Christian Brothers continued to give Dowlan access to children and even sent him to work at a boys’ orphanage (St Augustine’s in Geelong in 1981), where the homeless inmates were particularly vulnerable and defenceless.
• In court, there was also a mention of Dowlan having been sent briefly to another orphanage (St Vincent’s boys’ home in South Melbourne), possibly about 1981. At St Vincent’s, he had a physical clash with one boy, and Dowlan was injured in the eye.
• "Jamie", who was a 12-year-old pupil at Melbourne’s Cathedral College in 1982, told the police in his statement (tabled in court) about the day he was being confirmed into the Catholic Church. Brother Dowlan took a Crucifix to the boy's home as a present. He indecently mauled Jamie in the bedroom and then took him to the Confirmation ceremony. This church abuse (and the church's cover-up) damaged Jamie's later life. Broken Rites was saddened to learn in 2013 that "Jamie" has committed suicide, leaving a widow and three young children.

In court, the defence admitted that, after a complaint in 1985, Dowlan was removed from teaching for a year to do a Diploma of Theology. He then returned to teaching at Geelong.

An expensive legal team

From the outset of the prosecution process (beginning in late 1993), the Christian Brothers Victoria-Tasmania management was determined to defend Brother Dowlan (and also Brother Robert Best), thereby defeating the victims.

At one of Dowlan’s early court appearances (in the Melbourne Magistrates Court in 1994), his counsel foreshadowed a lengthy contest and commented to the magistrate: "Expense is not a problem, your worship."

After police first summoned Dowlan to appear in court in early 1994, the Christian Brothers’ solicitors hired private investigators to do make inquiries about victims, the court was told. A female investigator telephoned and visited three of the Ballarat victims, questioning them about their proposed evidence. Police said this interference in the criminal justice system was "highly inappropriate".

On 18 March 1994, one of Dowlan’s schools (St Patrick’s College, Ballarat) circulated a newsletter about Dowlan to parents, inviting any affected families to ring a so-called "helpline" at the Christian Brothers headquarters in Melbourne.

This phone-in may have resulted in additional witnesses contacting the Christian Brothers (that is, the offending institution) instead of contacting the investigating authority, the Victoria Police. Some callers may have presumed that, if they gave information to the Christian Brothers, they did not need to give it to the police. It is possible that some of the information received proved helpful for the Christian Brothers’ defence lawyers, which is perhaps not what the callers might have intended. This 1994 phone-in was a forerunner of what developed (in 1996) into the church's "Towards Healing" program for all Australian Catholic dioceses and religious orders. [Too often, when victims give information to "Towards Healing", the information ends up in the hands of the church's lawyers, thereby helping the church to evade the victim.]

Defence tactics in the 1990s

The Christian Brothers legal team tried many tactics to delay or frustrate or stop the proceedings. In March 1994, Dowlan requested (and was granted) a nine-months adjournment in the magistrate’s preliminary committal proceedings, so that he could have a trip to the United States to visit the St Luke "Institute" in Maryland (a Catholic accommodation-place for problem clergy). However, a Dowlan victim alerted the U.S. Embassy in Canberra and, as a result, the U.S. rejected Dowlan's visa application because he was facing criminal charges. Dowlan then stayed in Australia, still taking advantage of the nine-months adjournment. Dowlan's request for such a long adjournment made it impossible for the committal hearing to be held before the end of 1994.

What was the objective of the trip to the St Luke Institute? The institute accommodates clergy who have problems with sexual abuse or psychiatric problems. Fifteen months later, when Dowlan’s jail term was about to be calculated, the prosecutor asked Christian Brothers deputy leader Peter Dowling ("character" witness for Dowlan) if the St Luke Institute program was partly a preparation for progression through a criminal court case. Peter Dowling told the court that a part of the St Luke program was to build up a person's identity so that they could cope with what is happening to them.

Another advantage of a trip to the St Luke Institute is that, at the time of sentencing in court, a convicted offender can seek a lenient sentence by claiming that he has received "treatment" at the St Luke "Institute" and is therefore "unlikely to offend again".

Preliminary proceedings in 1995

Dowlan's preliminary ("committal") hearing by a magistrate was held in the Melbourne Magistrates Court in May 1995. This was a closed courtroom, with only lawyers, police and each witness present.

After an eight-days hearing, the magistrate declared that there was indeed sufficient evidence to seek a conviction in a higher court. The magistrate ordered Dowlan to appear before a judge at the Melbourne County Court in late 1995.

The Christian Brothers' legal team, however, managed to have the County Court case adjourned for months.

Case reaches the higher court in 1996

On 4 March 1996, County Court Judge Elizabeth Curtain finally began hearing pre-trial submissions from Dowlan’s defence team about what procedures should be followed in the case. These were the first of many days that were spent in legal argument. A Broken Rites researcher sat in court during those proceedings.

Then, on 13 March 1996, Dowlan secured a three-month adjournment on the "ground" that a Channel Nine "Sixty Minutes" program on 3 March 1996 had featured an item about priests in Ireland who broke their vows of chastity and who, in some instances, fathered children. In fact, however, the "Sixty Minutes" item was not about Christian Brothers and was not about Australia.

In June 1996, the County Court resumed hearing legal argument about aspects of the Dowlan charges. Simultaneously, in another courtroom  in the same building, a different judge started hearing the case against Brother Robert Best. During adjournments in one of those courtrooms, a Broken Rites representativewould visit the other courtroom to check on proceedings there.

To help Dowlan and Best, the Christian Brothers obtained a court order to prohibit television networks from showing three advertised television programs in Victoria:

• A "Four Corners" program on ABC TV on 27 May 1996 about clergy child-abuse in Australia (this program was made by journalist Sally Neighbour, with research help from Broken Rites;
• A film, "The Boys of St Vincent", on Channel Ten (about clergy child abuse in Canada); and
• A "Today Tonight" item on Channel Seven (about child abuse by the Catholic order of Salesian priests in Victoria).

The TV networks were allowed to show these programs in other states but in Victoria they had to fill these time-slots with a substitute program.

The church lawyers also applied to the court to have a separate jury for each of the complainants. (This tactic means that each jury would think that there was only one complainant and that the offence was an isolated incident, possibly resulting in a "not guilty" verdict regarding each victim from each jury).

Originally, in March 1996, Judge curtain granted this application. However, the Office of Public Prosecutions was opposed to this. In June 1996, Judge Curtain finally granted a prosecution application to amalgamate three complainants for the first jury, because these three cases involved similar incidents. This meant that Dowlan was less likely to escape a conviction on the first trial.

The prosecution and the defence team then had discussions about a compromise.

At last, the guilty plea in 1996

Finally, after many days of legal argument in the courts, the prosecution and defence reached a compromise. In a plea bargain, the prosecution withdrew many charges, including the more serious charges of buggery. Finally, Dowlan pleaded guilty on 16 counts of indecent assault, including two involving digital penetration, against 11 boys aged from 9 to 13, including two boys at St Alipius, three at St Thomas More, four at St Patrick's and two at Cathedral college.

On 17 June 1996, Dowlan entered his plea of guilty and the prosecution reduced the number of charges (and withdrew the buggery charges). The guilty plea meant that no jury was needed.

Dowlan was automatically convicted, and the court now merely needed to sentence him. Judge Curtain began hearing submissions (including "character" evidence from defence witnesses) about what penalty should be applied for Dowlan's crimes.

Because of Dowlan’s guilty plea in 1996, his victims were not required to give evidence in the County Court. However, several attended as observers. On some days, when there was a lull in the Dowlan proceedings, Dowlan’s victims (and a Broken Rites researcher) would adjourn to a nearby courtroom to observe the Brother Best case — and vice versa.

Broken Rites researchers were present in County Court every day throughout the Dowlan and Best proceedings, taking notes as part of our research.

The Christian Brothers keep supporting Dowlan

After the guilty plea in 1996, the judge began hearing submissions from the prosecutor and the defence about what kind of sentence should be imposed on Dowlan. The defence asked for a lenient sentence.

During these submissions, representatives of the Christian Brothers submitted "character" evidence in support of Dowlan. They told the County Court that a convicted child-abuser was still acceptable as a Christian Brother.

One character witness was (Brother Peter William Dowling, not to be confused with the prisoner Edward Dowlan). Brother Dowling, who was the Victoria-Tasmania deputy leader of the Christian Brothers in 1996, was a pupil at Melbourne’s Parade College in the 1960s, one year ahead of fellow-pupil Ted Dowlan. Peter Dowling told the court that, if there were sex-abuse complaints about Brother Ted Dowlan in the 1970s, the Christian Brothers leadership at that time would certainly have known it.

Brother Peter Dowling told the court that the Christian Brothers "have no policy of excluding a convicted person" from the Order. Therefore, he said, Ted Dowlan would continue to be welcome as a member of the Christian Brothers, despite his conviction, "and we will continue to support him."

Brothers moving into new roles

The Christian Brothers told the court that, even after being convicted of these crimes, Dowlan would not be expelled from the Order, but he would be offered work in "new ministries" of the Christian Brothers. The court was told that Christian Brothers were now less involved in operating schools. Most Christian Brothers (the court was told) now belong to "outreach" ministries, working with hospital patients, prisoners, Aborigines, young people in trouble, the disabled and missions in Third World countries.

Christian Brother Damien Anthony Walsh, who was aged 42 in 1996, told the court (while giving pre-sentence "character" evidence for Dowlan) that, in future, the role of the Christian Brothers would not be in teaching or in school administration but in other roles such as counselling. Damien Walsh said that he himself was a project co-ordinator for the Australian AIDS Fund. In court, Walsh did not, at first, identify himself as a Christian Brother but, when questioned by the court, he agreed that he is one.

Another defence witness, Brother Leonard Vincent Francis, who was retired and aged 69 in 1996, gave an example of his own changing role. Brother Francis told the court that, as a Christian Brother, he taught for 38 years in Australia and New Guinea but then spent years working in a "pastoral care" team at St Vincent’s hospital, Melbourne.

Brother Peter Dowling told the court that in 1996 the Victoria-Tasmania province of the Christian Brothers comprised 190 Brothers (some of whom were working in Fiji and Africa). He said the Christian Brothers were planning "the amalgamation of some of our ministries with other religious orders".

Brother Michael Godfrey told the media that the Christian Brothers would also retain another member, Brother Robert Charles Best, who was convicted in the same court (and around the same time) as Brother Dowlan for child-sex offences. (At one time, Dowlan and Best even worked together in the same school.)

Dowlan and Best are merely two of a number of criminal prosecutions involving Christian Brothers in Australia. In addition to convictions, the Christian Brothers administration has made out-of-court civil settlements with a number of victims, so as to limit the Christian Brothers' civil liability regarding those victims.

No remorse, no apology

During pre-sentence submissions (and also at the sentencing), Judge Elizabeth Curtain said that Dowlan had failed to show any remorse or regret for his crimes and he was not offering any apology. She said there was little evidence that Dowlan was concerned about the adverse impact of his crimes upon his victims. She said this attitude caused doubt about Dowlan’s prospect of rehabilitation.

Judge Curtain said that, although Dowlan was being sentenced on only 16 selected incidents, these incidents must be seen in the context of a constant practice of gross misconduct.

Impact on the victims' lives

Before the sentencing in 1996, victims had submitted written impact statements to the court, explaining how Dowlan’s abuse (and the church’s cover-up) had disrupted their adolescent development, causing problems that persisted into their adult years.

Some victims stated that they never went near a Catholic Church again and they would make sure their own children kept away from Catholic clergy.

The judge quoted one victim who wrote that “the Catholic Church has aided the commission of the offences” by covering them up.

Jailed in 1996

Dowlan, then aged 46, was sentenced to nine years and eight months jail (with a non-parole period of six years).

The church lawyers appealed against the severity of this sentence, and the Victorian Court of Appeal later reduced Dowlan's maximum sentence to 6.5 years jail (with parole possible after four years).

Media coverage in 1996

The Dowlan and Best cases finished almost simultaneously in late July 1996. Until both cases were finished, the County Court had forbidden the media to report (or even mention) the court proceedings, because the Brother Best case involved jury trials.

After both Dowlan and Best had been convicted, Broken Rites learned that the media-suppression order lapsed. Broken Rites alerted a Melbourne Herald Sun journalist about this "breaking news" and therefore the Dowlan and Best convictions were featured on the front page of that newspaper on the next morning, 24 July 1996. A day later, on July 25, there was further coverage in the Herald Sun (plus other newspapers throughout Australia). Broken Rites arranged for a senior journalist to interview some of the victims, and these victims' stories (without their real names) were featured on a double-page spread in the Herald Sun.

Thus, the Christian Brothers' cover-up was exposed. And the victims felt empowered. And Broken Rites continued working on other cases.

Eventually, Edward Vernon Dowlan finished his jail term  — and now the Christian Brothers are developing their “new ministries” for hospital patients, prisoners, Aborigines, young people in trouble, the disabled and missions in Third World countries. These groups include some very vulnerable people.

What sort of credibility will the Christian Brothers “new ministries” have?

No expense spared

Lawyers estimated that, by July 1996, the Christian Brothers Order had spent about $400,000 in defending Dowlan and Best. The costs included: 56 days in court; two Queen's Counsel; a team of barristers and solicitors; legal office staff; private investigators; and psychiatrists, psychologists and other paid experts who gave character evidence on behalf of the offenders.

Later, more money was spent on appeals.

Brother Dowlan becomes "Mister" Bales

By the year 2001, Edward Dowlan had been released from jail. He was still a member of the Christian Brothers organisaton, on leave while he considered his future. The Christian Brothers head office continued to look after Dowlan financially but, because of the Australia-wide publicity about his crimes, the head office realised that it would be a public-relations disaster if Dowlan was seen to be working again in any of the Brothers' schools or even in their new non-school "missions".

Also, as a result of the publicity, some more of Dowlan's victims were now contacting Broken Rites and/or the Victoria Police (instead of merely contacting the church). More police charges could create more bad publicity for the Christian Brothers. Therefore, damage control would be needed.

• Broken Rites learned in 2001 that Dowlan had officially changed his surname from Dowlan to "Bales", so as to avoid media publicity. Bales was a surname from his family tree, on his mother's side.
• Broken Rites also learned that the Christian Brothers were helping Dowlan to move into a private house (in a Melbourne northern suburb) where he would live as Mr Ted Bales, thus protecting the Christian Brothers organisation.

It was in the interests of the Christian Brothers to be generous to Dowlan, because he would know some "dirt" about other Brothers and about the custom of cover-up.

Charged again in 2014

In early 2014, Dowlan (then aged 64) was arrested by detectives from the Sano Taskforce, which was established by the Victoria Police Sex Crime Squad to investigate allegations arising from a recent Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child sex abuse.

On 29 April 2014 he appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court, under his new name of "Edward Bales". Detective Senior Constable Colleen Connolly was present in court on behalf of the Sano Taskforce. At this hearing, Bales faced 48 charges of indecent assault and gross indecency against 14 boys in the 1970s and 1980s while he was working as a Christian Brother.

During another mention in court later in 2014, the court was told that four more alleged victims had contacted the police to make complaints against "Bales", resulting in eight additional charges. The alleged offences in this 2014 case occurred in these places

• Ballarat and Warrnambool (in regional Victoria) and in Forest Hill (a Melbourne eastern suburb) between 1970 and 1975; and
• Geelong, East Melbourne and Melbourne's Lower Templestowe between 1980 and 1984.

This April 2014 hearing was an administrative procedure. The court was told that Bales was convicted and jailed in the 1990s for sex-offences committed during his career as a Christian Brother. His defence lawyer told the court that Bales had changed his identity to avoid publicity because his name came up whenever the media reported on crimes involving the Christian Brothers. Bales' previous name was not disclosed during this April 2014 court hearing.

The court released Edward Bales on bail for the duration of the prosecution process. During another mention in court later in 2014, the court was told that four more people had contacted the police to make complaints against "Bales", resulting in eight new charges.

Guilty plea in 2014 and sentencing in 2015

In court again on 9 October 2014, Bales pleaded guilty to a large number of charges after some other charges were withdrawn. Bales was immediately taken to a remand prison to await his sentencing, to be held in early 2015.

After this guilty plea, no jury was required. The media was allowed now to reveal that Edward Bales was formerly named Dowlan.

On 6 February 2015, Dowlan appeared before a judge in the Melbourne County Court for pre-sentence proceedings. The court learned that he was pleading guilty regarding 20 boys. The charges included 33 counts of indecent assault and one count of gross indecency.

Crown prosecutor Brett Sonnet told the court that Dowlan had used his position as a Christian Brother to prey on his victims. Mr Sonnet described Dowlan as a "trusted religious figure" who had been extraordinarily brazen in his conduct because he was confident that, as a Christian Brother, he would never be challenged.

Mr Sonnet said that the Christian Brothers were aware of the offences that Dowlan was committing on boys but did not act to stop him. He said that Dowlan was moved from school to school, which only "aggravated the problem".

George Pell is mentioned in court

Mr Sonnet told the court that one victim was at a local Ballarat swimming pool in the 1970s when he saw Father George Pell (who was then a Ballarat priest) at the pool. The victim allegedly told Father Pell that something had to be done to stop Dowlan abusing young boys at St Patrick's College, Ballarat.

According to the victim (in documents tabled in court), Father Pell allegedly replied: "Don't be ridiculous."

George Pell, who became archbishop of Melbourne and later Sydney and then moved to Rome as a Cardinal, has denied knowing that children were being abused in Ballarat by priests and Brothers during the time he was there. According to statements made in court, however, the custom of church-abuse was indeed known among Ballarat's priests and Brothers who expected (back in those days) that the custom would never be publicly exposed.

Jailed in March 2015

On 27 March 2015 (22 years after Broken Rites began helping the victims of Edward Dowlan), Melbourne County Court judge Richard Smith conducted the sentencing for Edward "Bales". He gave a lengthy account of Bales' behaviour and the new charges.

Judge Smith said that, in his role as a Christian Brother, Bales had been in a position of authority and trust and had believed he had "some right of entitlement" to abuse the boys in appalling circumstances because he had power over them and they were unable to resist him.

The judge described Bales' offending as brazen and said he did not believe he was remorseful.

He said that Bales' victims had suffered an ongoing psychological reaction to the abuse that was still affecting them 30 to 40 years later.

The judge gave Ted Bales another six-years jail sentence for the new victims, with parole possible after three years.

Ted Bales was then removed from the court, to be transported to prison.

Some of Bales/Dowlan's victims were present in court (accompanied by representatives of Broken Rites) to see him jailed but no church representative attended to support the victims.

The victims were supported by a representative of Victoria's Office of Public Prosecutions, who afterwards spoke sympathetically to a gathering of victims in the corridor outside the courtroom.

The prosecutors and the victims all agreed that the jail sentence (with parole after only three years behind bars) was inadequate.

Prosecutors win an increase in the jail time

After the March 2015 sentencing, the state's Director of Public Prosecutions (the DPP) then launched an appeal against the jail term, arguing that the actual time behind bars was inadequate. In court documents, the DPP emphasised the profound impact the abuse had on Ted Bales' victims. The DPP also said that Bales "has not expressed any remorse or contrition for his offending".

On 18 September 2015, the Victorian Court of Appeal ruled in favour of the DPP. The Appeal Court stated: "The respondent's absence of remorse, coupled with the number of victims and the period over which the offences took place, warranted a non-parole period that was significantly more than half of the head sentence."

The Appeal Court re-sentenced Bales to eight years and five months' jail, with a five-year no-parole period.

Broken Rites research

Broken Rites is continuing its research about Australia's Christian Brothers organisation, and how it supported criminals such as Brother Edward Dowlan, alias "Ted Bales".

Child sex crime detectives are investigating allegations that teenage boys were abused at one of Australia's most prominent Catholic cathedrals — St Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne. The allegations relate to 14-year-old boys who may have been abused at the cathedral between 1996 and 2001 (this is the period when Archbishop George Pell was the Catholic Church's leader in Melbourne).

The Victoria Police media unit announced the investigation in a public statement issued on 23  December 2015. The investigation is being conducted by a unit of detectives, called the Sano Taskforce.

Here is the Victoria Police announcement in full:

"Sano Taskforce detectives are appealing for information in relation to allegations of sexual assault at the St. Patricks Cathedral, East Melbourne, in the 1990s.

 "The male victims were aged 14 at the time of the alleged incidents.

 "Detectives would like to speak to anyone who was a victim of a sexual assault, or anybody with any information relating to any alleged sexual assaults, committed at the St. Patricks Cathedral between 1996 and 2001.

 "Anyone with information is urged to call the Sano Taskforce toll free on 1800 110 007.

 "The Sano Taskforce detectives specialise in investigating historical sexual assault and child abuse matters.

 "Victoria Police encourages all victims of sexual assault and child abuse, and anyone who has knowledge of such a crime, to make a report.

 "Victoria Police is committed to investigating and bringing to justice those people who prey on children no matter how many years have passed.

"Information relating to any alleged sexual assaults, committed at St. Patricks Cathedral, East Melbourne during this time period, can also be provided anonymously to Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submitted confidentially on-line at www.crimestoppersvic.com.au

The Victoria Police announcement was signed by Sergeant Sharon Darcy, media officer.
 
[The Sano Taskforce was established by Victoria Police to investigate allegations that have emerged from a Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child sex abuse involving religious and non-government organisations.  Sano is also tasked with investigating allegations of abuse that have arisen from Australia's national Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.]

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 18 February 2016)

Australia's national child-abuse Royal Commission has learned how George Pell recruited supporters from among suburban priests when he began his rise to power in Melbourne in the 1980s and 1990s. Broken Rites understands that Pell was welcomed particularly by conservative (as distinct from moderate-minded) priests. One of these traditionalist supporters, Father John Walshe, has given evidence to the Royal Commission on behalf of Cardinal Pell's lawyers. This Broken Rites article is an analysis of Walshe's evidence. Father Walshe said he supports the tradition of "celibacy" for Catholic priests. A week after his evidence, it was revealed that the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese has apologised to a former student who says he was sexually abused (at the age of 18) by Father Walshe. Meanwhile, Cardinal Pell is refusing to re-visit Australia to appear in person at the Royal Commission.

The matter of the 18-year-old student is reported towards the end of this article but, first, here is some background about George Pell and John Walshe.

Cardinal George Pell received several mentions in Father Walshe's evidence. Originally a priest in the Ballarat diocese (which covered the western half of Victoria), George Pell moved to Melbourne in 1985 to become the head of the Melbourne seminary (Corpus Christi College, then based at Melbourne's Clayton), which trained priests for Victoria and Tasmania. In 1987 he was appointed as one of Melbourne's four regional auxiliary bishops under the authority of Archbishop Frank Little (Bishop Pell's region was Melbourne's south-eastern suburbs). This is when he became acquainted with allies such as Father John Walshe.

At this stage, Pell was no more famous nationally than any of Australia's forty or so other Catholic bishops. But he was working on it.

Father John Walshe and Bishop George Pell

In December 2015, the Royal Commission held a public hearing (in Melbourne) in its Case Study 35 (about sexual-abuse in the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese, which covers the metropolitan area) and also in Case Study 28 (about the Ballarat diocese which covers western Victoria). Father John Thomas Walshe offered to give evidence relating to George Pell.

Broken Rites has studied the official transcript of Fr Walshe's evidence.

Fr Walsh gave the Royal Commission a copy of his curriculum vitae. Born in Melbourne in 1958, Walshe attended school at St James Catholic Primary School Gardenvale (1963-1967) and Christian Brothers College St Kilda (1968-1975). He began studying for the priesthood at Melbourne's Corpus Christi seminary in 1976, aged 18, and was ordained as a priest in Melbourne by Archbishop Frank Little on 14 August 1982. [Father George Pell then was still based in Ballarat]

Father Walshe's early appointments as an assistant priest in the Melbourne archdiocese included:

• Parish of St Mary of the Angels, GEELONG (1982-1983);
• Parish of St Thomas the Apostle, BLACKBURN (1983-1986);
• St Jude's, SCORESBY (1986-1988); and
• St Gerard's, NORTH DANDENONG (1988-1992).

Walshe told the Royal Commission that, while in his early parishes in the mid-1980s, he probably met George Pell socially, perhaps while re-visiting the seminary where Pell was the new rector. By 1988, he had became better acquainted with Pell as the new regional bishop for Walshe's area.

In answer to a question, Walshe told the Commission:

"When I was in the Parish of St Gerard in North Dandenong, Bishop Pell was our Regional Bishop...  He had the practice of inviting priests of his zone, his area, to dinners, so to get to know them because he wasn't a priest of Melbourne and he sort of took every opportunity to get to know the clergy, so I came to know him better through then."

Father Walshe, who is interested in church history, helped Cardinal Pell's research concerning some worldwide church matters, the Commission was told.

As an auxiliary bishop, George Pell was based at the Mentone parish (in Melbourne's outer south-east). In 1992, Walshe was appointed as an assistant priest at Bishop Pell's parish. Bishop Pell evidently played a role in making this appointment, Walsh told the Commission.

At Mentone, Walshe lived in the bishop's house with Pell, while two other priests lived in Mentone's normal presbytery (both houses are located at 10 Rogers Street, Mentone, with the bishop's house situated behind the presbytery). In 1995, Walshe was promoted to the rank of Dean of the Mentone parish, and he has remained in charge of that parish since then. This parish includes two churches: St Patrick's in Mentone and St John Vianney's in Parkdale.

In 1996, Pell managed to get himself appointed by the Vatican as the archbishop of Melbourne, replacing Archbishop Frank Little. Pell then left Mentone and became based at St Patrick's Cathedral, near central Melbourne. He was the archbishop of Melbourne until 2001.

[Broken Rites has been told that, after becoming the Archbishop of Melbourne, Pell continued to visit the Mentone parish, where he held meetings and social occasions in his former residence. These get-togethers at Mentone were attended by some of the priests in the pro-Pell wing of the Melbourne clergy. Some of these supporters also assisted Archbishop Pell at Masses and ceremonies in Pell's Melbourne cathedral.]

When Pell left Melbourne to become the archbishop of Sydney in 2001, Fr John Walshe attended the Sydney ceremony, according to Walshe's evidence at the Royal Commission.

Although he never rose above the rank of Parish Priest, John Walshe continued to be active in church affairs. For example, at the Royal Commission, he was questioned about some of his other activities in church circles.  He agreed that he is an office bearer in the Australian Confraternity of Catholic Clergy, presently the national chairman. [This is a group of conservative priests, whereas progressively-minded priests tend to be in a different national organisation.]

In response to another question, Walshe agreed that he has been associated with a Catholic organisation called "Courage", which minsters to homosexual people. Walshe said he has "helped" some of the people who come to the "Courage" organisation. It is not clear what sort of "help" this was.

[According to church websites, Fr John Walshe was among a number of priests who assisted Archbishop Pell and later Archbishop Denis Hart, in ceremonies and services at Melbourne's St Patrick's Cathedral. According to the church websites, others who assisted in cathedral ceremonies included Fr Charles Portelli and Fr Shane Hoctor. In 1999, Fr Walshe and others assisted Pell in conducting a traditional Latin Mass.]

Why Walshe contacted the Royal Commission

Fr Walshe told the Royal Commission that he visited Cardinal Pell in Rome on 17 November 2015. (This was seven days before the beginning of the Royal Commission's four-weeks public hearing public in Melbourne.) He had dinner with Cardinal Pell and Pell's private secretary (Father Mark Withoos, a Melbourne priest who was ordained by Archbishop Pell in 2000).

According to Fr Walshe, Cardinal Pell was obviously worried about his forthcoming appearance at the Royal Commission where he was to be asked questions about the church's handling of child sexual abuse allegations in Ballarat and Melbourne. Pell was expected to be asked about his time as an adviser to former Ballarat bishop Ronald Mulkearns regarding the movements of priests in the diocese, such as paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale.

One of Gerald Ridsdale's victims was his nephew David Ridsdale who told Pell in a phone call in February 1993 that Father Ridsdale had sexually abused him. According to David Ridsdale's sworn evidence, Pell replied to David in 1993: "I want to know what it will take to keep you quiet". In statements to the media, Cardinal Pell denies saying this, but he is yet to state his denial officially under oath in the Commission's witness box in the Melbourne-Ballarat public hearing. David Ridsdale has told the Commission that his teenage development (including his sexuality) was disrupted by Father Gerald Ridsdale's abuse and by the church's cover-up.

On November 19 (two days after dining with Pell in Rome), Walshe arrived home in Melbourne. A couple of days after this, he received a phone call from Michael Casey (a personal assistant to Pell), who asked if Walshe would submit a written statement to the Royal Commission supporting Pell version of David Ridsdale's 1993 phone call and thus undermining David's evidence about being silenced. Walshe agreed to do this.

About December 2 or 3 in 2015 (during the second week of the Royal Commission's four-weeks public hearing) Walshe was contacted by a member of Pell's legal team. After phone discussions and an exchange of emails between Walshe and this lawyer, the lawyer drafted the final version of Father Walshe's written statement.

The final statement was delivered to Father Walshe by courier and he signed it on 5 December 2015. Walshe told the Commission: "It was all formatted for me and then I signed it and had it witnessed."

This was half way through the Royal Commission's four-weeks Melbourne hearing (and 11 days before Pell was due to give evidence in person in Melbourne).

Fr Walshe's submission reached the Commission on Sunday 6 December, a day before the Commission was due to focus on Ballarat (rather than Melbourne) matters (including survivor David Ridsdale's claim that Cardinal Pell wanted to silence him in 1993).

After Father Walshe's letter reached the Royal Commission, the chairman (Justice Peter McClellan immediately issued a summons for all the notes and emails which Pell's lawyers possessed regarding Father Walshe's submission.

The Royal Commission scheduled Fr Walshe to appear in the witness box on December 15, the day before Pell's scheduled appearance.

Problems in Walshe's statement

Walshe's version of the 1993 David Ridsdale phone call failed to impress the Royal Commission.

The counsel assisting the commission, Angus Stewart, SC, said that Cardinal Pell's legal team had inserted a number of details into Father Walshe's written statement. These additions, Mr Stewart said, included:

• the time of day when the phone call occurred;
• Father Walshe's subsequent conversation with Bishop Pell about the phone call, and
• which part of the bishop's house they were in when Pell returned from taking the call.

When questioned, Walshe admitted to the Commission that some of his knowledge of the events of 1993 came from watching a television program, "60 Minutes", on the Nine Network in 2002.

Walshe said he discussed the "60 Minutes" program with some of his colleagues who, he said, would have included Father Charles Portelli and Father Anthony Girolami.

Father Walshe and "celibacy"

Towards the end of his evidence, Fr Walshe was questioned about the Catholic Church's policy of advertising its priests as "celibate".

He said he strongly supports "celibacy" and his remarks about it included the following:

"I believe that it's something that is a gift if people live it properly, and I believe that it's something that we've received from the Lord, and there's a long tradition of it...

"Ultimately the purpose of celibacy is supernatural and it will never be understood in human terms."

George Pell goes missing

When Fr John Walshe entered the Royal Commission witness box (on 15 December 2015), he intended helping Cardinal George Pell who was originally scheduled to step into the same witness box on the next day, December 16. But, in mid-December, Pell's lawyer informed the Royal Commission that Pell does not want to visit Australia.

• To see more about Pell's wish to avoid appearing in Australia, click HERE.

An allegation against Fr John Walshe
concerning an 18-year-old student

On 23 December 2015 (seven days after Father John Walshe's evidence to the Royal Commission), the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported (in its evening news bulletins) that Fr John Walshe was himself the subject of a sexual complaint.

In 2012, the complainant, John Roach, received a written apology after the Melbourne Catholic Archdiocese accepted that Mr Roach had been sexually abused by Father John Walshe in 1982 when John Roach was a student, aged 18.

Mr Roach, who now lives in the United States, told the ABC that he felt compelled to speak publicly after seeing video coverage of Father Walshe, giving evidence on 15-16 December 2015 at the Royal Commission

In 1982 Mr Roach was an 18-year-old first-year student at Melbourne's Corpus Christie Catholic seminary in Clayton, beginning his studies for the priesthood, when the incident took place. John Walshe, who was then in his mid-twenties (born in 1958), was at the end of his seminary studies and was facing his future career as a priest. Father Walshe was ordained as a priest in Melbourne by Archbishop Frank Little on 14 August 1982.

Mr Roach said: "One night he invited me up to his room, which was not uncommon.
We had a fair bit of port to drink — I was very unfamiliar with drinking — and I woke up in his bed and he was abusing me.

"I left as quickly as I could, I was very confused, I didn't know what to do, what to think."

Mr Roach said there were two further encounters the following year which included an element of consent.

Mr Roach left the seminary in 1983, but two years later decided to return and had a meeting with the new rector, Dr George Pell.

Mr Roach told the ABC:

"In the course of the interview, he [Dr George Pell] asked me why did I leave in the first place and I told him one of the principal reasons I left in the first place was that I had been abused by a priest." .

"He said, 'I have got to ask you this, can you name the priest?' and I said 'sure, he is Father John Walshe', and he went, 'OK'."

Despite receiving this information, Pell accepted Fr John Walshe's appointment as Pell's assistant priest at the Mentone parish in 1992, where Pell was then residing as one of Melbourne's auxiliary bishops.

In 2012, the Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, Denis Hart, gave a written apology to Mr Roach for the "wrongs and hurt" he suffered at the hands of Father Walshe. Mr Roach was offered the maximum payment allowed under the church's Melbourne compensation system. Father Walshe was allowed to continue running the Mentone-Parkdale parish.

In his final report on the complaint, the Melbourne archdiocese's complaints officer (Peter O'Callaghan QC) said he was satisfied that Mr Roach had been sexually abused.

Mr O' Callaghan defined sexual abuse as "conduct of a sexual nature that is inconsistent with the public vows, integrity of the ministerial relationship, duties or professional responsibilities of church personnel."

Although Mr O'Callaghan made no finding about which man's version of events should be believed, the final report said, "there is no doubt that sexual abuse occurred" because "a reasonable inference to be drawn is that J [the priest] had a degree of influence and control over the Seminarian". The finding was not based on any legal interpretation of sexual abuse.

Father Walshe says that his conduct with the 18-year-old student was "consensual conduct" with "an adult".

In December 2015, the ABC contacted Father Walshe, seeking a comment. On 22 December 2015, Father Walshe issued the following statement to the ABC (as shown on the ABC website):

"In 1982 I was a sexually naïve and emotionally vulnerable young man. For a short time, as a young adult, I formed an emotional attachment to another young adult, and engaged in consensual conduct with that person.

"My conduct was contrary to my religious beliefs. However, it by no means constituted any form of abuse.

"I must emphasis that we were both adults and our conduct, was completely consensual.

"Following those events, I underwent extensive counselling to deal with the internal conflicts I faced. My conduct since that time has been exemplary.

"I have worked tirelessly as parish priest and have enjoyed the complete confidence of three Archbishops over the past three decades.

"I have devoted my life to the Church and I have worked tirelessly within my Parish to improve the lives of my Community. I look forward to continuing that work in the future.
- Fr John Walshe, 22 December 2015"

On 24 December 2015 (the day after the ABC's story about Mr John Roach), Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart issued a statement through his vicar-general, Monsignor Greg Bennet.

Monsignor Bennet said:

"Father Walshe has admitted that he engaged in consensual conduct contrary to his religious beliefs and acknowledged that he then undertook extensive counselling.

"Mr O'Callaghan strongly recommended to Archbishop Hart that Father Walshe not be withdrawn from public ministry and this recommendation was accepted by Archbishop Hart.

"Later Mr Roach applied for and was awarded compensation through the Melbourne Response's Compensation Panel."

Monsignor Bennet also stated:

"Father Walshe has spoken to his parishioners and apologised for any hurt or disappointment his behaviour has caused.

"We are aware that these revelations are upsetting for all concerned."

Parishioners of Mentone-Parkdale held a meeting on 6 January 2016, attended by 130 people at short notice, to discuss getting Fr John Walshe replaced as the parish priest

On Tuesday morning 2 February 2016, a group of about 20 parents from Fr Walshe's parish withdrew their children from the parish's weekly Mass at the Mentone church - as a sign of protest against Fr Walshe being their parish priest (and thereby being the owner of their school). These parents then delivered their children to school later in the morning.

Victoria's Catholic Education executive director Stephen Elder told The Age newspaper that parents (and presumably parishioners) could not influence the position of a parish priest. He said:

"The parish priest has ownership of Catholic schools in Victoria and he delegates the operation of that school to the principal."

Regarding Mr Elder's statement about Fr Walshe being the "owner" of the parish schools, a former seminary student (from the same era as Walshe) has emailed Broken Rites, saying:

"If Walshe 'owns' the school, should he have to pass a 'fit-and-proper-person' test for his school to receive government funding or for the government to be satisfied that he meets the standards required to run a registered school?"

By a Broken Rites researcher

Broken Rites has forced the Catholic Church to admit that it protected one of Australia's worst paedophile priests, Monsignor John Day, for many years while he was committing sexual crimes against children. One church leader — Bishop Ronald Mulkearns, of the Ballarat diocese — spoke in defence of Monsignor Day. At one stage, Monsignor Day had another criminal priest, Father Gerald Ridsdale, working under him — two criminal priests in the one parish. And later a eulogy of Monsignor Day was published in the diocese's magazine (about this time, Father George Pell became editor of this magazine).

Monsignor John Day was a senior priest of the vast Ballarat Diocese, which covered 50 parishes in western Victoria, extending from the city of Mildura (on the New South Wales border in the north-west) to the city of Warrnambool (on the coast in the south). Ballarat is merely the town where the bishop lives. The major part of Monsignor Day's career was spent in Mildura (Sacred Heart parish), from 1957 to 1972. Mildura was an important parish and Day was promoted to the rank of Monsignor — one rung below a bishop.

When Broken Rites established its national telephone hotline in September 1993, one of the first calls we received was about Monsignor John Day. Now, years later, we are still receiving occasional calls and emails about him.

In late 1993, Broken Rites began researching Monsignor Day. Our investigation led us to a former Victoria Police detective, Denis Ryan, who worked in Mildura in 1962-72. Broken Rites discovered that, in 1971, after Day had been in Mildura for 15 years, Detective Ryan gathered 16 sworn written statements, from 14 boys and two girls at Mildura, detailing how Day had committed sexual crimes against them during the 1960s. The offences included buggery, attempted buggery, indecent assault and gross indecency. Parishioners and police notified Day's boss, Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns, in 1971-2 about this evidence. But Mulkearns denied that there was any substance in the allegations against Day and he retained Day in the ministry. Thus, the Ballarat diocese managed to keep the lid on the Monsignor Day scandal for two decades … until Broken Rites ended the cover-up.

After researching Day for nearly four years, Broken Rites released a file on Day to major newspapers in western Victoria in June 1997. These newspapers each published articles about Day (the Mildura "Independent Star", 29 June to 7 July 1997; the Mildura "Sunraysia Daily" 30 June to 10 July 1997; and the Warrnambool "Standard", 30 June to 2 July 1997).

After this, the church authorities confirmed the Broken Rites revelations and apologised to Day's victims.

The priest and the prostitute

Police officer Denis Ryan has told Broken Rites that he first encountered Father John Day in Melbourne's prostitution precinct at St Kilda one night in 1954-5. Father Day, then from the Apollo Bay parish in south-western Victoria, was visiting the fleshpots of Melbourne. Young constable Ryan found Father Day in a car, drunk, with a known prostitute. Such "consorting" by males was then a criminal offence but Ryan's superior officer, a "loyal" Catholic, tipped off the Melbourne Catholic authorities who rescued Day from police custody.

In 1957, Father Day was appointed to the Mildura parish and became a Monsignor. This made him one of the most senior clerics in the Ballarat diocese, just below Ballarat's Bishop James O'Collins.

Day was a two-faced enforcer of the church’s official line about virginity, celibacy, chastity and morality. One of his first public statements in the Mildura press in 1957 was an attack on a local parade of girls in bikini swim suits. "Degrading, indecent and unchristian," he declared.

In 1962, Detective Ryan was transferred to Mildura, where he instantly recognized Day as the Melbourne prostitute's companion in 1954-5. He also noticed Day's hypocritical postures about "morality".

Complaints to the police

In 1971, Mr John Howden, deputy headmaster at St Joseph's College, Mildura, notified Detective Ryan that a 12-year-old girl pupil ("Nancy") had been indecently fondled by Day. Making inquiries, Ryan soon located other Day victims (mostly male) and began collecting 16 written statements from students and former students.

"I believe this was the tip of the iceberg," Denis Ryan told Broken Rites in 1997. "There could have been as many as 100 victims over the years."

The male victims testified in their police statements that Day had taken them from Mildura to Melbourne, where he molested them in his car and at his sister's empty Melbourne suburban house and in country motels.

In 1971 Howden (then aged 36) and Ryan (then aged 39) were both practising Catholics who attended mass at Day's Sacred Heart Church. They both believed that the Catholic Church should remove Day from Mildura and from the priesthood and that he should be charged with criminal offences.

Church insiders launch a cover-up

Ryan's investigation, however, was opposed by the head of the Mildura detectives' unit, Detective Sergeant James Barritt, who was a friend of Monsignor Day. Sergeant Barritt, like Detective Ryan, was a Catholic but Ryan placed his professional integrity above his private affiliations, while Barritt did the opposite.

Day and Barritt enlisted powerful forces in Victoria's Catholic community, including the head of the Victorian police minister's department. As a result, in late 1971, Detective Ryan was ordered off the Day investigation, even though he believed that the number of victims could reach a hundred.

Meanwhile, on 1 May 1971 Bishop Ronald Mulkearns had become the new bishop of Ballarat. Ryan says that he informed Mulkearns in 1971 about the written statements. Headmaster John Howden says he urged Mulkeams in 1971 to remove Day from parishes immediately but his plea was rejected.

In a written reply to Howden, Mulkearns said (in part): "I have been assured by the police, who rightly take a very serious view of charges of this nature, [that] . . . they have satisfied themselves there is no substance to these charges."

The bishop continued: "Moving Monsignor Day from the parish . . . is clearly impossible . . . any such move would be tantamount to a public declaration that I consider him guilty of charges of which he has been cleared by police investigation.

"I trust the fact that the police investigation which has evidently cleared Monsignor Day of the charges which have been made against him will result in your demonstration of loyalty to him at a time when he has been subjected to very great embarrassment and strain."

In late January 1972, a reporter from the Melbourne "Truth" weekly newspaper threatened to expose the cover-up. Therefore, a chief superintendent from the police Internal Affairs branch in Melbourne (a Catholic) rushed to Mildura for damage control. He promised Day's opponents that he would give an ultimatum to Bishop Mulkeams -- that Day had to go or he would be charged.

The monsignor escapes

To protect Day, the diocese immediately whisked him out of Mildura. Using church funds, Day went to Portugal, beyond the reach of Australian law.

The chief superintendent took Detective Ryan's file of statements back to Melbourne, informing the Police Chief Commissioner that the Mildura problem had been solved and Day would not be charged.

"Truth" reported (on 2 February 1972) that police were protecting an unnamed pedophile priest in an unnamed country town. Broken Rites has found a copy of this edition of "Truth" in the State Library of Victoria.

Les Shilton MLA (a former detective) spoke similarly in State Parliament on 7 March and 29 March 1972. He said pressure had been brought to bear not only in the police force but also in the police minister's department. He objected to Monsignor Day being allowed to leave Australia. He urged the government to appoint a Supreme Court judge to conduct an inquiry into the matter.

The Mildura "Sunraysia Daily" newspaper, however, remained silent, conscious of its advertisers and the town's power structure. The paper's then editor, George Tilley, was part of the town’s power structure. (Tilley was the editor from 1956 to 1988.) A former reporter at the "Sunraysia Daily" told Broken Rites in 1997 that all staff members in 1972 were instructed not to write about the Day cover-up, or even to make inquiries about it.

The detective is punished

Detective Ryan and headmaster Howden were ostracised by some fellow parishioners for acting against Day. Even those who privately supported them would not do so publicly.

Detective Ryan was punished for his uncovering of church and police corruption. In June 1972, he was ordered to transfer to Melbourne. But Ryan needed to stay in Mildura for family reasons. So he had to resign from the police force, thereby forfeiting almost all of his superannuation entitlements.

Sergeant Barritt, who had no family, was given an acceptable transfer and survived to retiring age with excellent superannuation.

Dennis Ryan says he was forced out of the job he loved because of the sectarian culture that existed in the Victoria Police at the time: "That was that the [Free]masons looked after the [Free]masons and the Catholics looked after the Catholics, especially when it came to clergy and the like. I was powerless to do anything. There hasn't been a day gone by that I haven't thought about letting the victims down. But I was shunned by the church, the police force and many people in the community for trying to do the right thing."

The monsignor is rewarded

Monsignor Day returned to Australia and, despite the sixteen signed statements, was rewarded with an appointment at the rural Timboon parish, near Warrnambool, in south-western Victoria, where he remained until he died in 1978.

• After Day's death, a eulogy of him was published in the Ballarat diocesan magazine, "The Light". Around this time, according to church sources, Father George Pell became the editor of "The Light" but Broken Rites has been unable to ascertain whether Pell's appointment as editor was before or after the eulogy was published.

Broken Rites is concerned that a conscientious detective was pushed out of the police force while an alleged child-sex criminal priest was allowed to continue in the priesthood without being cleared of the allegations. Broken Rites is also concerned that the people of Timboon were not officially notified why Monsignor Day was transferred to their parish. Denis Ryan says: "I can't comprehend that a religious body such as the Catholic Church could justify protecting a person such as Monsignor Day sexually abusing children not over one year but, as I had distinct evidence, a number of years.

"Nor could I understand, being a policeman experienced in the Criminal Investigation Branch, that a group of people within Victoria Police could barrack for such a person as the monsignor, not because of what he did but because of who he was."

Day's recycling as a paedophile priest resembles that of Father Gerald Ridsdale. Detective Ryan believes that, as an offender. Day could surpass Ridsdale. (Incidentally, Ridsdale was an assistant priest under Monsignor Day at Mildura in 1964-6.)

The bishop still evasive in 1993

After Ridsdale's first jailing in 1993, a Day victim wrote to Bishop Mulkearns on 8 October 1993, reminding Mulkearns about the Day cover-up and asking why it occurred. (This victim also gave Broken Rites a copy of the letter.) Mulkearns replied to this victim on 9 December 1993 that "the Church is made up of both saints and sinners." He said the Church "is bigger and more important than the activities of one or another Church member, even should that member be or have been in the past a priest." (The victim gave Broken Rites a copy of the bishop's reply.)

When Broken Rites finally revealed the Monsignor Day story to west Victorian newspapers in June 1997, the Ballarat diocesan office at first issued a media release, dodging the issue. The diocese said that "any allegations" against Day in 1971 were unproven "because he was never charged and convicted".

Mildura parish admits that Broken Rites is right

However, Mildura parish priest Patrick Mugavin issued a circular on 4 July 1997, admitting that there was evidence to support claims that Day had sexually assaulted children.

"Personally I have no doubt as to what took place," Mugavin wrote. "I would like to offer a sincere apology [to victims] on behalf of the church and seek their forgiveness for what happened in the past. There is deep-seated shock and hurt within the parish particularly when trust is betrayed by a church leader.

"It seems there is substance to such allegations, although, unfortunately, they were never judged by a court of law.

"As a church we offer our sincere apology to any victims and deeply regret the hurt and pain that has been caused. If the response of the church authorities was perceived not to have been adequate, we express regret and sorrow."

Further allegations arise

Mildura parishioners, who knew the inside story of the Day cover-up, phoned Broken Rites in late 1997 to congratulate us on our research. We also had calls from Day's pre-Mildura parishes, informing us of offences by Day in 1950-56.

Callers also gave us evidence of other corrupt practices involving Monsignor Day, Sergeant Barrett and a prominent public servant who acted as the parish treasurer. John Howden describes Day, Barritt and the parish treasurer as "the great triumvirate" in Mildura’s Catholic community. Howden, as parish school principal, discovered in 1971 that this trio had a phantom teacher on the parish school's payroll, and they were siphoning off a teacher's wage. But they were never charged with this.

Detective Sergeant George Baddeley, who succeeded Barritt as head of the Mildura detectives unit in the 1970s, told Broken Rites that Sergeant Barritt caught a criminal who received stolen property but he let the offender off if he made a donation to the church rebuilding fund.

Sergeant Barritt forced a Mildura illegal SP bookmaker to give Day a weekly donation in the form of a "winning bet" on the last race.

A new bishop admits that Broken Rites is right

Bishop Ronald Mulkearns retired in 1997. His successor, Bishop Peter Connors, told the Melbourne "Herald Sun" (14 February 2006) that ex-detective Denis Ryan has his sympathy and that he should receive an apology.

Connors said he had met a few of Day's victims. He said he believed Monsignor John Day had sexually assaulted young boys and girls in his custody.

"I am convinced Monsignor Day was an offender," Connors said.

Broken Rites believes that this admission by the hierarchy comes far too late. We are outraged that the church authorities protected and supported Monsignor John Day until the end of his days.

Footnote

Here is a list of Monsignor John Day's parish appointments (Broken Rites compiled this list by combing through the annual Catholic directories in the State Library of Victoria):-

• Colac (St Mary's parish) 1936-9,
• Ararat (Immaculate Conception parish) 1940-9,
• Horsham (Saints Michael and John parish) 1950-1,
• Beech Forest parish 1952-3,
• Apollo Bay (Our Lady Star of the Sea parish) 1954-6,
• Mildura (Sacred Heart parish) 1957-72 and
• Timboon (St Joseph's parish) 1973-8.

According to ex-detective Denis Ryan, Monsignor John Day's full name was John Michael Joseph Day.

• This background article, by a Broken Rites researcher, was updated on 1 November 2015.

Background article by a Broken Rites researcher 

This Broken Rites article is the most comprehensive account available about how the Catholic Church harboured this child-abuse criminal — Father Gerald Francis Ridsdale— for 30 years in western Victoria while his superiors and fellow-priests remained silent to protect the church's public image. In 1982, when Father Ridsdale had been abusing children for 20 years, a clergy committee (of which Father George Pell was a member) noted that Ridsdale was being transferred away from Victoria. Thus, he was inflicted on potential victims in New South Wales. Eventually, in 1993, Victoria Police detectives charged Ridsdale in court. He was accompanied to court by his support person, George Pell, who had become an assistant bishop in Melbourne. However, no bishop accompanied the victims. Encouraged by Broken Rites, more victims later spoke to the detectives. In his four court cases between 1993 and 2014, Ridsdale has been jailed for a minimum of 24 years for assaulting 54 of his victims. Broken Rites is proud of its role in exposing the church's cover-up of this criminal priest.

This 1993 photo helped to expose the cover-up

On every page of the Broken Rites website (in the right-hand column), there is a photo of Father Ridsdale (with his features obscured by dark glasses and a cap) walking to the Melbourne Magistrates Court on 27 May 1993 with his support person, auxiliary bishop George Pell (wearing clerical garb). This was the day when Ridsdale received his first conviction for child-sex crimes. [In 1993, Pell was an Auxiliary Bishop for Melbourne, and three years later he became the Archbishop of Melbourne.]

By 27 May 1993, unknown to Ridsdale and Pell, one of Ridsdale's victims had alerted the media that Ridsdale was due to appear in court that day for sentencing. Therefore, when Pell and Ridsdale approached the court building, a Channel Nine camera man obtained video footage of their arrival.

That evening, Channel Nine's news bulletin showed this footage of Father Ridsdale and Bishop Pell arriving at the court. This bulletin was viewed throughout the state of Victoria, including by many church-abuse victims. Viewers noticed that a bishop was accompanying the criminal priest, rather than accompanying the victims.

This publicity alerted other Ridsdale victims, many of whom later rang the newly-established Broken Rites telephone hotline. Broken Rites told these callers the phone number of the Victoria Police child-abuse unit, where they could report Ridsdale's crimes to the detectives.

As detectives interviewed more of his victims, Ridsdale was brought back to court in 1994 and in 2006 and in 2013 to be sentenced again. Each time, Broken Rites alerted all media outlets before the court date. After each court case, more Ridsdale victims contacted Broken Rites and, as a result, many (but not all) of these victims eventually spoke to the detectives.

Since 1993, the television footage of Ridsdale and Pell arriving together has been shown in current affairs programs (such as "Four Corners" and "Sixty Minutes") concerning sex-abuse cover-ups in the Catholic Church.

The church knew about Ridsdale

Gerald Ridsdale (born 1934) and George Pell (born 1941) both had a Catholic childhood in Ballarat, a "very Catholic" city, where the bishop for western Victoria is located. Various members of the Ridsdale clan were acquainted with various members of the Pell clan.

In 1960, Ridsdale was in the final stage of his studies as a trainee priest, while Pell was in the early stage. Both Ridsdale and Pell were sponsored in their seminary studies by the diocese of Ballarat (which covers the whole of western Victoria) and therefore both were committed to beginning their priestly careers in western Victoria after ordination.

Father Ridsdale began ministering in west Victorian parishes in 1961. George Pell continued studying at the Melbourne seminary for a while, then did further studies in Europe, returning to Australia in 1971 to work in west Victorian parishes.

In the 1970s, when Ridsdale and Pell crossed paths as priests in the city of Ballarat, western Victoria had about 55 parishes, most of which had only one priest. This relatively small team of diocesan priests knew about each other's postings, transfers, promotions and career-disruptions.

In the 1960s, until 1971, Ridsdale's superior was Bishop James O' Collins. In May 1971, O'Collins was succeeded by Bishop Ronald Austin Mulkearns, who had been O'Collins's co-adjutor (assistant) bishop since 1968.

In 1971, Father George Pell was an assistant priest in a parish at Swan Hill in the Ballarat diocese's outskirts in north-western Victoria. Ridsdale, too, had been an assistant priest at this parish, shortly before Pell arrived.

In 1973, Father Ridsdale and Father Pell were both located in a parish within the city of Ballarat, living together in the parish house of St Alipius in Ballarat East.

According to church documents, Ridsdale offended against children during his seminary training in the late 1950s and again immediately after he was ordained in 1961. Bishop James O'Collins's office learned in 1961 that Ridsdale was abusing a boy in Ballarat. Nevertheless, the church (under Bishop Mulkearns) continued using Ridsdale as a priest, putting more children at risk. The diocese shifted the Ridsdale problem from parish to parish but it never warned parishioners that their children were in danger.

In some parishes, Ridsdale lasted only months or weeks. Early in his posting at the Inglewood parish (in north-central Victoria) in 1975, he fled from this town overnight after some victims reported his crimes to the police, and he had to ask the bishop for a new posting. Ridsdale's sudden disappearance from Inglewood was obvious to his fellow priests in western Victoria.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, Ridsdale was evacuated from the Ballarat diocese — to spend "time-out" in Melbourne, Sydney and the United States, to get him away from his further troubles in western Victoria. This "time-off", especially his overseas trip, was common knowledge among his Victorian colleagues. Priests were always interested to learn that another priest was getting an interstate or overseas trip.

Ridsdale also committed crimes in New South Wales and the United States. He has not yet been brought to justice in those jurisdictions.

His interstate and overseas stints were interspersed with more postings in the Ballarat diocese, all of which ended in more crimes.

Ridsdale was still protected by the church's code of silence. One family says that when they complained to a senior cleric (Monsignor Leo Fiscalini) about Ridsdale committing buggery on their son, the monsignor urged the family to remain silent "for the church's sake".

Meanwhile, Father George Pell's career boomed. He moved to Melbourne, where he was the rector of Victoria's Corpus Christi seminary (in 1985-87) before becoming one of Melbourne's four auxiliary bishops (in 1987). As a Melbourne auxiliary bishop, Pell was no longer associated with the Ballarat diocese but was responsible for overseeing Melbourne's southern suburbs.

Back in the Ballarat diocese, other priests knew about Ridsdale's removals and his times in the "sin bin". So why did George Pell accompany Ridsdale to court in 1993, instead of supporting the victims?

54 of Ridsdale's victims achieved justice

By Ridsdale's fourth sentencing, in April 2014, his convictions involved a total of 54 children (mostly boys, plus several girls), aged between six and 16, who were sexually assaulted between 1961 and 1987. These are not Ridsdale's only victims — they are merely those who eventually took advantage of the opportunity to talk with detectives from the Victoria Police and whose cases were included in Ridsdale's pleas of guilty.

Although the first of these convictions was for a crime committed in 1961, this does not mean that Ridsdale waited until 1961 before becoming a danger to children. The significance of "1961" is that this is about the time he was ordained as a Catholic priest, and this status gave him easy access to (and authority over) children. It remains to be seen what he was doing with children before he was ordained.

Only a few of Ridsdale's victims have contacted the police. Other Ridsdale victims (mostly boys, but also a few girls) have contacted Broken Rites or psychiatrists or solicitors or (unwisely) the Catholic Church without contacting the police.

Countless more victims still remain silent. The total number of Ridsdale victims may amount to hundreds.

Many Ridsdale victims still remain silent because they do not want to upset their "loyal Catholic" parents.

Others feel embarrassed about contacting the detectives. Some of the victims in Ridsdale's later court appearances said that this embarrassment was why they had waited so long. However, the police detectives are very helpful to all victims, and the court procedures ensure that the victims' privacy is protected. In these kinds of criminal cases, victims' names cannot be published.

Four court cases from 1993 to 2014

Victoria Police laid the first charges against Ridsdale in 1993, about the time that Broken Rites was planning to establish its national telephone hotline. During the next 13 years, with help from Broken Rites, the police easily found additional Ridsdale victims.

Gerald Ridsdale's four court cases were as follows:-

* In May 1993, Ridsdale was summonsed to the Melbourne Magistrates Court, charged with 30 incidents of indecent assault, involving nine boys aged between 12 and 16, occurring between 1974 and 1980. Ridsdale pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 12 months jail (with parole after three months).

* In 1994, largely as a result of the Broken Rites telephone hotline, Ridsdale was charged with indecent assaults, occurring between 1961 and 1981, involving 20 boys , aged 9 to 15, plus the eleven-year-old sister of one of the boys, making a total of 21 victims in this case. He was also charged with five incidents of buggery, involving four of these boys, and the attempted buggery of another one of the boys. Ridsdale pleaded guilty to all the charges. He was jailed for 18 years, with parole possible after 15 years. After this publicity, still more Ridsdale victims phoned Broken Rites and/or the police.

* In 2006, while he was about to begin the 13th year of his jail sentence, Ridsdale was charged with 35 incidents involving 10 boys (the youngest was aged only six) between 1970 and 1987. These included four incidents of buggery, 24 incidents of indecent assault and seven incidents of gross indecency. Ridsdale again pleaded guilty and the court added four years to his existing minimum jail term. This sentence thus delayed Ridsdale's earliest non-parole date to 2013, when he would be 79.

* On 8 April 2014, Ridsdale (aged nearly 80 and still serving his previous prison sentences) was sentenced to eight more years in jail (with a minimum of five years before becoming eligible to apply for parole) on 30 additional charges against 14 victims. Again, he pleaded guilty. These offences included three assaults on a female (Ridsdale committed one of the assaults on this female while he was performing the Catholic sacrament of "Confession" for her).

Where the crimes occurred

Gerald Ridsdale's victims were sexually abused inside the church, in the presbytery (the parish house), in the priest's car, in victims' homes, at the home of Ridsdale's parents in the city of Ballarat, during outings, and on holidays with the priest. He molested one boy and his sister a few hours after their father's funeral.

Some of the offences occurred during the sacrament of Confession — while Ridsdale would be asking questions about a child's "sins". After Confession (and after the molestation), Ridsdale would perform the rite of Absolution — an official declaration that the child was forgiven for the child's"sins".

Many offences occurred before and after the celebration of Mass, First Holy Communions, Confirmation ceremonies, weddings and funerals. Many of the victims were altar boys.

One altar boy was even sexually abused at the altar, when the church was empty and locked after Mass.

What Ridsdale did

Gerald Ridsdale committed indecent assault or gross indecency against all of his victims — and, whenever possible, he committed buggery (sodomy) against some of them.

"Buggery", like rape, is a serious felony.

"Indecent assault" (which carries a lesser penalty than buggery) is an invasive sexual touching of another person, falling short of buggery or rape.

"Gross indecency" (which might carry a lesser penalty than indecent assault) could be (for example) forcing someone to witness indecent behaviour.

In Victoria's criminals statutes, indecent assault and gross indecency are classed as a misdemeanour, not a felony.

In sex offences, if the victim is under 16 years old, the perpetrator cannot claim consent as a defence.

The impact on victims

When the court was deciding what sort of jail sentence to impose, many victims submitted written impact statements, telling how Ridsdale had affected their lives. The impact statements, plus comments by the judge, show that the church's role in the Ridsdale affair has disrupted families, marriages and communities.

Many victims found it difficult to tell their Catholic parents that a Catholic priest was a child-molester. Some parents defended Ridsdale and the church, thus alienating their own children. Some victims remained silent, knowing that their "devout" family would not believe them. All this disrupted the relationship between victims and their parents.

For many Ridsdale victims, this was their first "sexual" experience. And this first experience was with a Catholic priest! This had adverse effects on the sexual development of victims, some of whom ended up with sexual problems.

Many victims were struck by the hypocrisy involved. The church preached about "morality" but it harboured immoral clergy. The church's anti-abortion campaign championed the rights of "the unborn child" but the church was not so vigilant about the safety of its altar boys.

Many Ridsdale victims have carried scars into adulthood.

Many have drifted away from the church, often losing contact with the community with which they had grown up.

Some dropped out of school prematurely and left home, feeling bitter about their parents' gullibility and about the church's negligence. These victims would find it hard to achieve a satisfying career.

Some lost their trust in all authority, eventually getting into trouble with the law.

There have been frequent problems with alcohol and drugs. Some victims have had marriage problems. Some victims said their parents' marriages have suffered because of the tensions.

Several witnesses knew of former altar boys of Ridsdale who committed suicide.

Several victims became actively homosexual as adults, and one of these has died from AIDS. One Ridsdale victim went on to molest children himself and spent two years in jail.

The prosecutor told the 2006 court hearing that the effects on Ridsdale's victims and their families had been "catastrophic".

Ridsdale's criminal career in detail

Gerald Francis Ridsdale was born on 20 May 1934 at St Arnaud, in western Victoria, the eldest in a Catholic family of eight children, but he grew up in the city of Ballarat, where he attended St Patrick's College (run by the Christian Brothers). His extended family existed in a tribal Catholic environment. During Ridsdale's formative years, there was an entrenched culture of sexual abuse among clergy in western Victoria, including at St Patrick's College, as demonstrated in various court cases in the 1990s.

Gerry Ridsdale left school at 14 and worked for three years as a clerk in an accountant's office in Ballarat. In his teens he became aware of his sexual feelings towards boys.

Ridsdale's sister Shirley has said that Gerald was bossy, tending to over-control his younger siblings. He was power-hungry, she says.

With encouragement from a Ballarat priest, Ridsdale decided to go back to school, aiming to become a priest. He entered Melbourne's Corpus Christi seminary (then at Werribee), as a candidate for the Ballarat diocese.

After four years at this seminary, Ridsdale was chosen to go to Italy for church studies in Genoa, followed by two years in Dublin, Ireland.

Ridsdale was ordained in St Patrick's Cathedral, Ballarat, in July 1961, aged 27. The Ballarat diocese extends westwards from the city of Ballarat to the South Australian border and it includes Mildura and Swan Hill in the north and Portland and Warrnambool in the south.

From 1961 to 1993, Father Gerry Ridsdale's main on-going placements (that is, apart from numerous short relieving stints) were:

• Ballarat Cathedral parish, early 1960s;
• Mildura, mid-1960s;
• Swan Hill, late 1960s;
• Warrnambool, 1970-1;
• Ballarat East, early 1970s;
• Apollo Bay, 1974-5;
• Inglewood , 1975;
• Edenhope, late 1970s;
• In the "sin bin" in Melbourne, 1980;
• Mortlake, 1981;
• parishes in the dioceses of Sydney and Broken Bay, in New  South Wales, 1982-6;
• Horsham, late 1980s;
• In the "sin bin" doing locum work in parishes in the USA, 1990; and
• In the "sin bin" as a chaplain and "counsellor" (!) in western Sydney, 1991-3.

The above list of Ridsdale's main locations does not include other places where he offended. Often he was removed prematurely from his main Victorian parish appointments (evidently because of misbehaviour) and he would then be sent to serve a few weeks as a relieving priest elsewhere — at Port Fairy (St Patrick's), Camperdown (St Patrick's), Colac (St Mary's), Casterton (Sacred Heart), Coleraine (St Joseph's), Koroit (Infant Jesus) and various other parishes.

For example, "Mervyn", who was one of the victims in Ridsdale's 1993 conviction, has told Broken Rites: "I lived in Coleraine, where Ridsdale made numerous visits as a relieving priest. He abused me each time. He conducted a Mass in our house for a member of my family who was dying of cancer."

And in the mid-1970s (between his appointments at Ballarat East and Edenhope), he made several trips to relieve at Swan Hill, where he had ministered a few years earlier. As a result, his victims were scattered throughout Victoria.

Ridsdale's style of operation

Early on, it became obvious that Gerry Ridsdale was obsessed with boys. He maintained an "open house", making his presbytery a drop-in centre for boys. He acquired a pool table and he was an early possessor of colour television, a microwave oven, an electric typewriter, a video-cassette player and computer games — all these became a magnet for boys.

He would often invite a boy to stay overnight. Many "staunch Catholic" parents permitted (and even encouraged) this, believing that a priest is a good role model. But the boy would find that he was forced to share a double bed with Ridsdale.

Sometimes Ridsdale took his victims far away from their families — on trips to other parts of Victoria, such as the presbytery at picturesque Apollo Bay. Even after leaving a parish, he would sometimes re-visit a family, perhaps a year later, to take their son on an outing, during which he would abuse the boy.

He also took boys to White Cliffs in far-western New South Wales, where he had a mining right in an opal region.

A significant proportion of Ridsdale's victims came from large families or families where the father was ill or dead or working away from home or doing shift work. A busy mother would gratefully accept Ridsdale's offer to "help" by taking one of her sons on a trip or to stay at his presbytery.

At his various parishes, Ridsdale acted as a visiting "chaplain" at local schools, thereby gaining access to more boys.

The 1960s

Ridsdale has admitted that, even while working in his very his first parish, he was already abusing children. The earliest of his charged offences was for an incident in late 1961, a few months after his ordination. This victim ("Gilbert") was from Camperdown, in Victoria's south-west. The court was told that Gilbert's father was hospitalised and Ridsdale was "minding" the boy. These assaults of Gilbert occurred at Camperdown and at a seaside resort, Anglesea.

Ridsdale flourished within a climate of entrenched clergy sexual abuse in the Ballarat diocese. In the mid-1960, he spent a period at Mildura (Sacred Heart parish), in Victoria's far north-west, working under the supervision of Monsignor John Day. (Broken Rites has revealed that Monsignor Day was a major child-sex offender, and this revelation has forced the church to offer an apology to Monsignor Day's victims.)

Ridsdale ranged far and wide. The court was told that Ridsdale knew an altar boy from Horsham, in Victoria's far west. This boy's family moved to Wodonga, on the NSW border. Ridsdale visited the Wodonga home and took the boy camping at Mitta Mitta in Victoria's remote north-east, where he sexually assaulted the boy.

Another offence, in 1967-8, involved an altar boy, "Julian", who lived in Swan Hill. Some years later, Julian told his mother about the assaults but she did not believe that a Catholic priest would do a thing like this and she smacked him. This cover-up damaged Julian's relationship with his mother and later with his wife. When he made his police statement in September 1993, Julian was aged 37.

The early 1970s

According to court evidence, the Ballarat diocesan authorities knew at least as early as 1970-1 that Gerry Ridsdale was a risk to boys. Ridsdale was then in Warrnambool (at St Joseph's parish).

One Warrnambool victim ("Ken"), according to a sworn statement tendered in court, told the late Father Thomas Martin Brophy (a priest of the Ballarat diocese) about Ridsdale's abuse — and Brophy duly reported it to the Ballarat diocesan authorities. Father Brophy then told a superior, Monsignor Leo Fiscalini. Ken said that a senior official at the Ballarat diocesan office confirmed to him in 1995 that Fiscalini knew about Ridsdale's abuse.

In 1974, Ken told the Ballarat diocesan office about Ridsdale, and the diocese referred Ken to Father Dan Torpy, who was acting as a counsellor.

Another of Ridsdale's Warrnambool victims was "Gus", an altar boy who was a student at Warrnambool Christian Brothers College (now Emanuel College). Ridsdale has pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting Gus in Warrnambool in 1970, when the boy was 13, and he has also pleaded guilty to committing multiple offences of buggery against Gus  in 1972-3 at Apollo Bay, where Ridsdale had taken the boy for a "holiday".

Psychologist Ian Joblin (a defence witness for Ridsdale) told the 1994 court hearing that Ridsdale had some interviews with a counsellor for sexual matters in 1970-1 while at Warrnambool. The interviews were arranged by the church authorities but Joblin was not sure exactly who.

This all indicates that the church authorities knew, early on, about Ridsdale propensity.

Mr Joblin told the court that Ridsdale was also sent to a Franciscan monk, Father Peter Evans, in the mid-1970s for counselling for his sexual problems.

(Father Evans, who was also a psychiatrist, left the priesthood in 1976, got married and began practising psychiatry publicly in Melbourne. He told a journalist in November 1994 that he could not remember whether or not he had seen Ridsdale, but it was possible that Ridsdale was at a retreat for priests that Father Evans attended.)

In late 1971, Ridsdale was transferred from Warrnambool to be an assistant priest in Ballarat East at the parish of St Alipius (pronounced "al-LEEP-ee-us") where Ronald Mulkeans himself had been the parish priest before becoming the Bishop of Ballarat in 1971. Ridsdale was joined in this presbytery in 1973 by another assistant priest, Father George Pell. Ridsdale and Pell shared the house for a year or two until Ridsdale was shunted on to other towns. This means that Bishop Mulkearns, Father Ridsdale and Father Pell were equally well known among the parishioners of St Alipius — and among Ridsdale's young victims.

One victim (a former altar boy at St Alipius) said that, after being sexually assaulted by Ridsdale, he got himself removed from Ridsdale's altar-boy roster and changed to Father George Pell's roster. 

Did this altar boy tell George Pell that Ridsdale was a child molester? Pell's usual answer to such questions is "I don't recall" (as he demonstrated when he was cross-examined in 2014 at Australia's national Royal Commission on child sex-abuse).

While working in Ballarat East, Ridsdale also acted as chaplain at the four-classroom St Alipius parish school, where he found like-minded company. Brother Robert Best who taught grade 6, Brother Edward Dowlan who taught grade 5, and Brother Gerald Leo Fitzgerald (now dead) who taught Grade 3, were all child-abusers. So was a later teacher there, Christian Brother Stephen Francis Farrell. All, except Fitzgerald, were later convicted of sex crimes. During Dowlan's County Court trial in 1996, the prosecution alleged that three St Alipius boys were each sexually abused by Dowlan, Best and Ridsdale.

One former St Alipius altar boy said in his police statement, that after he was indecently assaulted by Ridsdale, the priest gave him a piece of Holy Communion bread (as used in Mass) as a reward. Another former altar boy said that Ridsdale indecently assaulted the boy while the boy confessed his sins to the priest during the "sacrament of Confession".

In 1974-5, Ridsdale was re-assigned to the coastal parish of Apollo Bay (Our Lady Star of the Sea parish). One victim here was "Gary" of Colac, who met Ridsdale while the priest was president of the Colac gem club. Ridsdale took him to stay at the Apollo Bay presbytery, where the abuse occurred.

The church evades the police, 1975

In 1975, Gerald Ridsdale was appointed to be in charge of St Mary's parish at Inglewood, an old gold rush town, north-west of Bendigo. Inglewood was then within the Ballarat diocese, although it has since been re-allocated to the Sandhurst (Bendigo) diocese. It was in Inglewood that his crimes first came to the notice of police. Inglewood policeman Bill Sampson received several complaints about Ridsdale and passed them on to Detective Sergeant Col Mooney in Bendigo. Mooney's inquiries were frustrated, however, when some parents would not allow their son to be interviewed, and Mooney was able to obtain only one written statement. Meanwhile, Ridsdale disappeared from the town. Sergeant Mooney visited Bishop Mulkearns to tell him what he had learnt from one victim about Ridsdale's behaviour. The bishop assured Mooney that the Ridsdale situation was under control and the church would handle it. [Forensic psychologist Ian Joblin told the court in the 1994 hearing that he believed that the church already knew about Ridsdale's problem before he went to Inglewood.]

Ridsdale has admitted that he was committing buggery at Inglewood and also before going to Inglewood. One buggery victim in 1975 was "Larry", aged 12, who was an altar boy at another central Victorian town. Ridsdale used to visit Larry's town and he took Larry to stay at the Inglewood presbytery. Larry finally contacted Broken Rites and the police in 1994 and was included in the 1994 prosecution. Another buggery victim in Inglewood in 1975 was "Andy" who also came forward in 1994. Ridsdale pleaded guilty to both of these.

After Ridsdale left Inglewood, the hierarchy gave the town a replacement priest, who (according to victims) soon heard from parishioners about the Ridsdale scandal, which had become the talk of the town since Ridsdale's disappearance.

It is unusual for a priest who is in charge of a parish, as was Ridsdale in 1975 at Inglewood, to suddenly vanish after a few months. Priests take a close interest in each other's appointments — and all of Ridsdale's fellow priests in the Ballarat diocese knew about his sudden disappearance from Inglewood.

After escaping from Inglewood, Ridsdale evidently spent some time based at the Ballarat Cathedral presbytery, doing relieving work in various parishes while awaiting a new appointment. A victim (Stephen) told police in 1994 that, when he went to the Ballarat Cathedral presbytery in 1975 to seek counselling about a sexual matter, Father Ridsdale came to the door. Stephen says that, later that day, Ridsdale sodomised him. (Ridsdale pleaded guilty to this in 1994.).

Stephen said in his police statements that, before being sexually assaulted by Ridsdale, he had also been indecently assaulted by Christian Brother Edward Dowlan and another Christian Brother at the St Alipius primary school, Ballarat East.

Late 1970s

In late 1975, despite the diocese's knowledge about the Inglewood crimes, Ridsdale was appointed to a more remote parish, St Malachy's at Edenhope, near the South Australian border. As usual, Ridsdale's new parishioners were not warned about Ridsdale being a risk to boys. There — unsupervised and out of sight — he committed more crimes (including buggery) until 1979.

In Edenhope, according to his victims, Ridsdale was active and apparently undaunted by his close shave with the police at Inglewood. Edenhope victims remember him coming into parish classrooms and choosing boys whom he would abuse in the nearby presbytery. Victims say the whole school knew that Ridsdale was up to no good.

One victim in the late 1970s was "Shane", an altar boy, who lived at in Ridsdale's earlier parish of Apollo Bay. Ridsdale had sexually abused him frequently while at Apollo Bay. Soon after Ridsdale was appointed to Edenhope, the priest heard that Shane's father died in an accident. Ridsdale returned to the Apollo Bay district to conduct the father's funeral and then offered to take Shane (aged 12) and his sister "Jill" (aged 11) to the Edenhope presbytery. The children's mother gratefully accepted the offer. Back at Edenhope, on the night of the funeral, Ridsdale indecently mauled the girl and later the boy — while they were still grieving their father's death. Jill told police in 1994 that, about 1990, she informed a female counsellor at the Catholic Family Welfare Bureau in Geelong about these assaults but the counsellor did not suggest reporting the priest to the police. Jill said she was surprised and angry about this omission.

Shane said in his police statement: "I couldn't speak to my mother about it [the sexual abuse] because she is really religious... What Ridsdale did to me affected my life in several ways. I have had to keep this secret all my life and I believe that has affected my self-confidence. I was never able to speak to my mother about it because of her religious beliefs and it would have caused her too much pain."

At Edenhope, Ridsdale even sodomised one boy ("Jason") at the altar when the church was empty and locked, after Mass.

More than a decade later — in November 1992 — it was this Jason who phoned the Victoria Police to spark off an investigation that resulted in the first jailing of Ridsdale in 1993. (The sad story of Jason is told at the end of this article.)

The 1980s

A year in Melbourne

By 1980, Gerald Ridsdale's behaviour was so rampant that the diocese sent him to have a rest at the church's "National Pastoral Institute" in Elsternwick, Melbourne. This removal was known to all his colleagues in western Victoria.

Ridsdale continued offending while in Melbourne. In 1980 he met "Peter", aged 12, who lived in Melbourne. Peter was distressed by his parents' impending separation. Ridsdale had a bungalow at the Institute, where he abused Peter. Ridsdale took Peter on a trip to opal fields at White Cliffs NSW and abused him there.

Another parish, more victims

In 1981, despite Ridsdale's record, the Ballarat diocese put him back into parish work at Mortlake (St Malachy's parish), in south-western Victoria. Within days of his arrival, a Mortlake mother phoned a senior cleric at the bishop's office in Ballarat to report that Ridsdale had just indecently assaulted her son. According to the victim's family, the cleric remarked that the boy must have a vivid imagination. However, someone in the diocese evidently tipped off Ridsdale, who promptly visited the mother and claimed innocence [but he eventually pleaded guilty in court].

During that year, Mortlake families complained repeatedly to the diocesan office about Ridsdale, but the diocese resisted. The Mortlake story was finally exposed to the public in 1994. One victim told police in 1994 that Ridsdale sexually assaulted nearly all of this boy's mates in his class at St Colman's primary school, Mortlake.

When he went to Mortlake, Ridsdale was still in contact with "Peter", the boy he had abused while living at the National Pastoral Institute. In 1981, Peter went to live with Ridsdale at the Mortlake presbytery. Others victims say Peter was sleeping with Ridsdale. Ridsdale pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting Peter.

One of Ridsdale's Mortlake boys was bleeding from the anus, so his parents complained to a senior priest (Monsignor Leo Fiscalini) in another parish. The parents say Fiscalini urged the boy and his family to remain silent "for the church's sake".

After Ridsdale left Mortlake, parishioners told the next priest (and also the one after that) about Ridsdale's abuse.

Sydney, 1982-86

In 1982 Ridsdale was sent even further away, to Sydney, where the church gave him a desk job at the Catholic Inquiry Centre. In Sydney, where he stayed until 1985, he still found victims. He frequented various Sydney parishes and youth groups.

In the mid-1980s he was being used as a relief priest in the Diocese of Broken Bay, north of Sydney. E.g., about 1985, he was listed as living in the presbytery at Woy Woy (St John the Baptist parish). After Easter 1986, he administered the parish of Forestville (Our Lady of Good Counsel parish) for two months.

Ridsdale is wanted by the NSW police for sex offences in that State. Also, in 1994, the church was served with a civil writ, claiming damages for offences that occurred in Sydney.

During this Sydney period, he also served as a sea-going chaplain on Pacific cruises.

Ridsdale's removal from Victoria did not go unnoticed among his colleagues. At Ridsdale's 1994 pre-sentence hearing, one of his colleagues, Father Frank Madden (giving character evidence on behalf of Ridsdale), was asked about Ridsdale's transfer to Sydney in 1982. Madden told the court: "I knew [in 1982] that he went to [work in] the Sydney Inquiry Centre and to get treatment."

Final parish, late 1980s

Gerald Ridsdale's last parish appointment came in 1986 when the Ballarat diocese posted him to the town of Horsham (the parish of Saints Michael and John), in Victoria's west, where he committed more offences. Also, in August 1987, a 25-year-old Horsham man disclosed to his mother that he had been molested by Ridsdale while staying at the Edenhope presbytery when he was 16. The mother immediately complained to the diocesan office, objecting to Ridsdale's presence in Horsham and demanding that Ridsdale be removed from access to altar boys. The diocese, however, refused to do this and Ridsdale continued at Horsham.

In 1988 (according to evidence in court in 1994) Ridsdale told his colleague Father Frank Madden: "I will have to get out of here. My past is catching up with me."

Trip to the USA, 1990

Eventually, after the Horsham mother persisted, the Ballarat diocese gave Ridsdale a trip to the United States in 1990 to stay at a residence for paedophile priests in Jemez Springs in the state of New Mexico (conducted by a religious order called the Servants of the Paraclete).

Fellow-priests in Victoria knew the reason for the U.S. trip. At Ridsdale's 1994 pre-sentence hearing, one of his colleagues, Father Frank Madden (giving character evidence on behalf of Ridsdale), was asked if he had been aware that Ridsdale was sent to the USA for sexual problems. Madden replied, "Yes."

DEFENCE COUNSEL: "You knew he had a sexual attraction for boys and had been involved in sex activities with boys?"

FATHER MADDEN: "Yes."

DEFENCE COUNSEL: "Before he went to the USA [in 1990], you were aware he was getting counselling from a priest who is a counsellor?"

MADDEN: "Yes, I knew that."

While having his nine-month sojourn at Jemez Springs in New Mexico, Ridsdale also did "locums" for parishes in the local diocese — and the U.S. church has received complaints about him molesting children while in that country.

Another colleague of Ridsdale, Father Brendan Davey (giving evidence on behalf of Ridsdale in 1994), was asked in court about Ridsdale's 1990 trip to New Mexico, USA. Davey was asked: "When he [Ridsdale] came back from New Mexico, did he tell you that he had been a pederast?"

Davey told the court: "Yes."

Ridsdale a "counsellor", 1991-93

Returning to Australia, Gerald Ridsdale was re-appointed to the ministry in 1991 in a far-away location in New South Wales — as a chaplain at St John of God psychiatric hospital (operated by the Catholic religious order of St John of God Brothers) in Richmond, west of Sydney. According to church procedures, such an appointment would require the approval of Ridsdale's superior, the bishop of Ballarat.

Ridsdale's role as chaplain included counselling patients. One wonders how it was possible for the church to allow a sex-offender, like Ridsdale, to be inflicted on psychiatric patients in a "counselling" role.

And not just that. The patients at St John of God included patients who were suffering from the effects of sexual abuse. That is, the church was allowing a sex abuser (Ridsdale) to "counsel" the kind of victims that he himself had abused. This was revealed in 2002 by former staff and patients at the hospital in the Sydney "Daily Telegraph" and the Melbourne "Herald Sun" on June 4 and 5, 2002.

A former patient in 1992, Steven R, told a reporter: "I remember him [Ridsdale]. He used to come around and sit with us ... and console us. We had a day room with about 30 patients. Most had been sexually abused as children. He used to touch me on the leg. I used to hate that."

A victim tells the police

In late 1992, while Ridsdale was still working at the St John of God hospital, Victoria Police publicised a phone-in ("Operation Paradox") regarding child sex-abuse. One caller was "Jason", a Ridsdale victim from Edenhope. Jason signed his first police statement on 5 November 1992. Police then began making inquiries about Ridsdale. Jason was able to nominate other possible victims — and not just in Edenhope.

Early in 1993, Victoria Police summoned Ridsdale from New South Wales to Victoria for his first court appearance.

A former nurse at the St John of God hospital, Jeffrey Green, told the "Daily Telegraph" he recalled Ridsdale being at the hospital one Friday and then "he just disappeared in a puff of smoke". Mr Green said: "One of the St John of God Brothers told me that Ridsdale had to return to Melbourne because of family problems. It was later discovered that Ridsdale had been jailed."

Mr Green said he worked alongside Ridsdale and was "livid" when he discovered Ridsdale's background.

Mr Green said: "He [Ridsdale] was a perpetrator and they chose to bring him back to work with victims of child sexual-abuse. They chose to put him in this position without anybody's knowledge. That charade was maintained until the day he went to court.

"The hospital did everything they could to cover this up, they were evasive about it. I asked one of the St John of God Brothers, 'How could you allow a pedophile to work here in this hospital?' and his response was, 'We knew nothing'.

Mr Green said: "But somebody must have known. His bishop must have known..."

Ridsdale's nephew, David

Ridsdale sexually abused several of his nephews. One of these, David Ridsdale, was a victim in the 1993 prosecution. [David Ridsdale later spoke in the media about his experiences, using his real name, so that is why Broken Rites is using David's real name in this article.]

David Ridsdale came from a family of nine children. He said it was "very Catholic" home, and the family's friends included a Ballarat priest, Father George Pell, who eventually became the archbishop of Melbourne and later Sydney. David said that originally his uncle Gerald was his hero. At one stage, David even aspired to be a priest. But when he was aged 11 in the late 1970s, his uncle started molesting him.

David said: "He offered to teach me to drive his car. I had no idea what was going on.

"He had a great deal of trust within the family. He told me straight that no-one would believe me if I said anything [about the abuse]."

The abuse continued until David was 15, in 1982, leaving scars on David's adolescence and adulthood. He became a rebel at home and travelled the country aimlessly.

David remained silent about the abuse for many years. He did not want his grandmother (Gerrry Ridsdale's mother) to know about it.

David Ridsdale and George Pell

Early in February 1993, when he was 25, David was considering reporting Gerry Ridsdale to the police. David says he consulted family friend George Pell, who by then had become an auxiliary bishop in Melbourne. There is some dispute about who said what during this alleged conversation. David later claimed (in an interview published in "Outrage" magazine in April 1997) that Pell encouraged David to remain silent about the abuse but Pell denies doing this.

After this conversation with Pell, David decided that he would not be able to obtain justice through the church. Instead, David immediately phoned the police, who made an appointment for David to talk to detectives, so that he could make (and sign) a written statement about the crimes that Ridsdale had committed on David. In fact, unknown to David, detectives had already opened a file on Gerald Ridsdale because another victim ("Jason" from the Edenhope parish in far-western Victoria) had made a police statement about having been abused by Ridsdale. The detectives soon found some more of Ridsdale's victims.

So, in February 1993, police formally charged Father Gerald Francis Ridsdale with indecently assaulting five boys, including David and "Jason". Later, four more victims were added to the case, making a total of nine.

• In 2002, David Ridsdale was interviewed by the Nine TV network's "Sixty Minutes" program, regarding Gerald Ridsdale and George Pell. You can watch a re-play of the interview by clicking a link at the end of this Broken Rites article.

The first court case, 1993

Gerald Ridsdale was scheduled to appear in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on 27 May 1993. One of his victims alerted the media. This is how a Channel Nine camera man happened to be waiting for the arrival of Ridsdale and his support person, Bishop George Pell. A reporter from The Age daily newspaper, also, was in court; and a story appeared in the next edition of this paper. Broken Rites still possesses a cutting of this Age news story.

Gerald Francis Ridsdale pleaded guilty regarding nine boys (when he was in parishes at Apollo Bay, Ballarat East, Inglewood and Edenhope) and was jailed for a minimum of three months.

After being released from jail in August 1993, Ridsdale spent some time staying at his family's home in Ballarat and also at a presbytery in western Victoria, where the parish priest was a friend of his.

Broken Rites hotline

In September 1993, Broken Rites was establishing an Australia-wide telephone hotline. The phone number was publicised in newspaper articles and radio programs throughout Australia. Several victims from Ridsdale's May 1993 court case phoned us. They said that there are countless more Ridsdale victims out there somewhere.

Gradually, Broken Rites, began hearing from additional Ridsdale victims who had not been included in the May 1993 prosecution. We advised these newcomers to contact the Victoria Police sexual offences and child abuse unit (the SOCA unit). This unit began taking written statements from the victims.

Damage control

In late 1993, the church authorities realised that the police were preparing to take Ridsdale to court again to face more charges. The church needed to protect its image. Ballarat's Bishop Ronald Mulkearns announced that he had asked the Pope to "dispense" Ridsdale from his "priestly ordination". Mulkearns said the Pope had agreed to this, and the Pope therefore returned Ridsdale "to the lay state". (This ensured that, next time Ridsdale appeared in court, the media would describe him as a FORMER priest.)

However, a colleague of Ridsdale — Father John McKinnon, parish priest at Warracknabeal in the Ballarat diocese — wrote in his parish newsletter that this did not mean that the church had "dismissed" or disowned Ridsdale. McKinnon claimed that Ridsdale himself had requested the change of status. [Did Father McKinnon mean that, if Ridsdale had not requested the change, the church would not — or should not —have dismissed or disowned him?]

The second court case, 1994

Late in 1993, Detective Constable John Norris, of Warrnambool, was gathering written statements from Ridsdale victims with a view to prosecuting him again. On 31 December 1993, during this investigation, the Ballarat diocese wrote to the families of some Ridsdale complainants, seeking to interview these families. The letter was signed by Father Glynn Murphy, who was Bishop Mulkearns's secretary and also convenor of the Ballarat Diocese "special issues committee" on clergy sexual abuse. [One result of this initiative would be that the church could ascertain what evidence a particular victim would be giving to police.]

On 19 January 1994, Gerald Francis Ridsdale appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court for a bail hearing, at which he was formally charged with some of the additional offences. Representatives from Broken Rites were present in the courtroom's public gallery during this hearing. That evening's television news had footage of Ridsdale being escorted to the court by a police officer.

This time, no bishop accompanied Ridsdale to the court. Why not?

The new charges caused a sensation throughout Victoria, especially in the Ballarat diocese. Bishop Mulkearns issued an open letter to all west Victorian parishes, defending his administration. He said: "I can say that this past 18months or so [since the police began investigating Ridsdale for the first court case] has been a nightmare for me and that matters which have come to light in that time have cast an enormous shadow over the diocese."

Mulkearns said the allegation had been made that the church knew of the abuse that was taking place in the diocese but did nothing about it. He said: "I hope it is unnecessary ... for me to say that this is simply untrue." (Warrnambool Standard, 1 February 1994.)

That is, in early 1994, Mulkearns seemed (to some people) to be denying that the diocese knew about Ridsdale's criminality before the police investigation of 1992-3. In May 1994, Gerald Ridsdale's sister Shirley (mother of one of Ridsale's victims) wrote to Mulkearns, accusing the bishop of being untruthful in his denial. Bishop Mulkearns replied to Shirley on 2 June 1994, explaining that he had been unaware of the "extent" of the crimes. Mulkearns admitted that he knew in 1975 about Ridsdale's actions at Inglewood but said he "immediately removed" Ridsdale from that parish.

[From 1975 onwards, however, Mulkearns re-assigned the abusive priest to further parishes.]

On 13 May 1994, a preliminary ("committal") hearing was held at the Warrnambool Magistrates Court. A Broken Rites researcher travelled from Melbourne to study the proceedings, and every Melbourne television channel had a film crew there. Two fellow-priests (who had been fellow students with Ridsdale at the seminary in the 1950s) accompanied Ridsdale to court, but there was still nobody present from the church to support the victims. Ridsdale was again featured on that evening's television news.

This hearing was told that Ridsdale was facing 180 charges, including 21 of buggery, two of attempted buggery, 102 of indecent assault and 55 of gross indecency.

On 3 August 1994, the Ridsdale case moved to the County Court (in Warrnambool), with a judge. The number of charged incidents was reduced — to merely one or two "representative" incidents per victim. Ridsdale pleaded guilty to the lot.

Two fellow-priests

One purpose of the August 1994 hearing was for defence witnesses to give evidence about Ridsdale's character and background, so as to help the judge to decide what penalty to impose on Ridsdale. Two priests, who accompanied Ridsdale to the Warrnambool court proceedings, gave evidence on behalf of Ridsdale about his background.

1. Father Frank Madden, parish priest at Horsham in 1994. Madden, who said he was aged 67 in 1994, had been a mature-age entrant to the Melbourne seminary, where he met Ridsdale as a fellow student. Madden was Ridsdale's successor in the Horsham parish after Ridsdale was removed from there in 1988. (Therefore, Madden knew some of the Horsham families who had been affected by Ridsdale.)

2. Father Brendan Davey of Ararat (who said he was 58 in 1994) had been at school with Ridsdale in Ballarat and the pair had been room-mates in the seminary.

Sentencing

In Melbourne on 14 October 1994, Ridsdale was sentenced to his second jail term. Judge John Dee told Ridsdale: "The victims were not given, in my view, any priority by your superiors in the Catholic Church [who were] aware of your conduct. The image and reputation of the church was given first priority. You were given some perfunctory in-house counselling before being shifted off to continue your criminal conduct in other areas."

Several victims attended the sentencing as observers. Afterwards, a priest (a friend of Ridsdale) stood outside the court, taking photos of these victims as they left. This was a breach of privacy and an act of harassment. The victims said they felt they were being victimised again.

After the 1994 jailing, more Ridsdale victims contacted the Victorian police or Broken Rites.

Police investigate the bishop

In the 1994 conviction, about two-thirds of the offences (including buggery) occurred before Ridsale went to Inglewood. About one third of the offences (including three buggery offences) occurred after 1975 — that is, after the police told Bishop Mulkeams about Ridsdale at Inglewood. Therefore, some victims complained to police in 1995 that Bishop Mulkearns had knowingly transferred a child-abuser to further parishes to commit more offences.

Melbourne detectives conducted an investigation, "Operation Arcadia", in July 1995 to determine whether Bishop Ronald Mulkearns could be charged with 'misprision (concealing) of a felony'.

In late 1995, Broken Rites obtained a copy of the Operation Arcadia report under Freedom of Information legislation. The report reveals that police received complaints in 1975 that Ridsdale had indecently assaulted boys in Inglewood. Detective Col Mooney, of Bendigo, investigated the matter and tried to locate Ridsdale but was told by the church that he was not available. Mooney was then advised by his direct superior, Superintendent O'Sullivan, to approach Mulkearns and notify him about the complaint. This was done the following day, and Mulkeams was handed a written statement from one boy, detailing the offences. The Bendigo police headquarters then left it up to Mulkearns to "deal with" Ridsdale.

The Operation Arcadia report, in September 1995, concluded that, as the offence in the Inglewood boy's statement (given to Mulkearns) was a misdemeanour offence (indecent assault), not a felony (buggery), the police were unable to charge Bishop Mulkeams with concealing a felony. In Victoria's criminal statutes, there is no offence of concealing a misdemeanour. The Operation Arcadia report indicates that Bishop Ronald Mulkeams knew in 1975 that Ridsdale was committing crimes of indecent assault but the bishop claims he did not know about the penetration offences (i.e., felonies).

Another interesting feature of the Operation Arcadia report is that the police found no evidence of Ridsdale ever undergoing proper professional therapy in the 1970s. Apart from having discussions with his superiors, Ridsdale merely visited a priests' retreat, which was a kind of drop-in centre. So Ridsdale went on to offend at Edenhope, Mortlake and Horsham.

The bishop resigns

In 1996, Broken Rites circulated copies of the Operation Arcadia report to all Australian bishops. The contents alarmed Mulkeams's fellow bishops, who now realised that Mulkeams was a liability.

Mulkeams finally had to write a letter to the Australian Catholic bishops (published in the Ballarat "Courier" on 21 December 1996). In this, he denied that he knew "in 1971" about Ridsdale's crimes but his letter dodged the years after 1971. What about 1972 ... or 1973 ... or 1974? He said he did not know about the felonies, but the letter did not mention that police told him in 1975 about the indecent assaults.

In May 1997, Bishop Ron Mulkearns took early retirement. Announcing his resignation, Mulkeams said ("Herald Sun", Melbourne, 31 May 1997) that his emotional energy had been sapped "by the draining effect" of the sexual abuse scandals.

And Mulkeams was not referring just to Ridsdale. Broken Rites knows of other abusive priests in the Ballarat diocese during the Ridsdale years.

The third court case, 2006

After the 1994 jailing, more Ridsdale victims contacted Broken Rites or the police. The Ballarat Criminal Investigation Unit (under Detective Sergeant Kevin Carson) compiled written statements. At first, Victoria's Office of Public Prosecutions was reluctant to spend time and money on a further Ridsdale prosecution. But the victims persisted and eventually, on 6 August 2006, Ridsdale (aged 72 that year) was charged again — in the Ballarat County Court.

The offences were committed on boys when he was a parish priest in Warrnambool, Ballarat East, Apollo Bay, Inglewood, Edenhope, Mortlake and Horsham.

The prosecutor said Ridsdale offered one 11-year-old victim special training so he could become an altar boy. He told the boy he was going to make him "special enough" to become an altar boy and that, because the priest was close to God, he knew what to do. Ridsdale then went on to abuse the boy.

Sentencing Ridsdale to an effective four additional years in jail, Judge Bill White criticised the Catholic Church for its failure to act after receiving complaints about Ridsdale's conduct, and its failure to show adequate compassion to some victims. He said the constant moving of Ridsdale from parish to parish only provided more opportunities for his predatory conduct.

As security guards led Ridsdale out of the court, a woman called out: "Mr Ridsdale, I'm one of the social workers who had to clean up the mess you made. It was horrific."

Fourth court case, in  2013 and 2014

Ridsdale was due to become eligible for parole in June 2013 after serving his long prison sentence. But by early 2013, additional Ridsdale victims had contacted the detectives in the  Victoria Police sex-crimes squad.

So, instead of going before the Parole Board, Ridsdale was charged in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on 18 November 2013 with multiple new offences against 14 victims (eleven males and three females).

Ridsdale pleaded guilty to 29 charges including one count of buggery, 27 counts of indecent assault, and one count of carnal knowledge of a girl. The offences were committed between 1961 and 1980 at various Victorian towns. The victims included three children from one family.

The court decided not to proceed with more than 50 other charges.

According to documents tabled in court, Ridsdale indecently assaulted one ten-year-old girl numerous times including: once at the presbytery house; once while medically assisting her injured knee; and once during Confession when he made her perform sexual acts after telling her that she was wicked and naughty and had to be punished.

His victims included children who regularly attended church or participated in after-school programs he ran. The children were abused in various locations - in cars while driving them around, in a bed he shared with them and at his parish and in surrounding bushland.

As result of this Magistrates Court hearing, the Ridsdale case was passed on to a higher court, the Melbourne County Court, for sentencing.

Sentencing, April 2014

The sentencing was conducted in the Melbourne County Court on 8 April 2014 by Chief Judge Michael Rozenes. In his sentencing remarks, Judge Rozenes said that Ridsdale's "unfettered sexual deviance" had been a blatant breach of the trust existing between priests and parishioners. He said that Ridsdale had preyed on his vulnerable victims under the guise of being the 'friendly priest'. Ridsdale's position in the church involved a high degree of trust and some degree of power and his offending had had a devastating impact on his young victims, he said.

Judge Rozenes said the contents of the victim impact statements detailing the effect of Ridsdale's offending could only be described as powerful.

"Collectively they shared some common themes: a feeling of being exploited; feeling trapped, powerless, worthless and humiliated; anger at, and distrust of, the Catholic church; loss of faith and innocence; loss of the enjoyment of childhood; a sense of bewilderment and disbelief; and the fracturing of family relationships.

"Tragically, many thought that they were to blame for your actions. To me, one of the most tragic comments I heard was that 'if I had ‘taken my turn’ maybe my little brothers would have had happier lives'."

The judge said that the mothers of some of the victims "conveyed an understandable, but unjustified, guilt at having failed to protect their children".

The judge said: "Mr Ridsdale, I sincerely hope that you now understand how your offending has not only affected your victims, but created a ripple effect that has touched upon all aspects of their lives."

Another priest knew about Ridsdale's criminal behaviour, the court is told

During these proceedings in 2014, the court heard an edited summary of what each of the 14 victims had told the police investigators. For example, one female victim (born in 1962) said in her police statement that when she was aged 10 to 11, she used to visit the presbytery (where Ridsdale was living) at the Saint Alipius parish in Ballarat East. The victim, who turned 11 during 1973, said in her police statement that on one occasion, she was cutting up vegetables in the presbytery kitchen when Ridsdale grabbed her, dragged her into a room and sexually assaulted her.

Another priest, who walked past before going outside, saw what was happening but did not intervene, the victim said.

(The name of this silent priest, who allegedly knew about Ridsdale's behaviour, is known to the prosecutor and defence lawyers and the judge, but the name was not stated in the edited summary as heard in court.)

Addressing Ridsdale during sentencing, Judge Rozenes said:

“Although it does not directly involve you, Mr Ridsdale, there is a further disturbing aspect to this incident, namely that this complainant believes another priest was present for a short time while you were sexually assaulting her and must have been aware of the assault but did not intervene.

“I raise this merely to make an observation: namely that this behaviour appears to be demonstrative of the church’s approach to sexual abuse at the time which ultimately — and unfortunately, for your victims — allowed your criminal behaviour to go unchecked for so long.’’

A suicide

While he was summarising the 14 cases (and mentioning their family backgrounds), Judge Rozenes noted that three of the victims were from one family.This family was a large one (with male and female children) who had been "befriended" by Ridsdale. 

The judge said that a fourth child (a male) in this family eventually took his own life. The judge said that the court does not know whether this deceased brother, too, was a victim of Ridsdale.

Because he is dead, this brother was not available to be interviewed by detectives. Therefore Ridsdale was not charged regarding this deceased brother.

Broken Rites has been told that the victims from this family were abused by Ridsdale when they were staying (as his guests) at Ridsdale's presbytery in Edenhope, western Victoria. The siblings were living in another part of Victoria. Broken Rites understands that the brother who took his own life did so by hanging himself some years later, when he was aged about 20.

Additional time in jail

On 8 April 2014, Judge Rozenes sentenced Ridsdale to an additional eight years in jail (with a minimum of five before becoming eligible to apply for parole).

This means that he could be in jail until 2022 (when he is turning 88), but will be eligible for apply for parole in April 2019 (when he is turning 85).

More complaints about Ridsdale

Since late 1993, Broken Rites has been interviewing numerous victims of Gerald Ridsdale. Some, but not of all of these victims, have spoken to the police.

Here is one example of the Broken Rites research in the 1990s:

While ministering in the city of Ballarat in the early 1960s, Ridsdale acted as a visiting "chaplain" at a local orphanage — Nazareth House, in Mill Street, Ballarat (operated by the Sisters of Nazareth). In the 1960s, Nazareth House contained homeless girls, but today it is purely an aged-care home.

At Nazareth House, the nuns allowed Ridsdale to take any child to a private room for "Confession", "counselling", or "sex education". Several women have told Broken Rites that, while they were at Nazareth House, they were mauled indecently by Ridsdale.

One victim ("Dorothy") said she was in Nazareth House, aged from 9 to 12, after her parents separated. At age 10, Nazareth House sent her to another town to have respite care with a temporary foster family, and the nuns allowed Ridsdale to drive the girl there in his car. Out in the countryside, he stopped the car and mauled her genitals.

Dorothy told Broken Rites: "I didn't know about sex — the nuns told us nothing. When the Beatles came to Australia, we weren't allowed to watch them on TV. We weren't allowed to be with a male. Yet they put me in the hands of Ridsdale.

"When I returned to Nazareth House, I didn't tell the nuns what Ridsdale did to me. They would have hit me."

Broken Rites is doing further research regarding Nazareth House, Ballarat.

In the early 1960s, Ridsdale was also a visiting chaplain at an institution for homeless boys in the parish of St James at Sebastapol, a Ballarat suburb

Summing up

The Catholic Church provided a framework for Ridsdale's crimes. The church selected Ridsdale for the priesthood (while prohibiting married priests and women priests), placed him on a high pedestal, advertised him as being "celibate" and then turned him loose among the children.

By enforcing "high" and strict moral standards on its congregations (regarding sexuality), the church convinced parents that their children were safe with Ridsdale. Until about 1993, such priestly crimes were "unheard of"— for the simple reason that the church skilfully covered them up.

Broken Rites helped to put an end to the Ridsdale cover-up. Thus, we helped to obtain justice for his victims — and, later, justice for the victims of other perpetrators.

Victims' stories

Here are some stories from Ridsdale victims, as told to Broken Rites in late 1993:-

1. Daniel at Swan Hill, 1966-9

"Daniel" (born 1956) lived with his family in a rural community outside Swan Hill, northern Victoria. He told Broken Rites on 5 October 1993:

"My family lived in a farming area, a few kilometres from Swan Hill. My mother used to take us to Mass at St Mary's parish in Swan Hill .

"I remember that Father Gerry Ridsdale used to hold what he called 'twilight retreats' at the church in Swan Hill, which would be attended by about 20 boys including me, with no adults present apart from Ridsdale. His talks were all about sex and how you should not entertain impure thoughts. He seemed to thrive on all this dirty talk. The over-all message was 'Don't Do It'. It's a pity he didn't follow his own advice.

"When I was in about Grade 6, Father Ridsdale starting coming out to our district on Sundays to say Mass in a rural hall for the local farming community. I was made an altar boy. He also used to visit my family's farm on Sundays, and he often took me in his car for what he described as bird-watching trips. He had a pair of binoculars and, when he was getting me to look through the binoculars, he would interfere with me. He would also molest me in his car on these trips. He would strip me to my underpants and also strip himself to his underpants and then lie on top of me on the front seat of his car with the doors open. This happened on quite a few occasions, not just once.

"He made it clear that I was not to tell anybody — and I obeyed.

"After primary school, I dropped out of being an altar boy. Later, I also dropped out of going to Mass. Mum was still going but Dad used to go somewhere else on Sundays and I started going wherever Dad went.

"It was many years before I ever told anybody about Ridsdale. When I saw on the TV news this year [1993] that Ridsdale had been jailed for child molestation, I discussed it with members of my family. And then my family heard on regional radio about the Broken Rites telephone hotline. So here I am.

"I am very aware that Ridsdale seriously disrupted my teenage sexual development. It had drastic effects on me."

2. Andy at Inglewood 1975

In December 1993, "Andy" (born 1960) told Broken Rites about his experiences as an altar boy for Father Gerald Ridsdale in Inglewood in 1975:

"At Inglewood, Jerry Ridsdale made his presbytery into a drop-in centre for youth. Nearly every boy in Inglewood aged between 10 and 15, including non-Catholics, would have visited him at some time.

"He had a pool table. Parents assumed that it was a safe environment. When Ridsdale started inviting me to visit him, my mother encouraged me to go.

"Boys were welcome to stay overnight. Ridsdale also had boys from other parishes staying with him, including some from Bendigo and Ballarat.

"I remember when I first found out what Ridsdale was really like. We had just driven another boy home, and then suddenly I was left alone with Ridsdale in his car. I will never forget it.

"I later had many similar experiences at Ridsdale's presbytery. Meanwhile, my family kept on encouraging me to visit him.

"Ridsdale would have had many victims in Inglewood.

"Because of the kind of upbringing and schooling that we had, it was difficult, even impossible, for us to tell our parents. The clergy is on such a high pedestal that nobody wants to hear anything negative about a priest. Many victims do not even talk about church-abuse to other victims.

"If a child molester wants to get access to children, the best place for him is in the priesthood. It is a perfect cover. The molester is even aided and abetted by the victims and their parents.

"Eventually, one Inglewood boy did tell his parents, and this father kicked up a fuss and wanted Ridsdale to get out of town. Evidently this father did not take it any further. He just wanted the problem shifted out of Inglewood.

"But the result was that the Ridsdale problem got shifted to Edenhope.

"After Ridsdale left Inglewood, the whole town soon found out why. The diocesan authorities, who had to find him a new parish, also knew why. They had been shifting Ridsdale around for years.

"I never told anybody that I was a Ridsdale victim, but the experience had a disastrous affect on me. I stopped trying at school and I messed up my final year of studies.

"In July, 1993, when I was living in Melbourne, I saw a 'Compass' program on ABC TV about church sexual abuse. I rang the church authorities in Melbourne and interviewed a senior person in the archdiocese, but he didn't seem interested and nobody got back to me.

"I have therefore instructed a firm of solicitors to begin a civil legal claim against the Catholic Church for damages for negligence in having inflicted Ridsdale upon me.

"My experience with Ridsdale has messed up my life and I am undergoing therapy."

3. Larry at Inglewood 1975

"Larry" (born 1963) told Broken Rites on 22 November 1993:

"I am from a Catholic family of 15 children in central Victoria. In 1975 our parish priest was away, and Jerry Ridsdale came from Inglewood to say Mass at my local church. I was then eleven and a half years old. I was an altar boy. Ridsdale offered to take me and two younger brothers (aged 10 and 9) to his presbytery at Inglewood for a weekend, during which we would serve as his altar boys.

"He drove us to Inglewood late one Friday night and we went straight to bed. The sleeping arrangements were that my two younger brothers would sleep in one room and I would sleep in Ridsdale's room. On the first night, Ridsdale was in a big bed (which seemed to be a double bed), while I slept on a smaller bed along the foot of his bed. Nothing happened that night because it was very late.

"On the Saturday night, Ridsdale went and bought us fish and chips. During the evening about 14 or 15 local boys dropped in and stayed for varying lengths of time. There was a pool table in the house. The local boys went home, some on bikes. At bed time on the Saturday, he told me to get into the big bed. After going and locking up the house and putting of lights, he came and got into the big bed with me. He started interfering with me and then tried to penetrate me. I squealed like mad, and this made him give up.

"On the Sunday morning we said Mass at the Inglewood church. Then he drove us home to have lunch with our mum. I had been expecting to receive a watch from Mum for my 12th birthday and Ridsdale warned me that, if I told anybody about what he had done to me, he would tell Mum that I was a bold naughty boy — and therefore she would not give me a watch. I did not tell my mother about it. But she could not be told anyway because she was a staunch Catholic (and still is) and priests can do no wrong. I still haven't told her.

"A month or so later, Ridsdale invited me and my two brothers for another weekend visit. I said I didn't want to go but Mum insisted, so I gave in to avoid a fuss. The same assault happened in Ridsdale's bedroom.

"A third invitation came and again I tried to refuse to go but I gave in to please Mum. I suffered another assault at the presbytery.

"When a fourth invitation came, I managed to evade it, much to Mum's disappointment.

"I never told anybody about what Ridsdale did — not my brothers, not any of my school friends. My mother's Catholic world would collapse if she found out.

"In recent times, I have told my fiancee with whom I have been living.

"About March 1993, after hearing sexual assault by clergy being talked about on TV, I went to a solicitor and told my story to a stranger for the first time. This week [November 1993], my solicitor saw an article about Broken Rites in a local newspaper, so I immediately phoned Broken Rites."

4. A concerned citizen at Mortlake, 1981-2

A woman who was closely associated with St Colman's parish primary school in Mortlake, south-western Victoria, told Broken Rites on 15 November 1993:

"A couple of days after Ridsdale arrived in Mortlake, one mother phoned Bishop Mulkearns's office to complain that Jerry Ridsdale had molested one of her sons. As the bishop was overseas, she spoke to [a senior official at the diocesan office] but he treated her like a criminal and said the boy must be imagining it. Ridsdale must have been tipped off about this complaint because a day or so later he visited the Mortlake family and denied that he had molested the boy.

"Eighteen months later, the same mother went to see Bishop Mulkearns, accompanied by her husband and another set of parents. They threatened to go to the police. We later learned that Sister Kate McGrath, then principal of the school, had also complained. The result was that Ridsdale left Mortlake within a few days.

"The next priest at Mortlake did not know why he had been sent to replace Ridsdale. The families told him and he was shattered. We also told the next two priests.

"In 1989, seven years after Ridsdale left Mortlake, one mother said in a discussion that her son had been abused by Ridsdale in 1981. She had stopped going to church. In 1990, Bishop Mulkearns came to Mortlake for a confirmation service and I told him about this mother— without success.

"I later wrote letters to Bishop Mullkearns about Ridsdale.

"In 1993, after the court case, I wrote again to the bishop about Ridsdale and sexual abuse in the church generally, and I also sent a copy to all the priests in the diocese.

"The Mortlake parents are intimidated. They don't want to hurt the church. Also, because they had Ridsdale visiting their homes as a member of the family, their own gullibility would be shown up."

The sad story of "Jason", the victim who first alerted the police

Beginning in September 1993, Broken Rites received many phone calls from "Jason" (then aged 30) who was a Ridsdale victim at Edenhope. He had heard about Broken Rites in the media.

It was Jason who phoned the Victoria Police anti-pedophile campaign ("Operation Paradox") in late 1992, resulting in the first police prosecution of Ridsdale in 1993.

When Jason made his first police statement in November 1992, he was too embarrassed to reveal that Ridsdale's offences against him included buggery. But in late 1993, after Ridsdale finished his first jail sentence, Jason told the police about the buggery offences, so these were included in the second prosecution in 1994.

"Jason" told Broken Rites on 20 September 1993:

"In 1976, when I was turning 13, I was attending the Mercy Nuns convent (St Malachy's) at Edenhope. Father Gerry Ridsdale lived right near the school and he was the school manager. I was an altar boy and he was always asking me to come to his house, saying that he had some jobs for me to do there. My mother used to insist that I should go.

"He used to assault me at his house, in his car and at the church (including at the altar when the church was empty and locked). This went on for two years. He did everything to me that you can imagine. He penetrated me countless times.

"After each molestation, he would grant me Absolution, meaning that I did not have to tell anybody else about the sin that I had just committed with him.

"At first, I assumed that I was the only one but eventually another boy told me a similar story. I tried to tell my mother but she did not welcome hearing anything negative about a priest.

"When Ridsdale finally left the parish, he didn't get the usual send-off. We learned later that he went on 'renewal study leave', and this indicates that the diocesan office knew about what he had been doing.

"St Malachy's school left a lot to be desired. The Mercy nuns were hopeless. One girl who had been going out with a boy for a long time became pregnant. The nuns gave her hell and made her an outcast. Yet the nuns were quite happy to let Ridsdale remove boys from the classroom, one by one, and take each one to the presbytery, where he talked to them about sex before targeting them.

"In 1988 I told another priest what Ridsdale had done but this priest told me: 'The best thing is to put it behind you and get on with your life.' [In 2006, this priest was still in charge of a parish in the diocese.]

"It is difficult now to get on with my life. Ridsdale has ruined my life."

The death of Jason

In 1993, Jason engaged lawyers to seek an out-of-court payment from the Ballarat Catholic Diocese to help him to pay the costs of repairing his life. The church's lawyers fought Jason's claim fiercely. The diocese eventually gave Jason a relatively small payment and it agreed to pay his legal expenses as well as the church's own legal expenses, but no amount of money could undo the damage that had been done to his life. The diocese probably spent as much on the fees for the two sets of lawyers as it gave to Jason.

Former Senior Detective John Norris, who prepared the 1994 prosecution, believes that, of all Ridsdale's victims, Jason was probably the most damaged. He was left a tormented mental and physical wreck. Melbourne journalist Ian Munro, who interviewed Jason, wrote: "Where some victims found jobs, fought their addictions and formed families, he [Jason] lived alone, drug addicted, isolated and haunted by his demons."

Jason died in May 2002, aged 39, after his fourth heart attack in a couple of months, but those close to him believe the real cause lay in the Ridsdale years.

Jason's sister "Rachel" told reporter Ian Munro: "His whole life he could not cope with it. He was on prescription medicine as long as I can remember. He was on a huge amount of medication. Anti-depressants, Serapax, Valium, and methadone."

Rachel lives with her husband and children on the farm where she and Jason grew up near Edenhope.

Jason was a typical, fun-loving farm boy — until the diocese sent Ridsale to Edenhope in February 1976.

Ridsdale drove an iridescent blue Datsun 240K. He installed a pool table at the presbytery and kept animals to amuse the children. He was big and loud. He had presence.

Rachel says of Ridsdale: "We'd had all these old-fashioned priests. When he came, he was this modern, high-energy fellow and he spent a lot of time at the school. He was like a breath of fresh air. There were no more fuddy-duddies. He was a super cool priest.

"I found him repulsive, though, because he would often kiss me in the church yard. He would find out it was your birthday and he would plant this big kiss on you."

Despite her own misgivings about Ridsdale — she hated it, for example, when he arrived one night and set about taking the family's confessions in Rachel's bedroom — her family was happy that the priest took a keen interest in Jason.

"I don't know how many times the car came here, and he picked up ["Jason"] and off they would go," Rachel says. The family thought how lucky Jason was.

Often Ridsdale dropped in to ask if he could have the boy to do some odd jobs around the presbytery. "There were never any jobs to do", Jason would eventually tell the police. Ridsdale would lock the door and molest and, eventually, rape him. Jason told police he was raped weekly. His mother always insisted he go with the priest.

Jason told The Age newspaper in 1994: "He'd ask me somewhere and I'd say: `No, I'm going to a friend's place.' Then he'd go over my head and go to my mother, and of course she'd always say yes. She'd say: 'You must help the priest, they need helping.' So he'd screw me out there.

"He once had sex with me and soon afterwards insisted on hearing my confession. Someone analysed that for me recently. They said he was trying to turn the blame back on to me for turning him on."

Rachel said her mother — a devout Irish Catholic — was the perfect dupe for Ridsdale. She said the family suspected nothing. She noticed a change in Jason over time but the truth was simply unthinkable.

In his early 20s, Jason tried to tell the family what had happened, apparently confiding in a local identity who called them to a meeting. By then his behaviour was somewhat erratic anyway, and when he told them a priest had raped him, Jason 's father and brother walked out in disbelief.

"We just had no idea that it was all true," Rachel says. "Even now it's very hard to comprehend that happened to my brother."

Perhaps, however, their mother suspected the truth before her death in 1991. She became less emphatic in her defence of the church, Rachel says.

Despite his long ordeal, Jason was not entirely the impotent victim. It was his call to the Victoria Police "Operation Paradox" that initiated inquiries into Ridsdale in late 1992 and early 1993.

Former acting Detective Sergeant Ray Steyger, who headed Operation Paradox, told The Age: "You could safely say that it was his call and the information that was received from him that initiated the investigation. As a result of that, we were able to put the other two pieces of information (relating to Ridsdale) together, and it went from there."

So, by phoning the police and Broken Rites, Jason helped to obtain justice for church sex-abuse victims in general.

Gerald Ridsdale and George Pell

In 2002, Ridsdale's nephew David Ridsdale was interviewed by the Nine TV network's "Sixty Minutes" program, concerning what David told Bishop George Pell about Ridsdale's abuse. This interview was re-played by "Sixty Minutes" in 2013. To watch the video, click HERE.

Broken Rites is continuing its research about how the Catholic Church authorities covered up the crimes of Father Gerald Francis Ridsdale.

• This background article, by a Broken Rites researcher, was updated on 19 February  2016.

Broken Rites helped the Australian Broadcasting Corporation with research for a Four Corners television program, which was broadcast on Monday 11 August 2014. The program is about how the Catholic Church in Australia tries to cover up its child-sex abuse - and how the church avoids paying full compensation to victims. Here are the links to some of the relevant Broken Rites articles which helped Four Corners.

The Four Corners program includes case studies of some of the church's paedophile priests. For example (you can click on any of the following names):

• Fr Aidan Duggan: Cardinal George Pell instructed the church's lawyers to crush a former altar boy (John Ellis) who had been one of Duggan's victims and who was seeking compensation.. The church is still using this legal tactic (known in legal circles as "the Ellis defence") to avoid paying full compensation to other victims.
• Fr Kevin O'Donnell: George Pell praised Father O'Donnell but Broken Rites supported the victims. Archbishop Pell offered a written apology to one family (Anthony and Chrissie Foster),  for O'Donnell's abuse of two of the Fosters' daughters but later, when the Fosters decided to sue the Melbourne archdiocese for compensation, Pell instructed his lawyers to fight this family's compensation claim.
• Fr Peter Searson: The church inflicted this "chaplain" on disadvantaged victims.
• Fr Dominic Phillips:This priest "befriended" young schoolgirls.

Four Corners also gives an example of one notorious Melbourne parish - Doveton. This low socio-economic area is on Melbourne's south-eastern outskirts, near Dandenong. The Melbourne Archdiocese leadership sent a succession of sexually-abusive priests to this parish. For example (you can click on any of the following names).

• Fr Tom O'Keeffe. The church finally says 'Sorry' to O'Keefe's victims.
• Fr Bill Baker. An archbishop covered up Baker's crimes.
• Fr Vic Rubeo. The church harboured this offender for three decades.
• Fr Peter Searson. He was one of several abusive priests who were dumped on this parish.

Broken Rites is proud to have helped  Four Corners with our research.

You can still watch this episode of Four Corners (entitled "In the Name of the Law") on the FOUR CORNERS website.

By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 2 March 2016

Since 1993, Broken Rites has been doing research about how Melbourne's Catholic bishops harboured a number of sexually-abusive priests. In the mid-1990s, Broken Rites began exposing these priests. Now some of these priests, from the Broken Rites list, are being investigated by Australia's national child-abuse Royal Commission. The Commission is asking ask Melbourne's former archbishop George Pell about some of these priests when it is questioning him (by video-link from Rome) this week. This article points you to the original Broken Rites research about each of these priests.

Here are some of the names from the Broken Rites list (to read a Broken Rites article on each priest, you can click on any of the following names).

• Fr Peter Searson. For many years, the Melbourne church hierarchy knew that Searson was committing sexual offences against children in parish schools but it managed to protect him from police prosecution. Obstinately the church kept him in the ministry but eventually the hierarchy was forced to put Searson on "administrative leave" to protect the public image of the church.
• Fr Wilfred (Bill) Baker. Baker worked in parishes around Melbourne — and he committed sexual crimes against children while his superiors and colleagues looked the other way.
• Fr Nazareno Fasciale (pronounced Fah-SHAH-lay). Church leaders, including George Pell, participated in a glowing tribute to this priest, who was one of the worst paedophiles in the Melbourne diocese. In 1996, when Broken Rites exposed this (and other) church cover-ups, George Pell's diocese went into damage control, hiring a public relations firm to announce the "Melbourne Response" (a forerunner of the church's "Towards Healing" strategy).
• Fr Kevin O'Donnell. During O'Donnell's life of crime, his superiors and colleagues looked the other way. In his final years, he even received public praise from one of his superiors, Bishop George Pell.
• Fr Ronald Pickering. The Melbourne church authorities protected Pickering for many years while he committed crimes against children in his parishes. Eventually he fled from Australia, evading justice. The Melbourne archdiocese then began sending retirement payments to Pickering at his new address in England but they didn't give this address to the police.
• Fr David Daniel. The church authorities kept ignoring complaints about the crimes of this priest, but eventually some of these victims spoke to Victoria Police detectives — and the police then charged Father Daniel, thus ending the church's cover-up.
• Fr Desmond Gannon. This is another example of how the church authorities protected a criminal priest for many years until some of his victims eventually spoke to Victoria Police detectives.

A vulnerable parish - Doveton

The Royal Commission public is also questioning George Pell about how the Catholic Church authorities sent a series of FOUR sexually-abusive priests to one Melbourne parish — Doveton. This low socio-economic area — on Melbourne's south-eastern outskirts near Dandenong — includes a large number of vulnerable families.

The sexually-abuse priests at this parish included:

• Fr Peter Searson. He was at Doveton parish in the 1980s and 1990s, while this region of Melbourne was under the supervision of Bishop/Archbishop George Pell. Broken Rites finally helped to bring Searson to justice in, thus forcing the archdiocese to abandon Searson.
• Fr Bill Baker. He was an assistant priest at Doveton parish in the 1970s. Archbishop Frank Little covered up Baker's crimes in various parishes.
• Fr Vic Rubeo. He was at Doveton parish in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The church harboured this offender in various parishes for three decades.
• Fr Tom O'Keeffe. He was in charge of the Doveton parish in the 1970s.

By a Broken Rites researcher 

For years, the Melbourne Catholic Archdiocese knew that Father Peter Searson was committing sexual offences against boys, girls and women but he was allowed to continue in parishes, including at the Doveton parish (in Melbourne's south-east), where he survived for years under the supervision of the regional bishop for the south-eastern suburbs, Auxiliary Bishop George Pell. The Victoria Police investigated Searson for sexual offences in parishes but found it difficult to extract evidence from "loyal" church people. Eventually, after 35 years as a priest, the police finally managed to charge Searson with physical assault. Thus, Searson's abuse thus became public. The church authorities were forced to dump Searson from parish work. Hoping to protect the church's public image, the church also removed his name from the published list of retired priests.

Originally a Marist Brother

Broken Rites research has ascertained that Peter Lloyd Searson was born on 4 April 1923 in Adelaide, South Australia, where he was a pupil at Sacred Heart College, a Marist Brothers school in Somerton Park. He was recruited to become a Marist Brother, and he adopted the "religious" name "Brother Bonaventure". (There was a "Saint" Bonaventure in medieval Europe but Peter Lloyd Searson was certainly no saint.)

The Broken Rites research confirmed that Peter Searson's name is included in a list of Marist Brothers who entered the Melbourne province of this religious order. (The Melbourne province provided Marists for South Australia and Western Australia, as well for Victoria.)

In the 1950s, Brother Bonaventure Searson taught at a Marist Brothers college in Mount Gambier, South Australia. A former Mount Gambier student, born in 1942, told Broken Rites in 2002 that he was a boarder at the school in the 1950s. Brother Bonaventure, he said, had a fetish for strapping students on their naked buttocks.

On 25 July 2012 an ex-student from this Mount Gambier school extracted an out-of-court settlement from the Marist Brothers for mental and physical abuse inflicted on him by Brother Bonaventure in 1957-58.

It is believed that, at some time, Brother Bonaventure Searson also taught at the Marist Brothers'Red Bend Catholic College in Forbes, western New South Wales. This school was administered by the Marists' Melbourne Province.

He became a priest

In the late 1950s, for some reason, the Marist order and Brother Bonaventure Searson parted company.

He then was accepted into a seminary to train as a priest, becoming ordained as Father Peter Searson in Rome on 7 April 1962 at the age of 39. He worked as a military chaplain in Europe in 1962 but, from 1963, he spent the rest of his priestly career in the Melbourne diocese. In the 1960s he worked as an assistant priest in Melbourne suburban parishes at Carlton, South Melbourne, Camberwell South and Mount Waverley.

It is believed that there were complaints about him in the 1960s. In the early 1970s he was at the Altona parish.

Chaplain to the blind community

Broken Rites has discovered that, in 1974-75, Searson was listed as the chaplain to Melbourne's blind community. It is not clear why he was assigned to such a sensitive position, dealing with vulnerable people with a disability.

He led pilgrimages for the blind to the Holy Land and the sacred shrines of Europe.

A man ("Bruce") told Broken Rites in 1997 that in 1974 he was engaged to a young woman ("Sue") who was a nursing assistant, caring for blind people at the Villa Maria Society while Searson was the chaplain there. Bruce was a Catholic but Sue was not, so Sue (then aged 18) was sent to Father Searson for Catholic religious instruction. According to Sue, Searson quizzed her about her sex life and gave her "sex education" by mauling her genitals, saying that it was all right for priests to do this. He allegedly told Sue (who was not blind) that he needed to do this kind of thing when he was "helping" blind people. Sue's complaint went to the Melbourne archdiocesan authorities in 1974 but no action was taken.

Searson at Sunbury parish

In 1978-1984, Searson was the Parish Priest in charge at Sunbury (Our Lady of Mount Carmel parish) in Melbourne's outer north-west. Here there were complaints about Searson sexually harassing children at the parish primary school. Searson was taking children, one at a time, from the classroom to his study to give them "sex education". During Confession, a girl in Grade Six was required to sit on Searson's knee, while Searson fondled her intimately. In addition, he was alleged to have indecently touched a boy. However, these families did not want to tell the police.

This Sunbury situation was recalled a decade later in an article in the Melbourne Sunday Herald Sun (23 March 1997). The paper reported:

"According to police sources, he [Searson] had been interviewed by Community Policing Squad police at Sunbury in 1982 following complaints from a lay teacher and parishioners...

"According to police, the parents of the alleged Sunbury victim decided aginst taking action and charges were never laid...

"At the time, Fr Searson denied the allegations, but conceded to a ban which prevented him from taking children into the confessonal and his presbytery."

Searson at Doveton parish

In 1984 Searson took charge of the Holy family parish at Doveton, an area of low-economic status near Dandenong, in Melbourne's outer south-east.

At Doveton there were again complaints about him touching or sexually harassing children.

Detectives from the Victoria Police investigated Searson in the 1980s but families were reluctant to allow their children to make a signed police statement. This made a prosecution impossible.

Although families were reluctant to speak to police, some families were prepared to speak to the church authorities. This evidence was not made available to the police.

At Doveton there were also complaints about Searson being aggressive towards children and about him being authoritarian in the school and the parish. At least one family moved their children from Searson's school to another school.

Meeting of parents

The Dandenong Journal of 27 October 1986 reported that a meeting of fifty parents at the Doveton parish school petitioned the archdiocesan office, seeking the removal of Searson as parish priest. The vicar-general of the Melbourne archdiocese at that time was one of Melbourne's four auxiliary bishops, Bishop Hilton Deakin. Searson was not disciplined and therefore a number of parents withdrew their children from the school. Searson began retaliating against staff who had supported the parents. The school principal, Graeme Sleeman, resigned.

In April 1987, a Mass was held to celebrate Searson's silver jubilee as a priest. The Dandenong Journal (23 April 1987) reported: "Twenty-six priests, including Monsignor Kevin Toomey, concelebrated eucharist with Fr Searson, and the homily was delivered by a long-standing friend who is acting as regional bishop, Dr Hilton Deakin."

From 1987 to 1996, Searson's regional bishop was George Pell who was Melbourne's auxiliary bishop for the south-eastern suburbs.

More trouble in the 1990s

In early 1996, detectives investigated Searson regarding a complaint by an adult female and had a liaison meeting with the vicar-general (administrator) of the Melbourne archdiocese, Monsignor Gerald Cudmore.

The archdiocese now realised that, with the police involvement, the Searson matters could become a public embarrassment for the church. In late 1996, the Melbourne archdiocese appointed a senior barrister, Peter O'Callaghan, QC, as its Commissioner on Sexual Abuse. O'Callaghan's role was to receive, and adjudicate on, all complaints concerning Melbourne clergy. A number of Searson victims contacted O'Callaghan, who then began investigating Searson. Broken Rites believes that some of the material reviewed by Peter O'Callaghan QC concerned Searson's earlier parishes, such as Mount Waverley in the 1960s, as well as Sunbury and Doveton in the 1970s and 1980s.

In March 1997, Melbourne Archbishop George Pell issued a media release (drafted with the help of a public relations firm, Royce Communications), announcing that he had suspended Fr Searson from parish work indefinitely pending an inquiry by the archdiocese's Commissioner on Sexual Abuse, Peter O'Callaghan QC, into certain "serious" allegations against Fr Searson.

Reporting this media release, the Melbourne Herald Sun said (on 20 March 1997): "Father Searson ... has been ordered to go on administrative leave until the allegations have been investigated.

"Shocked parishioners [at Doveton] first heard the news when replacement priest Father Arthur Pinto read them a letter from Dr Pell last weekend."

Newspaper controversy

In a letter to a suburban newspaper, Melbourne priest Father Michael Shadbolt criticised the church for publicly naming Searson after his suspension. Fr Shadbolt, who was then an assistant priest at Hampton Park (south-east of Melbourne), suggested that the identity of accused clergy should not be revealed until they were brought before the criminal justice sysem. Shadbolt, however, knows that, too often, the church has protected the offenders, preventing their cases from reaching the criminal justice system. Broken Rites, on the other hand, has given victims the contact details of the child-abuse unit in the state police force, where victims can tell their story to a detective.

Interviewed by the Herald Sun (4 April 1997, p.23), Peter O'Callaghan, QC, declined to comment on the specific case of Fr Searson but he said that placing a priest on "administrative leave did not in any way mean a decision had been made as to whether or not the complaint had been made out."

"Any priest subject of a complaint is entitled to and will be afforded natural justice," Mr O'Callaghan said.

It is interesting that, by 2000, Father Shadbolt had been appointed as the Parish Priest to succeed Searson at Doveton.

Searson in court

Hampered by insufficient co-operation from church sex-abuse victims, the police finally managed to summon Searson to court for physical assault. Broken Rites alerted all media outlets about the court listing. In Dandenong Magistrates Court in December 1997, Peter Searson pleaded guilty to physically assaulting a 12-year-old altar boy. Searson (then aged 74) was placed on a six-months good-behaviour bond.

According to the Dandenong Examiner (9 December 1997) and the Dandenong Journal (8 December 1997), the court was told that Searson struck two altar boys over the ears at the Doveton parish primary school in 1996 because he claimed they had giggled during Mass. He is alleged to have said: "When I was younger, that's what happened to me."

One boy's mother complained to the school but Searson denied the allegation. The mother then told the police and Searson again denied it, saying he merely "touched" the boy on the head. The boy stuck to his story and told police: 'I'm angry that a priest has lied. People will think that I'm the liar."

The second altar boy signed a police statement in support of the other boy's complaint. Searson's lawyer claimed the priest was pleading guilty to save himself and the boys the ordeal of testifying on oath. The prosecutor said the boy was quite willing to testify on oath. The guilty plea, however, made this unnecessary and saved Searson from the perils of cross-examination.

"Retired"

From 1998 onwards, after Peter Searson's court case (and the resulting publicity), the annual editions of the Australian Catholic directories listed Searson as "retired". Beginning in 2006 his name vanished from the Catholic directory altogether, although he continued to be listed in in the Telstra telephone directory (living in Camberwell in Melbourne's east) until he died a few years later.

Broken Rites and "Four Corners" TV program

In 2014, Broken Rites research was used in Australian television program Four Corners, giving examples of the Catholic Church's cover-up of sexual abuse, including at Melbourne's Doveton parish. The Broken Rites research showed how the Melbourne Archdiocese leadership sent a succession of sexually-abusive priests to this parish. For example (you can click on any of the following names).

• Fr Tom O'Keeffe. The church finally says 'Sorry' to O'Keefe's victims.
• Fr Bill Baker. An archbishop covered up Baker's crimes.
• Fr Vic Rubeo. The church harboured this offender for three decades.
• Fr Peter Searson.

Broken Rites is proud to have helped Four Corners with our research.

You can still watch this episode of Four Corners (entitled "In the Name of the Law") on the FOUR CORNERS website.

• This background article, by a Broken Rites researcher, was updated on 1 March 2016.

Updated by a Broken Rites researcher, 3 March 2016

Cardinal George Pell's performance at Australia's national Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (on 2 March 2016) was very funny (that is, funny in the sense of being very strange). To see the hilarious side (in a cartoon in The Guardian Australia), click HERE.

Here is the earlier version of this Broken Rites article

Cardinal George Pell makes frequent trips away from his Rome headquarters. For example, in March-April 2015, he made a secret trip by air to Australia, and then he returned to Rome in time to "appear"by video-link (instead of really appearing in person) for a public hearing of Australia's national child-abuse Royal Commission a few weeks later (in May 2015). The Commissioners had approved Pell's May 2015 video-link because of the long distance if Pell had to fly to Australia from Rome. The Commissioners did not know of Pell's recent secret trip but the trip became known by the time of the May 2015 hearing. And Pell's video-link in May 2015 turned out to be a technological disaster. The Commissioners then asked Pell to appear in person at his next scheduled public hearing in Australia (in December 2015) but Pell refused to re-visit Australia, citing "health problems" (as a 74-year-old man) as grounds for getting yet another video-link. Meanwhile, a few weeks before his December 2015 "sick note", Pell travelled from Rome to France to tour the World War One battlefields (but Pell doesn't have "health problems" in France, only in Australia). Now Pell is making his next non-appearance by video-link in the week beginning 29 February 2016. By giving his evidence in Rome, Pell he has subjected himself to scrutiny by the international media.

Pell's secret trip to Australia in March-April 2015 included a visit to his home town, Ballarat, which is the town at the centre of church-abuse allegations (and the cover-up) in western Victoria. Pell's trip was revealed in the April 2015 edition of the magazine of St Patrick's College, Ballarat — the school where Pell had been a pupil. The magazine article, which has been seen by Broken Rites, indicates that Pell's visit to the school occurred about 27 March 2015, "during a short vacation in Australia". There is a photo of Pell, together with headmaster John Crowley, while touring the school to see its latest extensions.

The editors of this school magazine didn't realise that, by revealing Pell's visit, they were "letting the cat out of the bag". News of the school magazine article (and the secret trip) reached journalists in Australia during the Commission's May 2015 public hearing.

Even the Australian Catholic bishops' spokesman on Royal Commission matters (Mr Francis Sullivan, from the church's "Truth, Justice and Healing Commission") didn't know about the trip until journalists told him in May 2015.

It is not known what else Pell did during his March-April 2015 trip to Australia but it would have been an ideal opportunity to have discussions with his Australian lawyers and his communications strategists, to figure out how to handle the Royal Commission and the church's victims. These advisers would understand the tactic of having a video-link from Rome instead of Pell appearing in Australia in person.

For Pell, a video-link is much easier experience than appearing in person in the same court-room as the church-victims and their families. Each of the victims has already been required to give their evidence to the Commission in person. Some of the church's victims have "health problems", caused by the abuse and by the church's cover-up. And one Ballarat victim, who now lives in Europe, had been required (unlike Pell) to make the long trip by air to Australia. Other victims came from interstate.

A video link has problems

The Commission's cross-examining of Pell, by video link, in May 2015 was a technical disaster, with disruptions to the vision and/or the sound. And, with the Royal Commissioners sitting in a court-room in Ballarat, it was difficult for the commissioners to show certain documents to Pell when seeking his comment about those documents.

A public hearing is not for the purpose of Pell "presenting his evidence"— that is, not for making a speech. It is to enable the Commissioners (and various lawyers, representing the church's victims) to cross-examine the person who is giving evidence (in this instance, George Pell).

Church victims in Australia are offering to pay first-class air fares for a specialist doctor to accompany Pell on a flight to Australia for the Royal Commission. But, clearly, Pell is not keen to make a public visit to Australia at present, at least not until all this scrutiny is finished.

On Sunday 21 February 2016, the website of the Daily Mail Australia published photographs (taken the previous day) of George Pell, strolling around the streets of Rome. So he is quite happy to roam around in Rome (but not, at present, in Australia).

3 case-studies: Sydney, Melbourne, Ballarat

George Pell, who was born in Ballarat in 1941, was a Ballarat East priest from 1973 to 1983, in charge of education in the Ballarat diocese over that period and also acted as an adviser to Bishop Mulkearns. He was later the archbishop of Melbourne (from 1996 to 2001) and then became the archbishop of Sydney before gaining his current senior role in the Vatican (in charge of the Vatican's treasury) in 2014.

The Royal Commission has been examining a series of three specific case-studies:

• Case Study 8, held in Sydney, in March 2014, concerning Sydney matters. Pell, who was then the archbishop of Sydney, answered questions for this case study in person. This was just before he departed from Sydney to take up his new role in Rome being in charge of the Vatican's treasury.
• Case Study 35 (about how clergy sexual abuse was handled in the archdiocese of Melbourne, which means the Melbourne metropolitan area). For this case study, Pell was questioned in May 2015 by video-link, just after his secret visit to Australia.
• Case Study 28 (about the diocese of Ballarat, covering the western half of the state of Victoria).

The Royal Commission had hoped to do its final cross-examination of Pell for Case Study 28 at a public hearing in Melbourne on 16 December 2015. This is the public hearing that Pell dodged when his lawyers lodged his "sick note".

If a possible witness is overseas, a royal commission does not have the power to force this person to come to Australia to be questioned at a hearing of the royal commission. However, a royal commission can refer certain matters to Australian police for further investigation. (For example, in Victoria the Royal Commission co-operates with detectives in the Sano Taskforce, who investigate child-sex crimes for the Victoria Police.) The final task of Australia's child-abuse royal commission is to provide a comprehensive list of recommendations to governments and institutions to ensure that errors of the past are prevented from happening again.

Why is Pell avoiding a PUBLIC visit to Australia?

Australian observers noticed several interesting events occurring in church affairs in late 2015, around the time when Pell suddenly went missing:

• In November 2015, just weeks before he was due to attend the Royal Commission in Melbourne, Pell travelled to France (to visit World War One battlefields), according to a report published later in the Melbourne Herald Sun. Evidently his health did not prevent him from taking this trip.
• By early December 2015, the Royal Commission was well advanced into its four-weeks public hearing about Melbourne and Ballarat matters
• Around this time (according to a later reports), Victoria Police detectives were investigating complaints about child-sex assaults that were allegedly committed at Melbourne's St Patrick's Cathedral between 1996 and 2001. On Wednesday 2 December (according to Fairfax Media), detectives from the Victoria Police sex-crimes squad executed a search warrant on premises associated with Melbourne's St Patrick's Catholic cathedral.
• On Friday 11 December (three working-days before Pell was due to step into the witness-box in Melbourne), it was announced at the Royal Commission public hearing that Cardinal Pell has decided that, for "health" reasons, he does not wish to make another plane trip from Rome to Melbourne. [But did he consider travelling in first-class, accompanied by a doctor, and doing the trip in stages with stopovers along the way?]. Pell sent the Royal Commission a medical certificate signed by a medical specialist who works for the Vatican. The medical certificate didn't say that Pell couldn't travel; it merely indicated that that it would be better for Pell if he did the evidence by video-link from Rome.
• On 23 December, the Victoria Police sex crimes squad issued a media release, saying that the squad's Sano Taskforce wants to hear from any members of the public who have knowledge about any child-sex assaults that were allegedly committed at Melbourne's cathedral between 1996 and 2001.To read more about this police investigation, click HERE.

On 5 February 2016, the Royal Commission held a brief procedure (a "directions hearing") to ascertain whether Cardinal Pell is prepared to visit Australia to appear in person when the public hearing (on the Melbourne and Ballarat case studies) resumes later in February 2016. The answer from Pell's lawyers was (surprise, surprise): "No, Your Honour, he is still not well enough".

Significantly, Broken Rites can reveal that Cardinal Pell's chief media strategist (from the Sydney Archdiocese headquarters) was one of the people (e.g., lawyers, etc) who were present at this directions hearing. In the past, many of Pell's statements regarding church's sex-abuse have been issued (in Pell's name) by his media strategists as "media releases" (rather than being uttered by Pell himself at a public hearing, where he can be cross-examined).

The Melbourne-Ballarat public hearing resumed in the week beginning Monday 22 February 2016 — this time in Ballarat. Pell is being questioned by video link from Rome in the week beginning February 29.

Because of Pell's absence from Australia, people attending the public hearing in Australia have to watch the cross-examination of Pell on a large video screen. Some victims have flown to fly to Rome, so they can be present in the conference room in which Pell is being cross-examined by video-link from Australia.

You can watch the Royal Commission's telecast

The Royal Commission will hold a public hearing for two weeks, beginning on Monday 22 February 2016. You can watch the proceedings via the Commission's website.

The public hearing is being held in two parts:

• Week beginning Monday 22 February 2016, starting at 10.00am, Melbourne-Sydney time: The Royal Commission held a public hearing regarding the Catholic Diocese of Ballarat (covering western Victoria). The hearing was held at the Ballarat Magistrates Court. The public was entitled to attend (any overflow was accommodated in the Trench Room at Ballarat Town Hall).
• Week beginning Monday 29 February 2016: The Royal Commission is examining Cardinal George Pell by video link from Rome. He is being questioned about matters concerning the Melbourne archdiocese and the Ballarat diocese. The Royal Commission is sitting in Sydney, and, to cope with the time difference from Rome, the questioning of Cardinal Pell will start at 8.00am Monday, Sydney-Melbourne time. This is 10.00pm Sunday, Rome time. The questioning will continue for about four hours (until mid-day Sydney time, which is 2.00am Rome time), including a short recess in the middle. Because Pell has chosen bed-time in Rome for the hearing, the hearing will have to be spread over about three, or possibly four days. The Trench Room at Ballarat Town Hall will be made available for members of the Australian community during the questioning of Cardinal Pell. Other Australians are also be able to watch Pell on a video-screen in the Sydney courtroom where the Royal Commissioners is sitting.

Pell's refusal to re-visit Australia for the Royal Commission has certainly increased the public scrutiny of him around the world.

To find the Royal Commission's telecast of its public hearings, click HERE.

To see more from Broken Rites about Pell's background in Australia, click HERE.

By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 17 June 2016

The Christian Brothers sheltered Brother John Vincent ("Chris") Roberts throughout his long teaching career in New South Wales, while he was a danger to young schoolboys. Although Catholic Church sex crimes were usually concealed from the police, the police finally charged Roberts in 2015 with multiple offences (including rape) against one of his victims, who was aged 12 when abused in the 1980s. The information about this victim reached the police via Australia's national Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The Royal Commission informs each victim that he or she is entitled to have a private interview with police detectives. In court on 15 June 2016, Roberts (aged 74) pleaded guilty regarding this boy. Now Roberts is awaiting the court's sentence.

Born in April 1942, Brother John Vincent Roberts commenced teaching at Christian Brothers schools in the mid-1960s. New Brothers normally adopted a new forename, so this recruit became known as Br "Chris" Roberts.

He taught at various Catholic schools in Sydney, regional NSW and Canberra. Here are some of those (not a complete list):-

• His schools included St Patrick's College, Sutherland, Sydney (from 1975 to 1977). The Sutherland school was for boys only, years 7 to 12. Since then, the Christian Brothers have left and the school has merged with a nearby girls school, Mary Immaculate College, so now St Patrick’s College is co-educational.
• From 1978 until 1983, he taught at St Edmund's College, Canberra.
• In the late 1980s he was teaching at Edmund Rice College, Wollongong, south of Sydney. This college is named after the "Blessed" Edmund Rice, who founded the Christian Brothers in Ireland in the early 19th century.

The court charges relate to the Wollongong college in the 1980s.

Roberts, who was living in Fairlight on Sydney’s northern beaches in 2015, was interviewed by police at Sydney's Redfern Police Station in December 2015. There, he was charged with 21 offences including multiple counts of homosexual intercourse (teacher of pupil) and indecent assault where the victim was under his authority.

On 9 March 2016, Roberts appeared in Wollongong Local Court, where the charges were officially filed.

Police information, submitted in court, alleged that Roberts committed several acts of indecency upon the child, including fondling his penis and anus, and masturbating him. Police also alleged that Roberts rubbed his own erect penis over the boy’s body at least twice during 18 months. Furthermore, police alleged that Roberts raped the boy on several occasions.

In Wollongong Local Court on 15 June 2016, Roberts pleaded guilty to eleven of the 21 charges

The sentencing process for John Vincent Roberts is scheduled to begin in Wollongong District Court in mid-August 2016.

After retiring from teaching in the early 1990s, Brother Roberts was employed in the Christian Brothers headquarters in Sydney's Balmain.

By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 23 June 2016

Broken Rites has done research about Christian Brother William John Obbens (known as Brother "Dominic" Obbens), who was convicted in court in 1989 for sexually abusing a boy (let's call him "Gus") at St Patrick’s College, Goulburn, in south-western New South Wales. The Christian Brothers covered-up the crime and the court case. They did not tell the school's students or parents about it and did not ask if any victims needed help. The victim, "Gus", went on to have a damaged adult life.

"Gus" was a boarder at St Patrick’s College, Goulburn, in the late 1980s, aged in his early teens. This was then a boys-only school, conducted by the Christian Brothers.

In 1988, a senior student ("Dudley") noticed that Gus was upset and asked him why. Gus told him that he had been sexually assaulted by Brother Obbens.

Dudley thought that it would be counter-productive to report the offence to the Christian Brothers because they would cover it up. So Dudley phoned Gus's father, who then came to the school, where Gus told him some (but not all) of the details. Gus's father then took the boy away from the school, forever.

Brother Obbens was transferred away from the school, with the Christian Brothers claiming that he was on sick leave. He was transferred to Sydney, where the Christian Brothers had other schools. He continued to be a Christian Brother, spending the remainder of his career in an administrative position in the Christian Brothers headquarters at Balmain in Sydney.

Gus eventually had an interview with detectives from the NSW Police. He alleged that, on a number of occasions (either in the evening or after lights-out), Brother Obbens took him to another room, where Gus was sexually abused.

The police then prosecuted Brother Obbens in a Local Court.

Not wishing to worry his parents, Gus had refrained from telling the police everything that Brother Obbens did to him. Therefore the charges made in court were reduced to a "touch-up" offence.

The court gave Brother Obbens a jail sentence but this was wholly suspended, allowing him to serve the sentence in the community on the usual conditions (e.g., maintaining good behaviour). Thus, he walked free from the court and was looked after by the Christian Brothers Order.

A former student, who was attending the Goulburn school in 1988-89, has stated in 2014:

"When Brother Obbens was transferred from St Pat's, we students knew that this was as a result of the allegations. But the Christian Brothers did not tell us that he had received a conviction and a suspended jail sentence. It was covered up. The whole thing should have been clearly communicated to the students and parents, and boys with any complaints of abuse should have been allowed, and encouraged, to come forward."

Further allegations by the victim

Gus's victimisation (and the cover-up) had a bad effect on him. After his family removed him from St Patrick’s College, Gus's life deteriorated and eventually (in his twenties) his life became a "complete mess".

As Gus’s situation worsened, his parents finally learned that the sexual abuse was more than a mere "touch-up".

In 2002, desperate for help, Gus decided to complain to the Catholic Church’s Professional Standards Office in New South Wales. He eventually had an interview with a senior representative of the Christian Brothers. Gus gave the Christian Brothers a written statement, dated 5 March 2003.

This statement alleged in part:

• "On several occasions Brother Obbens called me out of the second half of night study and took me to his bedroom, where he sexually assaulted me.

  "He would begin by cuddling me from behind, leaning up against me so that I could feel his erect penis. He proceeded to put his hand down my pants and fondle my genitals. On two occasions he removed my clothes and his own and engaged me in mutual masturbation.

  "On another occasion he woke me late at night and led me to the room in the boarding school where the mattresses and blankets were stored. Here he removed my pyjamas and his own clothes and involved me in mutual masturbation and oral sex.

  "I do not know why he began to take an interest in me. Maybe it was because I was good at sport… At shower time, he would stand near the first cubicle and stare at the genitals of the boy who happened to be showering there. He did that to me on more than one occasion.

  "I did not like what was happening and reported it to [a very senior Brother in the school’s administration] the day after Brother Obbens interfered with me in the mattress room. I did not tell [the very senior Brother] or the police who interviewed me later everything because I was embarrassed and because I did not want to make things worse for my parents who were dealing with the sexual abuse of my sister by a teacher at [another school in New South Wales]."

Apology

After 2003, Gus moved to various addresses around Australia, while his life continued to deteriorate. Meanwhile, his parents were still worried about the damage that had been done to Gus and the whole family. The damage was caused not only by the offences but also by the church's cover-up. In December 2007 (when Gus was in his thirties), his parents had an interview at the Sydney offices of the Christian Brothers. Those present at the meeting included:

1. Gus's father;
    
2. the mother;
    
3. a very senior Christian Brother representing the order's New South Wales administration; and
    
4. Brother Obbens.

At the meeting, Gus's parents demanded a written apology for the damage that had been done to their family. In early 2008, they received a hand-written letter from the Christian Brothers Oceania Support Centre (NSW, ACT and PNG) in Sydney. The writer was Brother Dominic Obbens. Broken Rites possesses a photocopy of this letter.

The letter, dated 1 February 2008, stated:

• Dear Mr and Mrs ******,

  I refer to our meeting last year which I felt was an important one...

  I readily apologise to you for my behaviour and realize the hurt my behaviour has brought to the whole family.

  I likewise apology to [your son] and acknowledge the grave adverse consequences of my actions.

  I can assure you that I am very much aware of my responsibilities in this regard which will always weigh on me very heavily. I have fully co-operated with the police in relation to the matter and will carry a very heavy responsibility forever.

  I think all I can say is that all of you are in my thoughts and prayers and hope that our meeting in December might help a bit in allowing you to go forward.

  Kind regards,

  Brother Dominic Obbens

Another case

In 2008, Broken Rites learned about another former pupil of St Patrick's Goulburn (let's call him "Felix") who says he was a victim of Brother Obbens in the late 1980s. Felix says that after this abuse his personal development was disrupted.

In 1995, when he was experiencing severe personal difficulties, Felix first told his parents about the assault - 17 years after the abuse. His parents complained to the Christian Brothers headquarters in Sydney, where they were told that Brother Obbens "was convicted of assault in Goulburn Local Court in 1989 and received a suspended sentence".

By mid-2007, Felix was diagnosed with severe depression and alcoholism, and had suicidal tendencies. He was hospitalised and was admitted under the Mental Health Act. His wife finally learned what had happened to him at school and she loyally stood by Felix through this terrible time.

Felix used all his sick leave and long-service leave and by mid-2008 he was on sick leave with no pay.

Felix had a meeting with a representative of the Catholic Church's Towards Healing program, who told Felix that he was the fifth person (as of mid-2008) to make a complaint against Brother Obbens.

A third example

Another boy, born in March 1974 (let's call him "Barnaby"), encountered Brother Obbens at St Patrick's College Goulburn in the 1980s, when Barnaby was aged 12-13. At school, Barnaby was a top student and a top athlete but the sexual abuse (and the church cover-up) damaged his later life. After leaving school, he did not achieve his great potential. He began studying law but didn't complete his course. In his twenties and thirties, Barnaby went downhill with the personal trauma arising from his schooldays.

In 2009 Barnaby obtained a letter of apology (signed by a very senior Brother in the Christian Brothers administration). The letter said, vaguely, that the apology is for "what happened to you"— but the letter did not name the Brother who committed the abuse.

The evasive "apology" did not repair Barnaby's damaged life. He ended up dying by suicide in 2012, aged 38, leaving a widow and two children.

Settlements

The Christian Brothers have continued to look after Brother Obbens. After the 1989 Goulburn court case, the Christian Brothers headquarters retained him as a member of the religious order and merely transferred him to an administrative position in the Christian Brothers head office in Sydney.

Meanwhile, two decades after the Goulburn incidents, the alleged victims were still feeling hurt. Eventually (and separately) several of them tackled the church authorities, seeking compensation for the damage done to them. Finally Gus, Felix and Barnaby (and possibly other former students) each extracted an out-of-court civil settlement from the Christian Brothers. These modest settlements, which require a victim to give up his right to sue in the Supreme Court for damages, are a cost-effective way for the church to remove its legal liability. However, the settlements are not enough to compensate the victims for their damaged lives.

Background

St Patrick's College, Goulburn, was one of the earliest schools established by the Irish Christian Brothers in Australia. It was conducted by the Christian Brothers until 1999, when it amalgamated with Marian College for girls in Goulburn to become Trinity College, Goulburn. The Christian Brothers then left the school, being replaced by lay teachers.

Broken Rites recommends that any victim of church-related child-sex abuse should not report the crime to the church authorities (that is, don't "tip off" the offending organisation) but should, instead, consult a Detectives Office in the state police force. If a victim wishes to collect the compensation that is available through the church's insurance premiuim, he should ask a solicitor to send a letter of demand to the church authorities (but the solicitor must be one who has had experience in forcing the church accountants to give the victim a proper amount of compensation).

• To see more from Broken Rites about Brother William John Obbens, clickHERE.

By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 23 June 2016

Christian Brother William John Obbens (also known as Brother "Dominic" Obbens), now aged 70 and living in Sydney, has pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting boys at a school in a regional town in the late 1980s. On 9 May 2016, Brother Obbens appeared in Goulburn District Court (in south-western New South Wales) on three charges of sexual assault or indecent assault on three boys (then aged 11-13) while the boys were under his authority at St Patrick's Christian Brothers College, Goulburn (this school is known now as Trinity Catholic College Goulburn).

Brother Obbens was arrested at his Sydney residence on 11 December 2014 by detectives from Goulburn (in a special unit called Strike Force Charish). The chief investigator is Senior Detective Dave Turner, of Goulburn Detectives Office.

This case had its first mention in Goulburn Local Court on 22 December 2014 when the prosecutors officially filed the first two charges against Brother Obbens, relating to one boy.

The case had its next mention in the same court in early 2015, when two additional charges were laid against Brother Obbens, regarding a second boy, making a total of four charges.

Later, following further investigations by the Goulburn detectives, the charges were increased to five incidents involving three boys.

Judge David Frearson is scheduled to sentence Obbens in the Sydney District Court in mid-September 2016. Obbens has been granted conditional bail, although the court was told that the offences could necessitate a jail sentence. The case number for Obbens in the District Court is 2014/00364511.

According to statements made in court, Brother Obbens was convicted in 1989 for sexual abuse of another boy at the Goulburn school. [The 1989 conviction resulted in a jail sentence but this was wholly suspended, allowing Obbens to serve the sentence in the community, while he continued living with other Christian Brothers.]

Broken Rites research

The defendant's name was listed in court documents as: OBBENS, William John. When he first joined the Christian Brothers in the 1960s, this religious order normally gave its new recruits a "religious" name. Therefore, in the Christian Brothers, he became known as Brother "Dominic" Obbens (and was sometimes listed in church publications as Brother W.D. Obbens).

In the early 1980s, before going to St Patrick's Goulburn, Brother Obbens had been teaching at a Christian Brothers school in Sydney (St Patrick's Strathfield).

Brother Obbens was a teacher at St Patrick’s College, Goulburn, from 1986 to 1989, according to a book, entitled Up on the Hill: A History of St Patrick’s College, written by David Bollen.

St Patrick's College Goulburn was formerly a boys-only boarding school, conducted by the Christian Brothers. According to a history book about this school, the Brothers’ involvement at St Patrick’s College was winding down by the mid-1990s.

In 2000, the boys' college merged with a Catholic girls' school, Marian College, to become today's Trinity Catholic College Goulburn.

• To see more from Broken Rites about the background of Brother William John Obbens, clickHERE.

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated  24 June 2016)

Catholic priest Father Glenn Humphreys, who has ministered in several places around Australia, is currently in jail in Western Australia for child-sex crimes committed in that State. When he finishes his West Australian jail term in 2016, he is to be extradited to New South Wales to face a court there on charges relating to child-sex crimes allegedly committed in NSW.

Father Humphreys (born 6 July 1953) is a member of the Australia-wide Catholic order of Vincentian Fathers, which has its national headquarters in Sydney. This Order has priests working in several Australian states.

Father Humphreys moved to Perth in January 1983 after working on the staff of St Stanislaus College boys' school in Bathurst, New Souh Wales.

Jury verdict in W.A.

On 21 August 2014, Father Humphreys was found guilty by a West Australian jury of sexually abusing a teenage boy on church property in Western Australia between 1983 and 1986 while he was assistant priest at a church in Perth.

After six hours of deliberation, a W.A. District Court jury convicted Humphreys of four counts of unlawful and indecent assault.

The court was told Humphreys had assaulted the boy in the church's presbytery and in a bathroom at a nearby primary school.

He admitted having an "inappropriate" sexual relationship with the boy but claimed that their actions were consensual.

Giving evidence, Humphreys said he accepted that he took advantage of a vulnerable young person.

He admitted that he started to feel a sexual attraction to the boy in the second half of 1985, shortly before he took him away for a holiday.

"It didn't dawn on me at the time that there was anything unusual with that," he said.

"It was only a little break from the parish, that's all."

His victim, now aged 45, lives overseas but came back to Australia to give evidence. The victim told the court that the abuse left him confused and shocked, describing some of the incidents as "highly traumatising".

Two men who were allegedly abused by Humphreys in New South Wales (at St Stanislaus College, Bathurst) in the mid-1970s and early 1980s gave evidence during the West Australian trial, speaking by video link from NSW. The men testified that Humphreys would put on music, often by his favourite artist Barbra Streisand, before touching them inappropriately. [However, the charges in the W.A. court were confined to incidents that occurred in WA; any NSW matters must be handled by a NSW court.]

In 2012, after the West Australian victim revealed the abuse, Father Humphreys sent this victim a letter of apology and asked for his forgiveness.

Prosecutor James Mactaggart said Humphreys blatantly abused his position of trust.

Jailed in W.A.

On 15 October 2014, Humphreys appeared again in the W.A. District Court for sentence proceedings.

During pre-sentence submissions, Humphreys' lawyer said that, at the time of the abuse, his client was struggling to deal with his sexuality. He said his client had little exposure to the “real world” and was immature. He said Humphreys entered the seminary at 17 years and was ordained as a priest six years later.

District Court Judge Philip Eaton said that, at the time of the abuse, Humphreys was twice the age of his victim. Humphreys would have known his behaviour was "grossly inappropriate", the judge said.

The judge told Humphreys: "You are a well educated and intelligent individual ... and would have been well aware that what you were indulging in was grossly inappropriate," he said.

“Be not mistaken, I accept you are remorseful,” he said “The fact of general deterrence, in my view, remains a considerable one.”

The judge sentenced Humphreys to 22 months jail.

New charges in NSW

Because of the forthcoming charges in NSW, Humphreys has been denied parole in WA. In November 2015, a the NSW Magistrates Court issued a warrant for Humphreys' arrest on the NSW charges.

NSW police are charging Humphreys with seven counts of indecent assault against a male and a further seven charges of sexual assault (category 4) indecent act against a person aged over 14 but under 16. The new charges date back to his time working at St Stanislaus’ College in the 1970s and early 1980s. No pleas have yet been entered for the NSW charges.

Police are expected to arrest Humphreys when he is being released from prison in Western Australia to be extradited to NSW to face the Bathurst charges.

The NSW court has adjourned the Humphreys matter until he is extradited to New South Wales after finishing his Western Australian jail sentence.

Meanwhile, the investigation by New South Wales police is continuing. The NSW police investigation was begun by detectives in Strike Force Belle at Bathurst police station, NSW. The police officer who lodged the information for the court is listed as Detective Sergeant Justin Hadley, formerly of Bathurst Police, now attached to Sydney’s Northern Beaches police command.

Background research by Broken Rites

Fr Glenn Michael Humphreys (born 6 July 1953) is a member of a Catholic religious order, the Congregation of the Mission (also called the Vincentian Fathers). This order has various addresses around Australia. including:

• St STANISLAUS College, Bathurst, New South Wales. (Broken Rites has found that "Rev. G. Humphreys CM" was listed at this address in the 1979 edition of the Directory of Australian Catholic Clergy.)
• SYDNEY: Broken Rites has found that Rev. G. Humphreys has been listed at various times at the Vincentian Community in Eastwood, as well as St Anthony's parish in Marsfield and St Vincent's parish in Ashfield.
• WESTERN AUSTRALIA: St Vincent's parish in Kwinana, Perth.
• QUEENSLAND: The final ten years of Fr Glen Humphreys' career was spent ministering in the diocese of Townsville in north Queensland.

His final stop, north Queensland

In 2002 Father Humphreys went on loan from the Vincentian order to the Townsville diocese in north Queensland after the Vincentian national headquarters in Sydney provided a Letter of Clearance to Townsville Bishop Michael Putney. A Letter of Clearance is provided by a church superior following a check (made by the church) of any criminal history or complaints.

In 2002, he was listed as ministering in Kirwan, a suburb of the city of Townsville. After that, he was appointed to the Sacred Heart Cathedral parish in Townsville, where he became the administrator, running the cathedral parish on behalf of the bishop.

A second letter from the Vincentian national headquarters in 2008 gave the same assurances that Humphreys’ record was clear.

In mid-2011 the church authorities withdrew Father Humphreys from Townsville. After that, according to the annual Australian Catholic Directory, Fr Glenn Humphreys, CM, was based at a Vincentian house in Marsfield, Sydney, while NSW police were investigating allegations about sexual abuse involving Father Humphreys. Meanwhile, West Australian police were investigating Humphreys' West Australian activities, resulting in Humphreys' W.A. court case.

By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 22 June 2016

Catholic Church authorities knew that Father Michael Aulsebrook was a child-sex offender in the 1980s and 1990s but they retained him in the priesthood and even promoted him, according to statements made in an Australian court. Aulsebrook was a member of the Australia-wide order of Salesian priests and brothers, which has operated Catholic schools in several Australian states. In the Melbourne County Court in 2011, Aulsebrook was jailed for child-sex crimes committed in the 1980s at a Catholic boarding school in Victoria. This prompted more of his victims to speak to Victoria Police detectives, and therefore he was jailed again in the same court on 21 June 2016. Despite knowing about Aulsebrook's life of crime in Victoria, the Salesian leaders promoted him in the 1990s to be in charge of another Catholic school — in South Australia. The Salesian order is notorious for having tolerated multiple child-abusers in its ranks, and several of these Salesians have been brought to justice by the Victoria Police.

This Broken Rites article will deal with the 2011 case and then the 2016 case. At the end of the article, there are links to Broken Rites articles about some other priests and brothers in the Salesian Order.

The 2011 case

Michael Scott Aulsebrook appeared in the Melbourne County Court on 22 August 2011 (when he was aged 55) for sentencing after he pleaded guilty to multiple incidents of indecent assault, committed against a 12-year-old boy.

The court was told that this was not the only boy who lodged a complaint about Aulsebrook. A separate complaint in 1993 by another boy had been settled by the church, in private, out-of-court.

Aulsebrook's lawyer conceded that Aulsebrook's offending was not isolated, the court was told.

Representatives of the church gave character evidence for Aulsebrook and were in court at the sentencing to show their support for him (rather than supporting the victim).

The court was told that Michael Aulsebrook joined the Catholic religious order of Salesian priests and brothers. At first, he was a religious brother (BrotherAulsebrook) and later (even after the church authorities knew that he was a danger to children) he was ordained as a priest (Father Aulsebrook).

The offences, for which he was sentenced, happened during a period of several months in 1983 when Brother Aulsebrook was in charge of Year 7 and 8 students at Salesian College, "Rupertswood" (a boarding school in Sunbury, north-west of Melbourne).

When sentencing Aulsebrook, Judge Tim Wood told the court some details about the offences. He said Aulsebrook met this victim on the boy's first day at the school, when the child's mother told her son that if he had any problems he should take them to "Brother Michael".

In the next few months, Aulsebrook groomed the boy, buying him treats from the school tuck shop and spending lunch and recess breaks with him, Judge Wood said.

The first assault occurred when the boy and three classmates were ordered to stand outside Aulsebrook's room over a disciplinary matter, the judge said.

After dealing with the others, Aulsebrook invited the boy to sit on his knee and attempted to handle him indecently until the boy hastily left the room in fright.

The next day he told the boy everything was all right, later telling him that their meetings were secret and that he shouldn't tell anyone.

Classmates interrupted the abuse on more than one occasion when they came looking for the victim. He was frightened and told his mates that he had been in trouble.

Judge Wood said that, sometimes, after lights out in the school dormitory, the boy would be lured to Aulsebrook's bedroom, where he would be directed to sit on Aulsebrook's knee. Then, as they listed to the radio or watched television, Aulsebrook would handle the boy's genitals.

Judge Wood said Aulsebrook would give a secret signal when he wanted the boy to join him in Aulsebrook's bedroom, which adjoined the dormitory.

On two occasions he also attempted to kiss the boy and on others he lay on top of him after removing his victim's pants.

In his sentencing remarks, the judge said that Aulsebrook admitted that another complaint of sexual abuse had been made against him by another boy in 1993 and Aulsebrook received "counseling" from the Salesian order but no criminal prosecution occurred.

After he had a period away from teaching, the Salesians then appointed him to St Mark's College in Port Pirie, South Australia, where he served as school principal until 2003.

In the years after the assaults in Victoria, Aulsebrook maintained contact with the Victorian victim's family and even attended the victim's wedding where he blessed the couple's wedding rings.

Judge Wood said Aulsebrook would also meet the man and his wife socially until the complaint was made against him.

The judge said the victim had a nervous breakdown in 2000 and said he had been molested but his family did not believe him at first. He eventually reported it to the church, and the Salesian Order then gave him a payout to "settle" that matter.

Meanwhile, Aulsebrook resigned from the priesthood and worked as a public servant in Canberra.

While sentencing Aulsebrook, Judge Wood said that there were several aggravating features of his case, including a gross breach of trust, his exploitation and lack of insight.

Aulsebrook, who had pleaded guilty to assaulting the boy on five occasions from May to August in 1983, was sentenced in relation to three "representative" charges.

On 22 August 2011, Judge Wood sentenced Aulsebrook to a total of two years' jail with 15 months suspended, meaning that he would serve nine months behind bars.

The 2016 case

Aulsebrook, who is no longer in the priesthood, was jailed again in the same court on 21 June 2016 (aged 60) regarding three more victims.

• He was charged with having raped a boy at Salesian College "Rupertswood" in Sunbury, Victoria. He pleaded not guilty to one count of rape but a jury found him guilty. The rape occurred in 1988 when Father Aulsebrook was the boarding co-ordinator. He lured the boy to his office one night with the offer of playing computer games, the court was told. The boy was given a soft drink spiked with a sedative. He woke to find himself lying on the floor and being raped. After raping him, Aulsebrook told the boy: "Get out of my sight. You disgust me". Judge Geoffrey Chettle said Aulsebrook's remark was calculated to transfer his own guilt onto the boy. This victim was also raped by another priest at the school, David Rapson, in a separate incident in that same year.
• Aulsebrook pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting two other victims – a boy and a girl. In 1987, while staying with the boy's family, Aulsebrook molested the then seven-year-old and also attacked him eight years later. Also in 1995, he molested the girl – then aged seven or eight – while staying with her family. The boy and girl were both attacked while sleeping in their beds, the court was told.

The court was told that the three victims (the rape victim and the younger boy and girl) had all experienced problems into their adult lives, including depression, anxiety, flashbacks, nightmares, self-harm and substance abuse.

Judge Chettle said Aulsebrook's offending was the "serious serial exploitation of young victims in a predatory" manner. His rape of the boarding student was an inexcusable breach of trust, the judge said, for which he had shown "absolutely no remorse".

Judge Chettle sentenced Aulsebrook for eight and a half years' jail. Aulsebrook must spend five years and nine months in prison before he is eligible for parole.

Judge Chettle said he had to jail Aulsebrook in line with 1988 sentencing laws. Rape carried a maximum penalty of 10 years at the time, whereas now it carries a maximum 25 years.

More Broken Rites articles

See articles by Broken Rites about some other members of the Salesian religious order:

• Father Julian Benedict Fox— jailed.
   
• Father Frank Klep— jailed.
   
• Brother Gregory Vincent Coffey (or Coffin) — convicted.
   
• Father Paul Raymond Evans— jailed.
   
• Brother Paul van Ruth— jailed.
   
• Father Jack Ayers— civil settlement.
   

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated  1 July 2016)

A prominent Catholic educator, Christian Brother William Peter ("David") Standen, was the principal at Sydney's St Mary's Cathedral College for a decade before he retired in 2010. During his career he also spent six years as the deputy principal at St Dominic's College, Penrith, in Sydney's outer-west. On 10 June 2016, Standen was jailed for indecently assaulting vulnerable young boys at one of his earlier schools (a Catholic boarding school in south-western New South Wales between 1977 and 1981). These boys were aged 10, 11 or 12, feeling isolated and homesick in their first year away from their rural families. The Catholic Church sheltered Brother Standen during these crimes, putting the boys in danger. Overwhelmed by the church's "holy" image, the victims were forced to remain silent about the crimes for many years. Some of the victims have told the court how this cover-up damaged their later lives, ending up in family break-ups and/or life-long struggles with drug and/or alcohol abuse and damaged careers. This Broken Rites article includes a link to a video showing how this case began when detectives arrested Standen at Sydney airport in August 2014.

Brother Standen, who is still officially accepted as a member of the Christian Brothers (aged 67 in 2016), pleaded guilty to committing indecent assaults or indecent acts against 18 boys at this country boarding school, where he was the year 7 dormitory master when he was aged about 30. These 18 boys were not necessarily his only victims; these 18 are merely the victims who took the opportunity of being included in this court case.

According to information submitted in court during the hearings, one boy at a time would be summoned to Brother Standen's living quarters after "lights out" under the guise of discipline or tuition. Standen would order the boy to bend over, or to lie face-down on Standen's bed or across his knee, and would then molest the boy as he quizzed him on mathematics or tested his spelling. Brother Standen would then commit the acts of indecency.

At the time of Standen's offences, this boarding school was a "Christian Brothers College" for boys. By the mid-1990s, the Christian Brothers’ involvement in this school was winding down, with an increasing number of lay staff. In 2000, this boys' school merged with a local Catholic girls' school to become co-educational, with a new name not containing the words "Christian Brothers".

When Judge Anthony Blackmore conducted a pre-sentence hearing in Sydney's Downing Centre Criminal Court on 15 April 2016, Standen's defence lawyer (whose fees were provided by the Christian Brothers) requested a non-publication order, suppressing the name of the school where Standen's offences occurred. [Two other Christian Brothers are each facing future trials for child-sex offences allegedly committed at this same school.] For legal reasons, Judge Blackmore granted this suppression order regarding the name of the school but he refused another request by the same lawyer for a suppression order on Brother Standen's name.

According to court documents, Brother Standen was charged under his birth name, William Peter Standen. The documents give his date of birth as 4 April 1949.

[In the Christian Brothers order, his religious name is Brother "David" Standen. Within the Christian Brothers, he has also been listed as Brother "W.D." Standen.]

How the case began

Police (from a unit called "Strikeforce Charish") arrested Standen on 19 August 2014 at Sydney Airport when he was returning to Australia after being overseas. The chief investigator was Senior Detective Dave Turner, of Goulburn Detectives Office.

Standen appeared first before a magistrate in May 2015 in a regional Local Court. The magistrate granted bail pending Standen's future court proceedings.

In another court appearance on 29 February 2016, Standen pleaded guilty to 11 child-sex offences. He indicated that he would plead not guilty to all other charges.

Standen was due to face trial at Sydney's Downing Centre District Court on 1 March 2016 regarding the contested charges. However, he told the court, just before a jury was due to be empanelled, that he wanted to "consider his position". He returned to court next morning and pleaded guilty, meaning he could now be sentenced regarding all 18 victims. Standen was remanded in custody.

Victims' impact statements

Standen was brought back to court, in custody, on 15 April 2016, for a pre-sentence hearing. Any of the victims now had the right to submit an impact statement to the pre-sentence hearing, telling the judge how the abuse (and the cover-up) affected their later life.

Standen sat in the court prisoners' dock as eleven victims took turns to read out their impact statements. Several victims were too upset to speak; therefore, their statements were read out by a support person.

One victim told Standen: "I now know that I can look at you and see clearly that your power is rapidly diminishing, whilst my power continues to grow and flourish. As it turns out, these were your demons, not mine. I have faced them [the demons], taken them on and defeated them."

One victim said he was terrified by the abuse. He said: "Every minute of my life was taken up with avoiding Brother Standen. So bad was my fear that I would wet the bed to avoid meeting Brother Standen at night on the way to the bathroom. I became a loner who trusted nobody and feared everyone."

Other victims recalled being groped through their underwear or being watched in the showers.

One victim recalled the day his family first delivered him to the school. He said:

"I remember the sense of loneliness as my father and sister left me there that afternoon but my father insisted that the Brothers would look after me and take care of me."

This victim said Standen's abuse began within weeks. His statement said:

"I had never been disciplined like this before in my life.

"I was naive. I didn't know whether this punishment was only for particularly bad boys or whether this was the norm.

"After all, I had been indoctrinated from birth that when in times of strife, turn to the church, and these Christian brothers were men of the church."

Jailed

Sentencing Standen on 10 June 2016, Judge Blackmore said that Standen's guilty plea entitled him to a discount on the sentence but a full-time custodial sentence was the only option.

The judge described Brother Standen's actions on the boys as "deplorable". While he agreed with the defence that the offences were not at the top end of abuse, there were a number of aggravating circumstances, he said.

"The offences were committed on young boys who were isolated, away from home, vulnerable and at times home sick," the judge said.

"Some were experiencing separation anxiety and he used this as a basis to take them to his room. He was in a position of trust and he completely abused that trust. It is a breach of trust of the highest order in my view."

The court had been told that Standen used the guise of discipline to take boys into his room. The physical "punishments" included Brother Standen handling the boys' genitals. Judge Blackmore did not accept that this was within the range of discipline at the school at the time. He described it as "wrong on every level."

Judge Blackmore said the offences had had a devastating impact on victims' lives. He praised them for their courage in detailing this in their impact statements to the court.

Judge Blackmore sentenced William Peter Standen to nine years two months in prison. Standen will serve a four years and seven months before becoming eligible to apply for parole.

Civil action

A Canberra legal firm is acting for some of Standen's victims in demanding compensation from the Christian Brothers headquarters in Australia for the damage done to each of these victims.

Video

On the website of the Goulburn Post newspaper, you can watch a video of police arresting a Christian Brother William Peter ("David") Standen at Sydney airport on 19 August 2014 when he arrived back in Australia from abroad. To find the three-minute video, click HERE. Near the top of that page there is a still photo, taken at the airport. Further down that page there is another still photo, which you can click to reach the video.

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 7 July 2016)

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. Many years later, some of Farrell's victims (but not the church officials) reported Farrell to child-protection police, resulting in the jailing of Farrell in 2016. Now, Australia's national child-abuse Royal Commission is investigating the church's long silence about Farrell's crimes. Concealing a crime can, itself, be a criminal offence. This Broken Rites article is the most comprehensive account available about the Farrell cover-up.

Some people have already given information in private to the Royal Commission about the Farrell cover-up. In addition, the Royal Commission has announced that it will hold a public hearing about the church's handling of this matter, beginning on 12 September 2016 at the Royal Commission’s hearing rooms (at Level 17, Governor Macquarie Tower, 1 Farrer Place, Sydney). This will be the Royal Commission's Case Study 44.

Church document

According to a church 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, some of these families spoke 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 (whom Broken Rites will call "Padraic"— not his real name) told Four Corners that his son ("Maximilian"— not his real name) was indecently assaulted on the genitals by Father Farrell in 1983. Immediately after the abuse occurred, Maximilian (an altar boy) told his father about it. Padraic 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 Padraic, one of these was an abused boy who was a friend of Maximilian).

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, says a church document

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, an outlying town in the Armidale diocese. [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 cover-up in 1982-84

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).

Father Farrell's background

Born in 1953, John Joseph Farrell grew up (and went to Catholic schools) 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).

When he was a young adult (evidently in his twenties), John Farrell was endorsed by Bishop Henry Kennedy to go to Sydney to study in seminaries (doing the early years at Springwood and the later years at Manly) to be trained for the priesthood.

He was ordained as a priest on 28 September 1981 and was appointed as an assistant priest in the parish of Moree (called the St Francis Xavier parish), beginning on 11 November 1981. Father Farrell belonged specifically to the Armidale diocese and normally he would be expected to spend his career in the various towns of this region.

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 F, 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 F'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 F's superior at the Tamworth parish, is a significant figure in the Farrell story. Hanna was born in the early 1950s, around the same time as Farrell. They both grew up in the town of Armidale and attended school there. Hanna, who came from a high-profile Armidale business family, became a priest 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 is now 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 in a local 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 parish's Catholic solicitor, Farrell refused to answer various questions (about the alleged incidents) which were put to him by the police.

Early on the evening of 11 August 1987, the arrest of Father John Farrell was reported on the Tamworth local regional commercial television news bulletin. The news item gave the priest's full name, plus the charges. But, meanwhile, on that same date, the church's lawyers obtained an injunction from a Supreme Court judge, preventing the next morning's newspapers (such as Tamworth's Northern Daily Leader) from publishing the name of the defendant or any details. Thus, the newspapers could not mention the Catholic Church or the fact that "the man charged" was a clergyman. However, many people had already heard the priest's name on the earlier TV bulletin.

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. It was headed by a Sydney barrister, Mr Chester Porter QC, who has also conducted the defence for prominent criminals in Sydney courts.

According to church documents (examined by Antony Whitlam QC), the church paid for the services of Mr Chester Porter QC.

(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 happened to be (surprise, surprise) a Catholic magistrate who was personally acquainted with Father Farrell.

(Why did this magistrate not step aside from hearing the case?)

When Damian's family heard the name of this magistrate, they felt pessimistic about the outcome.

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, the Catholic magistrate 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, the magistrate 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.

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

When the Armidale Catholic diocese hired Antony Whitlam QC in 2012 to write a report for the church about the Father F matter, Whitlam reported that the reasons of the magistrate 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." 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' 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 letter to Armidale Bishop Kevin Manning (dated 11 September 1992), giving an account of this meeting. In the letter, 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 letter, 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).

Cardinal George Pell 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 Sydney's publicity-oriented new archbishop, Cardinal George Pell, complaining about how Father Farrell (and the church's protection of Farrell) had disrupted Bill's life. Pell 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, Farrellpaid 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.

The church in damage control in 2004

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

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 the "Four Corners" program

In early 2012, Broken Rites spoke to the producers of the Australian television program Four Corners and this program eventually ran a program 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. This letter (dated 11 September 1992) is on the Four Corners website.

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 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 (such as the above-mentioned "Bill") 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.

The church "investigates" itself

After the Four Corners program in 2012, the bishops of Armidale and Parramatta announced that they would hire a senior barrister (Antony Whitlam QC) to write a report for the church on certain aspects of the Father F matter. The report was limited to certain terms of reference as defined by the church authorities.

It is not known how much the church paid Mr Whitlam for his work but he certainly did what the church paid him for.

The church's Whitlam report was released to the media on 17 January 2013.

The Antony Whitlam report was focussed on church correspondence (that is, whatever documents church authorities chose to show to Mr Whitlam), plus Mr Whitlam's interviews with some bishops and priests, Damian Jurd's parents and Daniel Powell's mother.

In the past, church leaders have claimed "not knowing" the names of Father F's other altar boys, apart from Damian Jurd and Daniel Powell. But Broken Rites knows the names of many of these families — and now detectives from the New South Wales Sexual Crimes Squad, also, know those names.

The Sexual Crimes Squad has established a team of detectives (named Task Force Glenroe) to investigate the Father F affair. This is appropriate, because it is the job of the police (not the Catholic Church) to carry out an investigation of crimes, including the concealing of crimes.

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.

• 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.
• To see a Broken Rites summary of the court proceedings against John Joseph Farrell in 2012-1016, 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.

Broken Rites will continue doing research about how the Catholic Church covered up the crimes of Father John Joseph Farrell.

By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 8 July 2016

One way in which the Catholic Church has traditionally covered up its sex-abuse crimes is by not revealing any written record about complaints. But in 2013, prominent Australian journalist Geraldine Willesee forced the Perth archdiocese to release a 1963 letter which reveals that a priest (Father Brian Gerard Harris) admitted abusing her when she was a pupil in his custody, aged 14, at a Catholic school in Perth. The priest's admission indicates that he was committing a possible criminal offence but the church managed to conceal this information from the police. The church allowed Father Harris to continue as a priest and it successfully concealed Father Harris's admission for 50 years until 2013.

The letter, dated 4 December 1963, was written by a Perth parish priest (Father Cyril Stinson) to Perth's then Archbishop (the Irish-born Redmond Prendiville). In it, Stinson urges the archbishop to deal with his assistant priest, Fr Harris, who (he warns) could "go to prison" for his behaviour towards the child (that is, such a jailing would damage the reputation of the Catholic Church).

Starting with Prendiville, there have now been five consecutive archbishops of Perth who have had access to this letter in their files but, until 2013, they have refused to release it.

Father Brian Gerard Harris (born in Perth on 19 May 1930) was recruited at the age of 14 as an aspirant to study for career in the priesthood of the Perth archdiocese and then, from the age of 23, he spent his whole life ministering in that archdiocese. He was aged 33 in 1963 when he admitted that he had been behaving improperly towards 14-year-old Geraldine.

This schoolgirl eventually developed a career as a well-known journalist — Geraldine Willesee. In 2010 Geraldine Willesee discovered a picture of Harris in a Catholic newspaper. He was still a priest and had just been awarded a papal medal for his "apostolic work".

In 2010 Geraldine Willesee began tackling the Perth archdiocese about its cover-up of Harris's 1963 behaviour. In 2010, Archbishop Barry Hickey confirmed the existence of the 1963 letter but refused to release it to Geraldine Willesee, even though the letter related to her.

Father Harris died in May 2012. In a glowing obituary, Harris was praised by Perth's current archbishop (Tim Costelloe) and his predecessor (Archbishop Barry Hickey).

In late 2012, not long after Father Harris's death, the Australian Government announced plans for a national Royal Commission of Inquiry into child-abuse in religious and other institutions. In early 2013, the government declared that this commission would have the power to force churches and other institutions to hand over any relevant documents.

Accordingly, on 7 February 2013 (nine months after Harris's death), the Perth archdiocese released the 1963 letter about Harris, although parts of the letter (including some names) were blacked out.

On 22 February 2013 Geraldine published an article in Fairfax Media publications, in which she quoted from Father Stinson's 1963 letter to his archbishop. The following extracts are from Geraldine Willesee's summary of the letter.

Stinson's letter is focussed on possible damage to the reputation of the church, rather than on the damage that might have been done to the 14-year-old child.

The letter begins:

• "Your Lordship, It is with deep regret that I feel it my duty to submit the following report concerning my curate, Father Brian Harris."

The next paragraph is blacked out as are many names of other priests. Stinson then describes a day when he returned to his Perth presbytery early.

• "I noticed Fr Harris's car was in the backyard. The whole house was locked ... By the time I unlocked the front door Fr Harris was running into the front room from his own quarters. He was dressed in his shirt and slacks and sox.

  "I went to my own room for a while ... then went down to Fr's to question him about a funeral ...

  "Father was now fully dressed. To my amazement also in the room was a young girl in ... [school] uniform. I recognised the girl as Geraldine Willesee ... daughter of Senator Don Willesee."

Stinson decides not to say anything in front of the girl, and Harris drives her home.

• "He came back shortly afterwards, bright and breezy, and made no reference to the incident. I mentioned the matter to [BLACKED OUT] and to Fr O'Brien and both of them were appalled at his stupidity ..."

  "Fr O'Brien was insistent that I should question Fr further ... [a week later I] did challenge him. He was very abusive and insolent, claimed that I always treated him with suspicion ... claimed that a nun, Mother [BLACKED OUT] ... had rung him and asked him to try and help this girl who had many problems.

  "I told him ... I thought I would have to report the matter. He told me to go right ahead, that he had nothing to fear and he would have his story to tell.''[Geraldine Willesee believes that this may have been a reference to Stinson's drinking habits.]

  "I gave the matter an awful lot of thought and prayer that night and decided to accept his explanation."

Father Stinson decides to join Harris at a youth Mass the next day and say a few words asking the youth to co-operate with Fr Harris and asking the parents to be grateful to him and to help him in his efforts.

• "Fr thanked me. As I found out later he then saw the girl again that day and the following day.

  "Fr O'Brien rang me ... the following day, Monday ... I told him I had decided ... to put the whole thing down to irresponsibility and lack of commonsense ... I would point out to Fr Harris his stupidity and appeal to him to try and grow up..."

Later in the letter, Fr Stinson writes:

• "Fr O'Brien confronted Fr Harris. Fr Harris thought the girl had named him and admitted it was all true. Fr O'Brien came that night and told me the story. Fr Harris approached me next morning, admitted it was all true and asked if I would give him another chance.

  "I pointed out that he had had many chances ... [and] that he could go to jail for interfering with minors. [Stinson's reference to "previous chances" indicates that this might not be the first child who was in danger with Father Harris.]

  "I had a long discussion with Fr [BLACKED OUT] who was most definite that Fr Harris should go away for several weeks."

Stinson and another priest, Father Nolan, did a deal with Harris: go into seclusion for two weeks, then put himself in Nolan's hands.

• "On Monday last I inquired from Fr Nolan as to progress only to be told that Fr Harris had not been back near him."

Stinson's letter has a postscript: "Fr Harris assured me that there had been no intercourse." Geraldine Willesee's article for Fairfax Media says: "That is true. There was no intercourse, just degradation."

According to the Perth archdiocese, church files contain no further information about what (if anything) was done about Father Harris after his admission about his behaviour towards the 14-year-old chil. There is no record of any reprimand. The archdiocese did not refer the matter to the civil child-protection authorities, such as the police child-abuse investigation squad.

Evidently Father Harris was merely granted a few weeks' holiday, before being rewarded with an appointment to a new parish.

Geraldine's death

The victim, Geraldine Willesee, died in June 2016 at her home in Sydney. Her daughter, Dani Baxter, told the media that Geraldine's that her battle with the Catholic Church, regarding the church's cover-up of Father BrianHarris, “took the last bit of energy out of her”.

“It was an extremely stressful experience, but I know that Mum wouldn’t cease something because it was difficult,” Ms Baxter said. “She was very much of the mind that bad things happen when good people say nothing. That was a motto she lived by.”

The priest's career

According to Broken Rites research, Brian Gerard Harris was born in Perth on 19 May 1930, the oldest in a family of five. He attended St Mary’s Primary School in Leederville and Christian Brothers College Leederville. Meanwhile, from the age of seven, he was friendly with the local priests, becoming an altar boy. He envisaged a career like these priests — that is, a full-time professional Catholic. And (as he later told an interviewer in 2009), "the lovely young priests helped me on the way". At 14, he was recruited as an aspirant for the priesthood by Reverend Lancelot John Goody, who was then the rector of St Charles Seminary in Perth (Goody later became the archbishop of Perth). After studying at St Patrick’s College seminary in Sydney, Harris was ordained for the Perth archdiocese on 25 July 1953, aged 23.

He then ministered at St Mary's Cathedral parish in Perth, was a chaplain at Royal Perth Hospital (including being a chaplain for nurses) and thereafter worked in various parishes of the Perth Archdiocese. An article in Perth's Catholic Record newspaper said that Fr Harris "enjoys" his chaplaincy work at the East Victoria Park Campus of Ursula Frayne College (for children from year 1 to year 12).

In 2009, Fr Harris was honoured with a Papal Award — Croce pro Ecclesia et Pontifice — in recognition of his apostolic work for the Church throughout more than 50 years of priesthood.

But the church's praise of Father Brian Gerard Harris does not mention certain behaviour of his that was covered up in 1963.

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 14 July 2016)

This Broken Rites article reveals how the Catholic Church authorities in Australia harboured a paedophile priest (Father Kevin Glover) for many years while he committed sexual crimes against local children. When his crimes became known in one parish, the church merely transferred him to another parish. Later, church arranged for him to transfer to a mission in the Pacific Islands (there, he was safe from any complaints by his Australian victims).

The priest's full name was William Kevin Glover but he was always known by his middle name, Kevin.

Fr Kevin Glover belonged to an Australia-wide religious order called the Society of Mary (also called the Marist Fathers) which has its headquarters in Sydney. Therefore, he was not confined to one diocese in one state. The Marist Fathers supplied Glover, on loan, to a succession of dioceses around Australia.

For a example, Glover spent some years ministering in the Bunbury diocese, which covers WA's south-west (the town of Bunbury is where the bishop is located). This is one of the four Catholic dioceses into which Western Australia is divided (the other dioceses are called Perth, Geraldton and Broome).

Since the year 2000, Broken Rites has been contacted by numerous victims, who encountered Fr Kevin Glover in Esperance (on WA's southern coast, 390 kilometres south of Kalgoorlie). Glover was in charge of the Esperance parish (called "Star of the Sea" parish) during the 1960s and '70s.

These victims are of varying ages and they do not necessarily know each other. They contacted Broken Rites separately, not knowing that Broken Rites was receiving other complaints about Father Glover. Broken Rites does not reveal a victim's name to anyone, not even to another victim.

Each of them knows that Glover was abusing various children. But many other Glover victims have remained silent. Glover worked hard to make himself into a popular figure in Esperance and victims feared that they would not be believed if they complained about the Glover's sexual offences.

Esperance was a rather isolated town - a perfect place for a paedophile priest to do his preying.

Here are four examples from the numerous Glover victims who have contacted Broken Rites:-

Example #1: Percival

One victim (let's call him "Percival" - not his real name) has told Broken Rites:

"I was sexually abused by Father Kevin Glover on many occasions in the 1960s when I was between the age of  9 and 12.

"I had a recurring illness, which would confine me to bed occasionally. During each illness, Father Glover would visit my bedside.  Because I used to have daily injections of medicine in my buttocks, my bottom was sore and bruised. Fr Glover used to get me to roll on my side and he then lifted the covers and rubbed my bottom. This was how it started, and as a young kid I thought he was just trying to be nice as he was a friend of our family.

"Over time, his hand would slip over to my genitals where he would stroke me. Then would get me to move my  bottom right over to the edge of the bed and soon I could feel his penis at my bottom.

"I went to school with many boys who frequented Glover in one way or another. Glover was always surrounded by boys and he used to pick up some boys everyday after school to either drop them home or go to the priest's house where they might have a sleep-over.

"He always gave us lollies and treats.

"He was a popular member of the Esperance community. He helped everyone, not only Catholics. He gave me a great reference when I left High School.

"When I was about 16 (about four years after I stopped seeing him), word got around Esperance that Glover was caught molesting another boy, who was among a bunch of boys having a sleep-over at the priest's house. Two of the other boys, who were not abused, revealed that Glover had abused one of their friends after lights-out, but I am not sure who they reported it to.  So, at last, Glover's activities were exposed.  The town was abuzz with this information.

"When I heard about this exposure, I realised that I too had been one of his victims - an earlier one. 

"I was shocked when he was caught, as he was a family friend and had spent time visiting us in our home.

"A lot of the boys I grew up with would have been abused by this fellow.

"After Glover was exposed in Esperance, the diocese transferred  him to a new parish, Margaret River, where I believe he was caught again.

"Up till a year ago (2012), I had told nobody about my abuse - and even my parents still don't know about it. Finally, in 2012, I  told only some close friends.

"I have carried this burden for many years, I wish I could do something to gain justice for all the Glover victims.

"If we ever I have a chance to speak, I will certainly put my hand up to tell my story

"Now that there is a Royal Commission into this kind of child-abuse, perhaps at last something will be done."

Example #2: Jerry

Another victim (let's call him "Jerry") has told Broken Rites:

"Fr Kevin Glover began abusing me in Esperance in 1971 when I was 12, and it went on for several years. It used to happen when I was having a sleep-over at the priest's house with other boys.

"According to the definitions of crimes, Glover's offences were serious child-abuse. He made me touch his genitals and he ejaculated. He made me do oral sex on him.

“Also Glover abused  a relative of mine, who was about four years older than me.”

"Glover used to give us altar wine to drink. At 16, I was developing an alcohol problem, which impacted on me in my later life."

Example #3: Gus

Another victim (let's call him "Gus") has  told Broken Rites:

"I encountered Father at Esperance while I was in my early teens. He was highly regarded in the community with a high profile for achieving things for the  community.

"He encouraged the local boys to congregate at his home and he facilitated sporting and other activities.

"He also arranged study sessions at his home as exams approached. Denomination didn’t matter.  Non-Catholic kids were welcome.

"On one occasion when I arrived alone at his place,  he approached me and put his hand down my shorts and  manipulated my private parts. I backed away and nothing more was said or done.

"There was no point in me telling anybody about Glover's assault. Nobody would have believed me because he was so popular.

"This was a single event. I wouldn't be surprised if other children suffered multiple attacks from Glover ."

Example #4: A young girl

Glover could also be a danger to girls if one was in the wrong place at the wrong time. A female victim (let's call her "Margaret") has told Broken Rites:

"Glover began abusing me in Esperance in the mid 1970s when I was aged seven.  Glover also abused a male relative of mine, who was four years older than me.

"I have never told my parents about what Glover did to me, because they are devout Catholics and now they are elderly. If I told them now, it would destroy them.

"Now, as I approach middle age, I still feel hurt by the abuse and by the fact that I was forced to remain silent.  I am in need of professional counselling but this can be expensive."

Glover's final years

In the late 1970s, after his sexual abuse at Esperance became publicly talked about, Fr Kevin Glover was transferred to another parish  -  the "St Thomas More parish" at Margaret River (still in the Bunbury diocese), where he remained during the 1980s.

In the 1990s, the church allowed Glover to transfer to a Catholic Mission on the Pacific Island of Niue (situated to the north of New Zealand).

He died in 1999.

Broken Rites will continue its research about Father Kevin Glover and about how the church provided a cover for him.

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 15 July 2016)

The Marist Brothers headquarters in Sydney put a child-sex criminal, Brother Gregory Joseph Sutton, on a plane to Canada after learning that he was being investigated by New South Wales police, Australia's national child-abuse Royal Commission has been told. The police extradited him back to Australia, where he was jailed for sexual crimes against girls and boys. Questioned at the Royal Commission, senior Marists down-played Sutton's crimes as merely "improper conduct" or "moral lapses", rather than as crimes. This strategy helps to protect the Marist organisation from being sued by victims for compensation, a victim's lawyer told the Commission. This strategy can also be an attempt by senior Marists to avoid being accused of concealing a crime. Ex-Brother Sutton, who was jailed in 1996 for child-sex crimes committed in New South Wales, is facing additional charges in 2016 in the Australian Capital Territory.

Brother Greg Sutton (born 19 March 1951) taught primary school children, from the early 1970s until the late 1980s, in Catholic schools in Queensland, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory.

In June 2014, the Royal Commission began holding a two-weeks public hearing (Case Study 13) which includes the question of how the Marist Brothers administration responded (or failed to respond) to the crimes of Brother Gregory Sutton, plus another Marist (Brother John "Kostka" Chute).

The public hearing was told that Gregory Sutton was finally convicted in New South Wales in 1996 on 67 charges relating to his 15 of his NSW victims (but this NSW court could not deal with any of his Queensland or Canberra offences). He served 12 years of his 18-year NSW sentence behind bars and was released in 2008

The Royal Commission was told that Brother Greg Sutton's schools included:

1. A parish school school in North Queensland, 1973-75;
2. Marist Sacred Heart primary school, Mosman, Sydney, 1976-77;
3. Marist Brothers primary school, Eastwood, Sydney, 1978-79;
4. Marist College (primary section), Canberra, 1980-82;
5. St Thomas More's primary school in Campbelltown, western Sydney, 1984-85; and
6. St Carthage's parish primary school at Lismore, northern NSW, from 1985 to April 1987.

The Counsel Assisting the Commission, Mr Simeon Beckett, told the hearing that evidently 21 of Sutton's victims have claimed compensation from the Marist Brothers hierarchy [while other victims have remained silent].

Sutton a danger to children from Day One

Brother Greg (as pupils called him) began teaching in 1973, aged 21. Soon his colleagues raised concerns about his invasive behaviour towards children.

A former Marist Brother, Mr Denis William Doherty, told the Commission that he was working in a North Queensland parish school when Brother Greg Sutton arrived to teach there in 1973. (In this town the Marists conducted a primary school and an adjoining secondary school. The Marist Brothers lived in cottages on the campus.)

Mr Doherty, who was then aged 26 (and senior to Greg Sutton), became worried about how Sutton was acting as the children's playmate, rather than as their teacher. Sutton would have children in his classroom before the morning's official starting time. Sutton seemed to regard several of the children as his favourites and would take a child for a trip in the Marist community's car. 

Mr Doherty complained about Sutton to the local Marist Community Superior in this North Queensland town. Later, Mr Doherty he also told the Provincial leader (Brother Charles Howard) at the Marist headquarters in Sydney that “I am suspicious about Sutton. I fear he may be interfering with children.”

Later evidence indicated that the Marist leadership ignored Sutton's behaviour in the North Queensland school and merely transferered him to other schools, in New South Wales. Eventually, in 1989, after Australian police began investigating Sutton, the Marist headquarters transferred him to Canada (where it would be harder for the Australian police to nab hm).

Suicide by a North Queensland victim

Brother John Holdsworth, who was the Marist superior in this North Queensland town (in charge of the Marists in both the secondary and primary sections), told the Royal Commission that in the 1970s he was not aware of Greg Sutton's behaviour towards children.

Brother Holdsworth said he could not recall the headmaster of the primary section, Denis Doherty, raising concerns about Sutton's behaviour in 1974. 

Cross-examined in the witness box, Brother Holdsworth agreed that in 1989 he went with the father of a boy, referred to by the code-name "A.D.O.", to visit Sutton who had been moved to the Brothers' residence at St Joseph's College, Hunter's Hill, in Sydney.

A.D.O. had taken his own life [in 1989, aged 27] and his father came to see Brother Holdsworth because he had recentlly found out that his son had been sexually assaulted by Sutton when he was a child aged eight or nine back in the 1970s.

"I was quite shocked because Sutton (who was still friendly with the family) had offered to arrange the funeral," Brother Holdsworth said.

Brother Holdsworth said he did not attend the meeting between the father and Brother Sutton but waited for the father. He said the meeting was short and ADO's father told him that Brother Sutton admitted he had "interfered with ADO".

Counsel Assisting the Commission, Mr Simeon Beckett, asked Brother Holdsworth about whether he relaised that Sutton had confessed to a criminal offence. Brother Holdsworth replied: "I can't give a specific answer as to why at the time I did not take that view."

Holdsworth also said he did recall telling Brother Alexis Turton, who was leader of the Marist order in 1989, that the boy had committed suicide but he could not remember telling him about the meeting with ADO's father.

When ADO's father later found out that the Marists had sent Gregory Sutton on a trip to Canada "for treatment", he came to Brother Holdsworth and accused the Marist Brothers of sweeping the matter "under the rug".

Crimes at Sutton's fifth school (in Sydney)

Two female victims of Brother Greg Sutton gave evidence at the public hearing. They were pupils at St Thomas More primary school in Campbelltown, near Sydney, in the mid-1980s when they were in Fifth Class, about ten years old. (This was Sutton's second Sydney school.) Sutton's assaults on these two girls were serious, including digital penetration of the vagina and also being forced to touch or kiss Brother Sutton's penis.

Five years later, when she was in Year 10 at secondary school, one of these girls finally made a police statement, which was arranged by her parents after they learned about the abuse.

Each of these two victims, now aged 40 in 2014, told the inquiry that Brother Greg Sutton's "religious" status, as a Catholic Brother, made them vulnerable to the attacks. Each of them also related how the abuse (and the church's harbouring of Brother Sutton) intimidated them.

One of the women recalled: “He [Brother Greg] used to wear this crucifix around his neck with Jesus on it."

Each of  the women told how abuse disrupted their childhood development, causing them serious personal problems in their adult years.

One of the women, referred to at hearing by the code-name "ADM", told the commission that she and her best friend were in Sutton's Grade 5 class when he befriended them and began asking them to sit on either side of his lap before eventually asking if he could "go inside" her pants.

As time went on, Sutton became more aggressive in his behaviour, asking the girls to see him before class or after hours and abusing them in the school storage room, often asking them to kiss each other and sending them back to class with a bottle of glue or paint to hide what had really occurred.

ADM recalled an occasion where Sutton took her into the storeroom, told her the best friend was "a better kisser but you are better at the other stuff", took off his Marist robe and forced her to masturbate him.

When another teacher became suspicious, Sutton warned the girl that "we have to be more careful" and when her parents asked her why her teacher wanted to see her of a weekend, ADM lied and said it was because she and her friend - known to the commission as ADQ - were in trouble.

"My parents were so angry at me...at the time I knew what Brother Greg was doing to me was wrong but I felt I couldn't tell mum and dad because it shouldn't have been happening" she said. "I thought that I would be the one that got into trouble".

In her submission to the royal commission, the other woman (code-name "ADQ") said Sutton had gone as far as to warn on many occasions - including a time when he forced her get on the ground as he removed his pants and said "kiss it" - that "if someone sees us, I will kill your parents and brother and sister and then you will have no one to love".

"What he said was enough to scare me from telling anyone (other than "ADM") about what he was doing to me...I was only 10 and I believed he would kill my parents if I told them," she said

"To this day, I still find it hard to talk about."

One morning, before class had started, Sutton told ADM "I'm leaving and going to Lismore at the end of the year".

When she asked "are you going to do it to anyone there?", Sutton replied "I'm not sure".

The Royal Commission was told that these two girls from the Campbelltown school eventually had interviews with NSW Police detectives, arranged by their parents. Their written statements were signed in early August 1989. Word of this got back to the Marist head office in Sydney, which then immediately put Brother Greg Sutton on a plane to Canada before the New South Wales police had time to interview him.

Offences in Lismore, NSW

After abusing children at the Campbelltown school, Sutton continued to abuse children at his sixth school -  St Carthage's primary school, in Lismore, northern NSW, where he spent 1985, 1986 and part of 1987.

Mr Beckett, the counsel assisting the commission, said the hearing would examine whether relevant complaints of abuse at several of Sutton's early schools in the 1970s (such as the North Queensland one) were passed to the Lismore school in the 1980s.

At St Carthage's, the assistant principal (Jan O'Grady) soon became concerned about some of Brother Greg Sutton's practices.

Ms O'Grady said in evidence:

"The blinds [in his classroom] were drawn. It struck me as a very closed classroom.The door was often closed too. It was very closed in and very dark. I thought it was very strange; I had never seen that before in a classroom."

Ms O'Grady said she had seen Sutton chasing two young girls around his classroom before catching and hugging one of them.

Ms O'Grady said that, after Brother Greg took an afternoon off school, she became suspicious and eventually looked in his school diary which he kept on his desk. A diary entry for that day said:

“Picked up [girl's name]. What an afternoon. She is magnificent."

His entry for the following day said: “I had a fight with [same girl] and we made up.”

[The Commission has been told that this girl was aged 10 or 11.]

Ms O’Grady said she had no evidence that Brother Greg had been having sex with the girl, although she thought “maybe”.

"I concluded he had acted absolutely inappropriately for a teacher in our school by picking up a child and spending the rest of the day with her," Ms O'Grady said.

She did not report her suspicions to police. Instead she handed over all the information to the Catholic Education Office of the Lismore diocese (this office has oversight over all parish schools in the Lismore diocese, which covers covers the NSW north coast, extending from Port Macquarie to the Queensland border).

Ms O'Grady said that, when she rang the Catholic Education Office, they suggested that Brother Sutton take a month off and then return to the school. She said she was furious and almost hysterical and contacted the then former director of the Catholic Education for the Diocese of Lismore, John Kelly, and it was only then that Bother Sutton was removed from the school.

More about the Lismore school

The counsel assisting the commission, Mr Simeon Beckett, told the hearing that St Carthage's school was operated by the Lismore Catholic Education Office for the Diocese of Lismore, and the principal was a Presentation Sister, Sister Julia O’Sullivan. Three ex-pupils (code-named ACT, ADB and ACV) have alleged that they were sexually abused by Brother Sutton in 1985. ACT’s mother complained to a teacher at the school that her daughter had been touched on the upper thigh by Brother Sutton. The complaint was referred to Sister Julia. Other teachers had concerns about Brother Sutton and favouritism shown to certain students.

Mr Beckett told the Commisision:

"The then Vice-Provincial of the Marist Brothers, Brother Alexis Turton [at the Marist headquarters in Sydney], visited St Carthage’s and investigated the concerns expressed to him. The public hearing will explore what Brother Turton was told and what action he took with respect to Brother Sutton.

"Brother Sutton remained at the school and the evidence is likely to reveal that in December of that year [1985] the executive of the school sought assurances from Brother Sutton including that he not be in a classroom with any children out of school hours.

"In February 1986 Brother Turton returned to St Carthage’s and, together with the principal, had Brother Sutton sign a letter of undertaking about his behaviour..."

Mr Beckett said the hearing is exploring what action, if any, was taken by the school and the Marist Brothers about such apparent breaches at St Carthage's. 

He said that Brother Sutton's convictions in 1996 included the offence of performing an act of indecency on a boy (code-named "ACZ") in 1986 at St Carthage’s when he was 10 or 11 years old.

In November and December of 1986 Brother Sutton went on a ‘personal renewal’ course to New Zealand. He returned to teach at St Carthage’s in 1987.
 
Mr Beckett told the hearing that on 30 April 1987 Brother Sutton was removed from St Carthage’s by the Marist Provincial leader who placed him in an administrative role in the Marist office at Drummoyne, Sydney.

Evidence available from the criminal trial of Brother Sutton reveals the true extent of his offending against [pupil] ACU. Brother Sutton pleaded guilty to 5 counts of sexual intercourse being digitally penetrating ACU’s vagina and 3 counts of assault with an act of indecency being touching ACU’s vagina or forcing her to touch his penis. ACU was ten or eleven years old at the time. The majority of the acts occurred well before he was removed at the end of April 1987.

Mr Beckett said that in 1989 Brother Sutton was sent to Canada. In Australia, 14 warrants were issued for his arrest in 1992 and a further 10 in 1993. However, Brother Sutton continued in Canada until 1992 and then from 1994-1996 became a headmaster at a school in St Louis, Missouri, in the USA. Extradition proceedings were commenced and Sutton returned to Australia.

Mr Beckett said: "The hearing will explore what assistance, if any, was provided by the Marist Brothers to the NSW Police in seeking his extradition."

On 8 November 1996 Sutton pleaded guilty to 67 charges of child sexual assault and was sentenced in the District Court, Sydney, to 18 years imprisonment, with a 12 year non-parole period. Sutton has completed his term of imprisonment and lives in the community.

Mr Beckett said that the public hearing is examining what was known about allegations of child sexual abuse or other indicative conduct concerning Brother Sutton at the points at which he was transferred between each of the relevant schools and whether those allegations were the reasons for all, some or none of the transfers.

Charged again in in 2016

In early 2016, Gregory Sutton appeared in court in Canberra, charged with child-sex offences committed while he was teaching at Marist College in the Australian Capital Territory in the early 1980s. Sutton faces three charges of indecent assault on a male. These charges have been laid under A.C.T. law. Sutton has indicated that he will try to evade a trial on the A.C.T. charges because he has already served a jail term under New South Wales law.