• By a Broken Rites researcher, with information up to 2 May 2018

Cardinal George Pell has claimed (during Australia's Royal Commission inquiry into child sexual abuse between 2012 and 2016) that, during his priestly career, he knew very little about clergy child-sexual abuse ("only rumours"). Now Pell's claim is being disputed by government prosecutors who are currently charging Pell in court regarding child sexual abuse allegedly committed by George Pell during his career while he was ministering in the state of Victoria. This article is about some of the background, from 2012 onwards.

Royal Commission's public hearings

Between 2012 and 2016, the Australian federal government sponsored a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse to examine how religious organisations (including the Catholic Church) have handled (or covered up) the general issue of church-related sex-abuse in the past. Many church office-bearers (including Archbishop George Pell) were called to give evidence (and to be cross-examined) in public hearings about these church policies. The public hearings were reported in the news media and on the internet.

Private interviews behind the scenes

During the years of the Royal Commission, any citizen had a right to contact the Royal Commission's office privately(by letter or email or telephone), offering additional information. For example, a citizen might tell the Commission's office that he/she had been sexually abused by a particular clergy person within a particular religious denomination. However, the Royal Commission did NOT investigate (or publish) these alleged incidents; instead, the alleged victim was offered the opportunity to have a private chat with police detectives.

In the state of Victoria, these detectives were from the Sano Taskforce, within the Victoria Police sexual crimes squad.

Pell in three public hearings

During its five years, the Royal Commission held 57 public hearings, lasting for a total of 444 days. In these public hearings, the Royal Commission examined a series of case-studies (that is, examples) about church policies in dealing with sexual abuse. Three of these case-studies happened to be about regions where George Pell formerly worked:

• Case Study 8, held in Sydney, in March 2014 (about how certain matters of clergy sexual abuse were handled in Sydney and suburbs). Pell, who was the archbishop of Sydney in 2001-2014, 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 Study35 in May 2015 (about how clergy sexual abuse was handled in Melbourne where Pell had been the archbishop in 1996-2001). For this case study, Pell was questioned in May 2015 by video-link from Rome.
• Case Study 28 in early 2016 (about how clergy sexual abuse was handled in the diocese of Ballarat, covering the western half of the state of Victoria, where Pell was a priest in the 1970s). Again, Pell appeared by video-link from Rome.

"Little knowledge of abuse"

During the years of the Royal Commission, George Pell was widely reported as saying that, earlier in his career, he had known very little about clergy child-sexual abuse ("only rumours") and, furthermore, that he personally finds such abuse "abhorrent". If any person then contacted the Royal Commission's office (as a result of George Pell's statements) to report their own experience regarding George Pell, the commission's office could offer this person the opportunity to speak privately with a detective from Taskforce Sano.

Worldwide attention

Meanwhile, in 2014, Pell moved from Australia to Rome to take up a senior role in the Vatican and was reluctant to re-visit Australia for his next interview at the Royal Commission. Therefore, people attending the Royal Commission's public hearings in Australia were forced to watch the cross-examination of Pell (from Rome) on a large video screen in the Sydney or Melbourne hearings room. By giving his Royal Commission evidence in Rome (instead of in Australia), Pell increased the worldwide interest in his evidence.

And because of Pell's reluctance to re-visit Australia, some people wondered whether the Victoria Police Sano Taskforce had received privately any allegations about Pell. If so, the detectives would offer to accept a sworn written statement from any alleged victim outlining the circumstances of the complaint. The complaint would not become an official allegation until, and unless, the person accepted the opportunity to sign a sworn written statement. The alleged victim had the right to accept or decline this opportunity.

On 19 February 2016, Pell's office issued a media statement from Pell, objecting to any "police investigation"— that is, objecting to the police examining any such sworn written statement. Pell's own media statement about this "police investigation" drew worldwide attention to Pell — and to the idea of a possible police investigation.

Pell's diplomatic immunity

The Vatican state, which is a relatively tiny precinct within the Rome metropolis, has the status of a separate government, with the Pope as its monarch (and with Cardinal George Pell as one of the Vatican state's senior cabinet ministers).

As a government official in the Vatican, Pell was entitled to diplomatic immunity, making it difficult for Australian civil authorities to gain access to him.

Defence lawyers

From early 2016 onwards, George Pell's office began considering legal tactics to protect Pell from any police investigation. During 2016, Pell's strategists began consulting Robert Richter QC, who has been described as Australia's foremost criminal defence counsel. Richter has acted in some high-profile cases. He was the defence counsel for Julian Knight, who fatally shot seven people and injured 19 in Melbourne's "Hoddle Street massacre" in 1987. And he successfully pleaded self-defence for gangland figure Mick Gatto who shot criminal Andrew "Benji" Veniamin in a Melbourne restaurant in 2014.

During 2016, Pell's legal team realised that the Victoria Police were not going to abandon any alleged victim who evidently had provided the police with a sworn, written statement about certain alleged incidents. In accordance with police procedures, the Sano Taskforce needed to interview Pell to obtain his response to the statements of any alleged victim. But how could the Victoria Police gain access to Pell as an official in a foreign state, the Vatican?

Eventually, in October 2016 (after negotiations between Pell's defence team and the Victorian prosecuting authorities), George Pell agreed to be interviewed by the Victoria Police in Rome. Three Sano Taskforce detectives flew from Melbourne to Rome to obtain his response to any statement by any alleged victim.

At the same time, Robert Richter QC too went to Rome to support Pell during the detectives' inquiries.

Pell returns to Australia, 2017

In mid-2017, after further negotiations between Pall's lawyers and the Victorian prosecutors, Pell agreed to return to Australia, so that his legal team could fight the charges. On 26 July 2017, Pell appeared briefly in the Melbourne Magistrates Court, accompanied by Robert Richter QC. This was an administrative procedure in which prosecutors for the state of Victoria officially filed information regarding child sexual abuse allegedly committed by Pell earlier in his career during the time when he was in the State of Victoria.

The Magistrates Court did not release any details about the allegations.

During the remainder of 2017 (and in early 2018), the state prosecutors and the defence lawyers appeared in the Magistrates Court again several times for a brief administrative procedure and update. These procedures were chaired by Belinda Wallington, who is the supervising magistrate for the sexual offences list at Melbourne Magistrates Court.

The defence lawyers indicated to the court that George Pell intends to fight the case.

Preliminary hearing, 2018

On 5 March 2018, the Magistrates Court (under magistrate Belinda Wallington) began holding a four-weeks preliminary hearing (known as a "committal" hearing), during which the magistrate would hear a preview of all evidence to decide whether to send the case for a trial with a judge in a higher court, the Victorian County Court.

There were restrictions on media coverage. As usual in Victorian child sexual abuse cases, the court was closed to the public and the media while any alleged victim was giving evidence. The victim (now an adult) would appear by video-link from another location; the prosecutor would introduce the alleged victim to the court and would ask this person to inspect their written police statement, which was then handed to the magistrate. After this introductory procedure, Pell's legal team would cross-examine this alleged victim at length, targeting the sworn written statement and disputing the credibility of the witness.

After this video-link evidence, the court was opened to the media. Pell's legal team then began cross-examining various other witnesses (such as family members or other helpers), accusing these witnesses of telling lies in their written police statements.

Several times, the magistrate had to stop the defence lawyers from ripping into the complainants and their family members.

Because of the lack of details about the alleged sexual abuse, the media reports were largely about the defence, especially about the defence barrister Robert Richter, who is renowned for his confrontational courtroom tactics. As the Melbourne Age newspaper put it, Richter "mercilessly tore into police, advocates for victims of sexual abuse and even the magistrate". When magistrate Belinda Wallington tried to restore order in the courtroom, Richter demanded that Ms Wallington should disqualify herself from the hearing. Ms Wallington refused this demand.

In attacking the Victoria Police, Richter alleged that the detectives were carrying out a "get Pell" campaign. In fact, however, the case was initiated in court by the Victorian Government's Office of Public Prosecutions, not by the police.

On 17 April 2018, the court met again (for one day) to hear final submissions from the prosecution and the defence. Again, Pell's lawyer Robert Richter accused the prosecution's witnesses of telling lies. Again, Richter's antics provided headlines for the media.

Sent to trial

On 1 May 2018, magistrate Wallington ruled that enough evidence was presented in court at the March 2018 hearing to take the case to the next stage in the judicial process — criminal trial in a higher court, the Victorian County Court.

On May 1 and 2 in 2018, the George Pell case had its first brief mention in the Victorian County Court. George Pell officially submitted his plea of Not Guilty.

The judge asked Robert Richter QC if funding was in place to pay for Cardinal Pell’s legal costs. Richter replied, ‘‘No problems with funding, Your Honour.’’

The proceedings up to 2 May 2018 were purely for administrative purposes. At some future time, the court would schedule a date for the commencement of the criminal trial.

While awaiting his court appearance, George Pell is released on bail, on condition that he must not leave Australia. He has surrendered his passport. He must reside at an address that is known to the court authorities.

• The above article gives some background of the George Pell case as it stood on 2 May 2018.

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 10 August 2018)

For several decades, Christian Brother Peter Nicholas Lennox worked in various Catholic schools in Sydney and in regional New South Wales. Now aged 76 (and retired), he is facing charges in court regarding sexual offences, allegedly committed against boys at two of those schools in the early 1970s. A church defence lawyer claimed in court that Lennox is "too unfit" to undergo a trial. However, the court will merely grant a delay and therefore the trial (case number 2014/00331685) is being re-scheduled to go ahead on a future date. Meanwhile, the police investigators are still interested in any further information.

The court case involves two schools — one at Manly (in Sydney) and one at Goulburn (in southern New South Wales).

• The police investigation began after a former student (from a Christian Brothers school at Sydney's Manly) had a private interview with a member of Australia's national Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse. The Royal Commission advised this former student that he was entitled to discuss the matter with NSW Police detectives. An investigation was then begun by detectives based at Manly (within the Northern Beaches Police Command).
• Meanwhile, a former student from the Goulburn school spoke to the Goulburm Detecrives Office. This matter was then added to the Sydney detectives' investigation.

The Sydney detectives arrested Peter Nicholas Joseph Lennox on 10 November 2014 at a residence, where he has been living in retirement, in Cootamundra NSW. Detectives from Sydney's Northern Beaches Police Command executed a search warrant of Lennox's living quarters and seized documents and computers which later underwent further examination. Lennox was then taken to a nearby police station, where he was interviewed, before being charged with indecent assaults on boys. These offences were allegedly committed between 1973 and 1976, when the boys were aged between 13 and 15.

On 1 December 2014, Peter Nicholas Joseph Lennox appeared in a country Local Court for a brief administrative procedure, in which the charges were officially filed in a hearing chaired by a magistrate.

The case was then transferred to Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court, where preliminary hearings were conducted in 2015.

The Local Court committed Lennox for trial, to be held by a judge in Sydney's Downing Centre District Court. Lennox was allowed bail.

In 2016 and 2017, the church defence lawyer stated in court that Peter Lennox was not well enough to face trial. The lawyer tendered medical reports to the court. However, the courts have dismissed these arguments and a trial will be scheduled for the District Court as soon as Lennox is available.

Peter Lennox has pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of indecent assault on a male; two of sexual/indecent assault on a male under 16 under his authority; two charges of gross indecency by a male on a male under 18; one of commit assault; two sexual assault charges; and one count of indecent act with a male.

Lennox is on bail.

The police investigation of the Lennox matter is being conducted by Detective Senior Constable Adam Vickery, of the Northern Beaches Local Area Command, Manly Police Station.

Some background from Broken Rites about the Christian Brothers

1. A school at MANLY:
A website of St Paul's Catholic College, Manly, says: "St Paul’s Catholic College Manly was formerly known as Christian Brothers College, Manly. . . During the latter part of the 1970s under the supervision of the Principal, Br P Lennox, major College extensions were undertaken. In 1982 the Christian Brothers withdrew and the first lay Principal was appointed."

2. A school at GOULBURN:
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 Trinity Catholic College.

3. This court case of Peter N. Lennox will also be of interest to former students from Peter Lennox's later schools, which included (this is not a complete list):

• St Mary's Cathedral College, Sydney, 1970s;
• Edmund Rice College, Wollongong, 1982-83; and
• Trinity Senior High School (now incorporated into Kildare Catholic College), Wagga Wagga, early 1990s.

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

This Broken Rites article is the most comprehensive account available about a pedophile priest, Father Charles Alfred Barnett, who was harboured by the Catholic Church for twenty years in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. In 2010, some of his South Australian victims finally got him jailed. And in 2018 some more of his South Australian victims got him convicted again.

Charlie Barnett was a member of an Australia-wide Catholic religious order, the Vincentian Fathers (also known as the Congregation of the Mission). That is, he was not a diocesan priest and was not confined to working in one particular region.

Broken Rites has discovered that Father Barnett ministered in Queensland and New South Wales. His New South Wales activities included visits to St Stanislaus College boarding school in Bathurst, plus time spent living in the presbytery of "Our Lady of the Rosary" parish in St Marys, near Penrith in western Sydney, where Father Richard Cattell was the parish priest.

Barnett made visits to the Kwinana parish in Perth, Western Australia. And he is also believed to have spent time in Melbourne, Victoria.

The South Australian courts can deal only with complaints about alleged incidents within that state. Anyone who wishes to discuss alleged incidents in other states would need to have a chat with Sex-Crime Squad detectives in those states.

Broken Rites research

Broken Rites has interviewed people who were acquainted with Charles Barnett. Also, we have researched his locations in the annual editions of the Official Directory of the Catholic Church in Australia and the Directory of Australian Catholic Clergy.

Broken Rites has found that young Charles Barnett was originally an Anglican, who lived at Stepney in Adelaide. He joined the Catholic Church as an adult and saw an opportunity to obtain a career as a Catholic priest. He began studying at Adelaide's St Francis Xavier seminary at Rostrevor, where normally he would have been destined for a career in one specific diocese.

A priest who knew Barnett at the seminary has told Broken Rites: "In the late 1960s, the Vincentian order sent their students to complete their theological part of their studies at the Rostrevor seminary for economies of scale. There were only about half a dozen Vincentian students, such as Guy Hartcher etc. Charlie Barnett then expressed his interest in the Vincentians and he formally joined this order."

Thus, he became ordained as "Reverend Charles Barnett, CM" (a member of the Congregation of the Mission).

In the 1970s, the Vincentian order had about 45 priests in Australia. The Vincentians had one or two communal houses in each of Australia's five mainland states. Their national head office was in Sydney.

Broken Rites discovered that Charles Barnett was first listed in the annual Australian Catholic directory in the early 1970s, when his postal address was given as the Vincentian Community (where half a dozen Vincentian priests lived) in Eastwood, Sydney.

In the early 1970s he is believed to have spent time at the "Mary Immaculate" parish in Southport on Queensland's Gold Coast (in the Brisbane archdiocese). This parish was one that was normally staffed by the Vincentian order.

One family who remember Barnett from the 1970s say that they sometimes called him by his middle name as Father Alf Barnett.

South Australia

In the edition for 1975, Barnett was listed as a staff member of the St Francis Xavier Seminary at Rostrevor in Adelaide. This seminary was then being administered by Vincentians.

In the late 1970s, Barnett was listed as an assistant priest in a parish (St Teresa's) at Whyalla, a town in the western region of South Australia. This parish is part of the diocese of Port Pirie (the Catholic Church in South Australia is divided into two dioceses -- Adelaide and Port Pirie).

Barnett was still listed at Whyalla (still as an assistant) in the directories for 1981 and 1983. By 1981, the senior priest-in-charge at Whyalla was Father D. Eugene Hurley, who became the bishop of Port Pirie in 1998 (and later the Bishop of Darwin).

A former pupil at St John's College high school in Whyalla (for Years 7 and 8 in 1976-77) has told Broken Rites how he used to receive "home visits" by Father Charlie Barnett.

During the period of his Whyalla listings, Barnett was not necessarily confined to that town.

Former students of Rostrevor College (operated by the Christian Brothers), in Woodforde, Adelaide, say they remember Father Charlie Barnett in Adelaide in the 1970s.

New South Wales

At some stage in the late 1970s, the Directory of Australian Catholic Clergy listed Fr Charles Barnett at St Vincent's parish, Ashfield, Sydney, although this might have been a forwarding address. The Ashfield parish is staffed by Vincentians.

In the 1988 directory, the postal address of Rev. C. Barnett, CM, was listed in the index as care of the Vincentian Community at 5 Vincentia St, Marsfield, Sydney, but this edition gave no indication of what work he was doing or where.

A resident of Bathurst, in central-west New South Wales, says that, in the 1970s and '80s, Fr Charles Barnett used to visit (and have extensive stay-overs at) Bathurst's St Stanislaus College, which was staffed by Barnett's religious order, the Vincentian Fathers. Priests lived on the school premises.

Victoria

It is believed that, in the late 1970s, Fr Charlie Barnett also spent some time working at St Joseph's parish in Malvern, a Melbourne suburb. Vincentian priests staff this parish on behalf of the Melbourne archdiocese. It was Melbourne's only Vincentian parish. The parish included St Joseph's primary school and two secondary schools — De La Salle College Malvern for boys and Kildara College for girls.

Military chaplain

The 1983 directory says that, as well as being listed at Whyalla, Barnett was also a chaplain to Army Reserve units.

Former Royal Australian Navy apprentices say that, in the mid-1980s, they remember Father Charlie Barnett as a Navy chaplain at the Navy's apprentice training base HMAS Nirimba at Quakers Hill, near Blacktown, west of Sydney.

Western Sydney

In the late 1980s, Father Charles Barnett lived for some time in the presbytery at the "Our Lady of the Rosary" parish in a suburb called St Marys, near Penrith in western Sydney, where the parish priest was Father Richard St John Cattell. There, Barnett took a special interest in the Antioch movement, involving young people from the parish.

Queensland

In the early 1990s, Rev. Charles Barnett, CM, was listed at St Vincent's parish in Wandal, Rockhampton, Queensland. At that time, the Vincentian order provided staffing for this parish. Father Charlie Barnett made himself popular with families in this parish. Some families allowed their young sons to spend time at the priest's house, and it is believed that some families even arranged for their boys to stay overnight at Father Charlie's house while the parents were away.

In the 1994 directory, Barnett was listed as the Parish Priest in charge of the "Mary Immaculate" parish at Southport, Queensland (where had had originally spent time as an assistant priest in the early 1970s).

Indonesia

In the directories for 1995 to 1997, Barnett was listed as being on leave. He was not listed in the directories for 1998 onwards. By then, he had moved to Indonesia, where he began teaching English and running a business. In Indonesia he was no longer working as a priest.

By 2006, South Australian police had gathered substantial information about Barnett's offences in that state. At that time, Australia and Indonesia did not have a treaty for extraditing persons who were wanted by the police for alleged criminal offences. But this had changed by 2008 and Barnett became the first person to be extradited from Indonesia under a treaty with Australia.

In February 2008, Australian authorities applied in Indonesia (on behalf of South Australia Police) for Barnett's extradition to Australia. The application went to an Indonesian court, which heard details of the Australian allegations. The application was granted and Barnett was arrested by Indonesian police at his house in Depok, just south of Jakarta. He was then detained in custody in Jakarta throughout 2008, pending completion of the extradition process.

On Friday 13 February 2009, detectives from South Australia’s Sexual Crime Investigation Branch took custody of Barnett in Jakarta and took him back to South Australia, where he was placed in custody in Adelaide in order to face a series of court proceedings during 2009 under South Australian law.

The South Australian matters were investigated by the Sexual Crime Investigation Branch, South Australia Police, 30-46 Wright Street, Adelaide, South Australia 5000.

In court, September 2009

On 8 September 2009, Charles Alfred Barnett (then aged 68) appeared In the Adelaide Magistrates Court. His lawyer said that Barnett would plead guilty to three counts of indecent assault. The charges relate to alleged offences at Crystal Brook and Port Pirie, in South Australia’s mid-north, between 1977 and 1985.

The lawyer said Barnett would plead not guilty to other charges of unlawful sexual intercourse and indecent assault at Port Pirie, Crystal Brook, Whyalla and Blackfriars.

The magistrate remanded Barnett in custody to appear in the South Australian District Court for further proceedings.

In court again, October 2009

On 12 October 2009, Charles Alfred Barnett appeared before a judge in the South Australian District Court regarding the remaining charges. He pleaded not guilty to two counts each of unlawful sexual intercourse (this is a more serious charge than indecent assault) and two counts of indecent assault. The alleged victims in these charges were boys aged between 11 and 16 at the time of the offences, which date back as far as 1979, the court heard.

Pre-sentence hearing, June 2010

On 29 June 2010 Charles Alfred Barnett appeared in the South Australian District Court while Judge Paul Rice heard pre-sentence submissions.

Barnett's defence lawyer claimed that Barnett had not realised how wrong his acts were at the time when he offended against the boys

Judge Rice said he did not believe that the priest did not know sexual abuse of children was wrong.

The defence lawyer said told the court how Barnett had lived in Indonesia since the mid-1990s. The lawyer said that, while Barnett was in custody in Indonesia, he paid a $32,000 "down-payment" to get out of the squalid jail into home detention - but the money went missing.

Judge Rice said this payment sounded like a bribe.

Prosecutor Kathy Rozaklis said there was an element of grooming in Barnett's behaviour as he used his position as a priest to gain the trust of families whose children he abused.

She called for Barnett's sentence to reflect the public's outrage and revulsion for the crimes.

In statements read to the court, Barnett's victims called him a despicable monster and spoke of feeling betrayed by the Catholic Church.

One victim wrote about Barnett: "He was a creep, like a snake." The victim said he had been too terrified to sleep when the priest stayed in his bedroom after befriending the Catholic farming family near Port Pirie (South Australia).

The victim stated that he does not want to go to heaven if it is "full of priests" who have abused children.

Judge Rice remanded Barnett in custody, with the sentencing details to be handed down on a later date.

Sentenced, August 2010

In sentencing Charles Alfred Barnett on 5 August 2010, Judge Paul Rice said that Barnett's crimes had "wrenched the innocence" from his victims. The effect on the victims had been devastating, he said.

The judge told Barnett: "You knew what you were doing was legally and morally wrong, not the least because you were a Catholic priest."

The judge took into consideration Barnett’s guilty plea and the time that he had spent in custody in Indonesia. The judge imposed a jail term of six years and six months, with a non-parole period of four years. Both terms were back-dated to February 2009, when Charles Alfred Barnett was placed in custody in Australia.

Comment by an ex-parishioner in western Sydney

"Tom" a former parishioner of "Our Lady of the Rosary" parish in St Marys, near Penrith in western Sydney has told Broken Rites:

"In the late 1980s (about 1987-89, as I remember), Father Charles Barnett spent about two years living with Father Richard Cattell in the presbytery at our parish. I knew Barnett very well. He used to come to my family's house a lot.

"My Mother disliked Barnett immensely; and she has since explained to me that she thought he was odd and not what she considered a normal priest. She is not at all surprised that he ended up facing court for serious crimes of such a nature.

"Barnett was heavily involved in the Antioch movement (for youg people) in our parish.

"We always thought something was odd about Barnett. He would always encourage us boys (we were aged about 17-20) to come over to the presbytery and play cards late into the night. I remember one particular night (at the presbytery) my brother went to the toilet and Barnett rushed in behind him and started urinating in the bowl at the same time. My brother quickly retreated. Things became strained after that incident.

"I would be extremely surprised if there are no Charles Barnett victims in New South Wales – in particular around the St.Marys and Penrith areas in western Sydney. My only fear is that his victim(s) maybe too intimidated/embarrassed to come forward – or that since Barnett disappeared in the mid 1990s they may have given up hope of finding justice one day?"

Tom ended his story with this comment:  "I no longer have anything to do with the Catholic Church and have spent the last 20 years protecting my kids from it."

In court again in 2018

In 2018, after completing his previous six-year jail sentence, Charles Barnett faced further charges in South Australia relating to the indecent assault of two children and the persistent sexual exploitation of another child. He pleaded guilty to the charges.

The court heard the offences were also committed during his time as a priest in Port Pirie, north of Adelaide, more than three decades ago.

The wife of one of the victims told the court of her husband's long-term pain and suffering as a result of being sexually abused as a child. She said when her husband told her about what had happened to him he "sobbed as though his heart " was broken".

"This shame impacted so many areas of his life and darkened his days and nights," she said. "The abuse happened many years ago but its impact is present with us every day within our lives, and we think it will be present for many years to come."

The victim's father said Barnett had built trust in their family through his position in the local parish. "He [Barnett] was a priest who groomed his victim with intelligence," he said. "He cast a black shadow over the lives of a well-meaning and trusting family."

The court was told that Barnett's actions included climbing through a bedroom window to abuse one of his victims.

Sentenced again in 2018

On 16 March 2018, the South Australian District Court sentenced Charles Alfred Barnett to a total of 28 months jail for his South Australian crimes, with a minimum of 14 months before becoming eligible for release on parole. In view of the time previously served in jail, the court allowed Barnett to serve this 14 months by being in home detention instead of going behind bars.

By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated on 16 August 2018

Jesuit priests and brothers operate some of Australia's most prominent schools, with famous ex-students such as former prime minister Tony Abbott. After Brother Victor Higgs committed sexual offences against boys at one of these schools (St Ignatius College, Adelaide), the Jesuits kept Brother Higgs as a member of the Jesuit Order and moved him to their famous Sydney school (St Ignatius College Riverview). One of the Adelaide victims finally reported Brother Higgs to the South Australian police and, in 2016, Higgs was jailed for some of his Adelaide offences. Now, in 2018, Higgs is being prosecuted by New South Wales police regarding alleged offences by Brother Higgs while he was at the Sydney school.

Sydney's Riverview has a long list of well-known ex-students who have gone on to carve out distinguished careers in politics, law and professional sport. Apart from former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, other Riverview students include federal minister for agriculture Barnaby Joyce and former NSW Premier Nick Greiner. Others include Chief Justice Tom Bathurst of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and Australian Test fast bowler Jackson Bird.

Likewise, St Ignatius College Adelaide has some famous ex-students, including former federal Coalition leader Brendan Nelson, federal Coalition minister Christopher Pyne and leading legal figures like Federal Court Judge Anthony Besanko.

Brother Victor Higgs

According to statements made in the Adelaide District Court in 2016, Victor Thomas James Higgs was born in the late 1930s, the youngest of nine children. After a period of training with the Jesuits, he became a Brother in the Australia-wide Jesuit religious order in 1963, aged in his twenties. He later spent three years working at St Ignatius College in Athelstone, Adelaide (1968 to 1970, inclusive, when he was aged around 30). He mostly did administrative duties for the school, although he taught some classes (for example, in religious education and in commerce).

After a complaint by a parent in Adelaide, the Jesuits transferred Brother Higgs to St Ignatius Riverview, Sydney, where he spent ten years. The Jesuits kept him as a member of the Jesuit religious order until he retired in Sydney in 2001.

Offences in Adelaide

Higgs was interviewed by South Australian police in early 2013 regarding boys from St Ignatius, Adelaide. When charged, Higgs indicated that would plead not guilty, meaning that he would fight the charges in court. Eventually, nearly three years later, he changed his plea to guilty, which meant that no trial would be needed (a judge would merely have to impose a sentence).

On 29 January 2016, Higgs (aged 78) was sentenced in the Adelaide District Court for indecent assault of two boys at St Ignatius Adelaide (one charge for each boy). These were not the only allegations that police had made against Higgs in Adelaide. These two charges were those to which he finally agreed to plead guilty.

Judge Gordon Barrett sentenced Higgs to a maximum jail sentence of two years and three months jail. He said that Higgs would be able to apply for parole after serving one year behind bars.

In his sentencing remarks, Judge Barrett told Higgs:

"The first [charge] involved a boy who would have been about 12 at the time. You took him into your room, made him take down his pants and there fondled his genitals. You did so on the pretext of giving him sexual counselling and assessing his development. You touched him on only that one occasion.

"In relation to the other boy, he was about the same age. He had misbehaved in class. You made him turn up at the canteen where you got him to take his pants down and bend over. He was expecting to be caned for his misdemeanour. Instead you touched his buttocks with a feather duster. The boy asked you what you were doing. You told him to get out. He reported the matter to his parents who raised it with the school. Whether as a result of that report or for some quite other reason, I am not sure, but you left the college in Adelaide and moved to a brother school in Sydney.

"While the two offences consist of a single episode of touching each boy in the ways that I have described, and it is not alleged that you touched other boys, your behaviour has to be seen in a context. That context is that you used to get boys into a private room, make them take down their pants and look at their genitals. You engaged them in sexual talk. All of this, the charged and the uncharged acts, were on the pretext of checking the boys’ development or counselling them, but it is quite plain that you were doing nothing of the sort. You were engaging the boys in this way for your own sexual gratification.

"The reaction of the two boys to your offending is instructive. The first boy appears to have suffered sexual abuse at the hands of another teacher at the school and so it is hard to separate the effects of your offending from the effects of the other teacher’s offending. However, his account of what happened after he came out of your room where you had indecently assaulted him is indicative of the consequences of your offending. Other students noticed the boy come out of the room. They asked him if he had let you touch him. Whatever his response, the other students assumed he had. He was taunted, suggesting he [the boy] was a homosexual. It appears your proclivities were widely known among the students. That boy’s trust in teachers and trust in that school has been damaged forever. It has caused frictions in his own family. When he disclosed what had happened to them, they either did not want to know about it or they told him to get over it. He has continuing anger. In addition, although this may have more to do with the offending by the other teacher, he has had some sensitivities in his personal life.

"The other boy’s reaction was different. He stood up to you. He immediately told his parents. His parents did something about it. He has not provided a victim impact statement. I do not know, but it is possible that he has not been affected in the same way as the first boy. However, that is just chance..."

Judge Barrett said that originally Higgs claimed to the police that, in his encounters with the boys, he had merely been  "counselling" them about sexual matters.

In sentencing, Judge Barrett told Higgs:

"You did tell the police that you had counselled boys about sexual matters, but in that interview there is a surprising lack of insight into your own motivations and the likely harm that you were causing the students. You really conceded no more than that you went about a legitimate task in the wrong way.

"You have entered your guilty pleas at a very late stage...

"I will give you the credit that the law entitles you to for your guilty pleas. It is up to 10%. A more timely guilty plea would have reduced the anxiety of the victims and the witnesses further, and would have entitled you to a greater leniency...

"This is serious offending. It was a breach of trust for you to behave as you did to these boys. If you did not know before, you know now of the consequences that your offending can have, and has had. You are to be sentenced only for two charges to which you have pleaded. Each is a single act of indecent touching but the acts do have to be understood in their context.

"The maximum penalty for indecent assault at the time was seven years imprisonment. I must sentence you on the law as it was then. I will impose one prison sentence for both offences but take both into account. If it were not for your guilty pleas, I would have sentenced you to two-and-a-half years imprisonment. I reduce that by about 10% to two years and three months. I fix a non-parole period of one year.

"The question of suspension [that is, postponing the jail term] is a difficult one. You are elderly and in ill health. You have no other court appearances. In many ways, you have led a productive life. On the other hand, your behaviour was a gross breach of trust. The students and their parents were entitled to your protection, not your abuse.

"I think the offending is too serious for me to be able to suspend the sentence. I have shown what leniency I can in fixing the non-parole period which is lower than I would otherwise have fixed. You will have to serve the sentence. It will begin to run from today."

Charges in Sydney in 2017-8

On 31 January 2017, New South Wales Police began prosecuting Victor Higgs (then aged 79) in a Sydney court for indecently assaulting a number of children during his time at St Ignatius College Riverview in Sydney in the 1970s. This first court-mention was a brief preliminary procedure, to enable the case to go on the waiting-list for the next steps in the judicial procedure, during 2017 and 2018.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article posted 8 August 2018

Broken Rites is researching Father Kevin Wright, who spent many years in the Wagga diocese which covers a large region in southern New South Wales. There is evidence that the Catholic Church authorities knew about Wright's offending but they allowed him to continue in the priesthood, thus enabling him to assault more children in more parishes.

Fr Kevin Wright's parishes (this is not a complete list) included:

• Culcairn parish in the 1960s;
• Jerilderie parish in the early 1970s; and, later,
• Junee parish.

A male victim ("Max"), who encountered Fr Kevin Wright in the mid-1970s at the age of ten, has told Broken Rites: "I was assaulted by Father Kevin Wright in the Jerilderie parish in the mid-1970s, but recently I found evidence that another family had already complained to the Wagga diocese headquarters in the 1960s that Father Wright sexually assaulted their nine-year-old daughter in an earlier parish, the Culcairn parish. That is, long before I became a victim, the church authorities knew that Wright was a danger to children but they still inflicted him on later victims, including me.

A female victim ("Charlotte") has told Broken Rites: " I was sexually assaulted by Fr Kevin Wright at the Jerilderie parish when I was about nine years old."

Another male victim ("Patrick", from Junee) has told Broken Rites:

"In the 1970s, when I was aged nine at, Fr Kevin Wright used to invite me for visits at his parish house at Junee, where he offered me a cool drink and biscuits. Eventually he took advantage of his position in the church and community and committed acts of sexual abuse toward me over a two-year period. He said that, if I told anyone, God would take my mother and father away and that I would never see them again. I remember being so scared that this would happen to my parents that I never ever mentioned my ordeals to anyone and that when I left primary school to go to secondary school, I felt relief that I would never have see him ever again.

"I found concentrating at school very difficult in my senior primary years and recollections of my abuse haunted me throughout my school life. As I matured, I realised that what had happened to me was a lurid act of indecent crime that sickens me to this day.

"Eventually, when I was married, I realised that this childhood-abuse was affecting our marriage. 

"Fr Kevin Wright used the power of the church to inflict unfair intolerant paedophilic practices, behaviour and sexual abuse toward me, a trusting loyal child who would never say negative things about a priest in the eyes of our Catholic faith. After all, he was the one person in the community that connected our families, our spirituality and our trust in ongoing religious beliefs. The Catholic Church has a lot to answer for."

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 20 July 2018

On 24 July 2014, Catholic priest, Father Patrick Holmes (then aged 79), was jailed for sexually abusing two young girls in Western Australia many years ago (one girl in 1969 and the other girl about 1981). The first victim eventually reported Father Holmes to the church authorities in 2000, but (according to Broken Rites research) the church continued to list "Reverend Patrick Holmes" as a priest in the annual editions of the Australian Catholic Directory. In 2014 this victim finally spoke to police, who immediately charged Holmes. In 2018, Patrick Holmes (now aged 83) is facing court again in Perth, charged with additional child-sex offences from 40 years ago.

Some background

Broken Rites research has ascertained that Father Patrick Holmes is a member of a Catholic religious order called the Camillian Fathers (or Ministers to the Sick). This order specialises in providing chaplains for hospitals as well as working in parishes. Father Patrick Holmes has worked in parishes of the Perth Archdiocese.

The Camillian Fathers have their world headquarters in Rome. The Australian leader of the order is in Sydney. When Broken Rites checked in 2014, the Camillian order had 15 priests in Australia, nine of whom were each listed as a chaplain at hospitals in New South Wales.

The 2014 court case

In the 2014 case, Holmes was sentenced in the District Court of Western Australia after pleading guilty to six child-sex charges.

The court was told that the first three offences were committed in 1969 (when Holmes was aged 34) and involved a girl aged about six or seven. Holmes was then the parish priest at Holy Name parish in Carlisle (a suburb of Perth) and the offences were committed against this girl in the presbytery.

The court was told that this girl was a pupil at the primary school next to his church. She would regularly visit Father Holmes after school and was given treats and cash in return for her co-operation and silence.

The court was told that Father Holmes placed his hand down this girl's pants and also rubbed his crotch against hers.

The second girl was abused about 1981 (when Holmes was aged about 46), in the presbytery of the Saint Aloysius parish in Shenton Park (another Perth suburb) where Holmes was again the parish priest. The girl was aged 10 or 11.

Holmes touched this girl's breasts, vagina and buttocks, the court was told. She was given treats.

Later, during the 1990s until 2000 (according to the annual editions of the Australian Catholic Directory), Father Holmes was the parish priest of St Joseph's parish, Subiaco (a Perth suburb).

In 2000 (when Holmes was aged 65), the first victim notified the Catholic Church authorities about Holmes's offences, and Holmes wrote her a letter of apology. Holmes took retirement from parish work but the church authorities continued to list him as a priest ("Reverend Patrick Holmes, retired") in the annual editions of the Australian Catholic Directory.

The 1969 victim reported the matter to police in January 2014 - fourteen years after telling the church about it. The police, unlike the church, made sure that Holmes was charged. He appeared in a Perth magistrates court on 15 April 2014 for preliminary proceedings, at which he pleaded guilty. The sentencing was then scheduled for mid-2014.

[A media report of the April 2014 court hearing stated: "Holmes was most recently working as a hospital chaplain.]

At the pre-sentencing proceedings, Holmes' lawyer told the court that Holmes started studying to be a priest when he was in his teens, and was ordained when he was 21.

In his sentencing remarks, Judge Henry John Wisbey said that Holmes had abused his position of trust, authority and pastoral regard, and exploited the naivety and young age of his victims "to achieve your criminal purposes".

The abuse had had an extremely significant and long-lasting adverse psychological impact on his victims, Judge Wisbey said.

He told Holmes: "You have brought considerable shame on yourself, that is a consequence of your offending behaviour."

The judge said that the only mitigating factor in sentencing was that Holmes had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and had co-operated with police.

Judge Wisbey said an immediate term of imprisonment was the only appropriate sentence. He took into account Holmes' old age and low risk of reoffending.

He sentenced Holmes to three years jail. Holmes would be eligible for parole after serving 18 months behind bars.

More charges in 2018

In April 2018 (and again in July 2018), police charged Father Patrick Holmes (now aged 83) with more child-sex offences from 40 years ago, relating to his time in the Carlisle and Shenton Park parishes. These new charges relate to multiple alleged victims, including boys and girls.

On 13 July 2018, Patrick Holmes appeared in Perth Magistrates Court, where the latest charges had their first mention. The matter is due to come up again in court on a later date.

The charges against Fr Patrick Holmes are a result of investigations by the Child Abuse Squad of the West Australian police.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 20 August 2018

For 67 years, the Australian Marist Brothers harboured this pedophile — Brother William BENINATI (known as Brother "Vales", in honour of an ancient Saint Vales). He committed sexual offences against boys in Marist Brothers schools in New South Wales and Queensland. His victims included boys at the Marist Brothers'"flagship" school in Sydney (St. Joseph's College Hunters Hill). Broken Rites is doing further research about Beninati.

William Raymond Beninati was born on 30 April 1928 and began training as a Marist Brother in New South Wales in January 1946, aged 17. As usual in those times, he was given a "religious" name, which was Brother "Vales" (pronounced in two syllables, like the word "palace" in "the king's palace").

Broken Rites research has ascertained Beninati's career:

• In 1947 he began teaching at two Queensland schools (at Ashgrove and Cairns).
• From 1955 to 1971, he taught at St. Joseph's College Hunters Hill, Sydney.
• In 1978, he spent a year supervising disadvantaged boys who were living at St Vincent's Boys Home, Westmead, in Sydney's west.
• His other NSW locations (from the early 1950s to 1997) included Marist schools at Randwick, Parramatta, Campbelltown, Eastwood and Pagewood

In the late 1990s, one of his victims Sydney victims (Kevin) reported "Vales" Beninati (plus Br Hugh "Oswald" McNamara who also sexually abused him) to the NSW Police child-protection detectives. Police charged McNamara and Beninati. In court, Oswald McNamara was found guilty of physically abusing Kevin but the court said there was insufficient evidence about sexual abuse. It was then decided to drop charges against Vales Beninati. Kevin later reached a civil settlement with the Marists, who paid compensation to Kevin for sexual abuse committed on him by both Oswald McNamara and Vales Beninati.

Later, other Beninati victims also spoke to the NSW police. Detectives investigated Beninati but, by then, he was in bad health. He died in 2013, aged 85, after 67 years in the Marist Brothers,

The story of Steve

One of Beninati's Sydney victims (Steve) has had a private interview with Australia's national child-abuse Royal Commission.

Steve told how he was groomed, drugged and sexually abused by Brother "Vales" at St Joseph’s College, Hunter's Hill, between 1966 and 1969. The assaults ended when Steve, then aged 15, confronted Brother Vales.

Like many thousands of child sexual abuse survivors Steve finished school, gained a job, married, raised a family and appeared to live a normal life for decades. He qualified as a Catholic school teacher and taught at several Catholic schools, becoming a school principal.

For three decades, Steve tried to put the Marist crimes behind him but eventually he realised that the abuse (and the Church's culture of cover-up) had damaged his life and his career.

By 1999 he sought professional help, By 2000 he took extended sick leave, and by 2002, aged 49, he resigned from the Catholic school system and has not worked as a teacher again.

In 2003 he made a complaint about Brother Vales to the Marist Brothers under the Catholic Church’s Towards Healing process. but he found the church officials evasive. He was offered a tiny amount of "compensation". He accepted the money out of need and exhaustion, and because the Towards Healing process offered little emotional support.

The establishment of the Royal Commission in 2013 gave Steve new hope. He was one of the 6,000 Australian victims who had a private interview with one of the commissioners.

At the suggestion of Broken Rites, Steve also made a signed statement for the NSW Police detectives, who then attempted to charge "Vales" Beninati in 2013 with the assault of Steve, but Beninati was terminally ill and died a few months later.

The Royal Commission had given Steve some motivation. He again tackled the Marist Brothers for proper compensation, and this time he says he is satisfied with the amount.

One of Australia's most "prestigious" Catholic schools — Melbourne's Xavier College, conducted by the Jesuit priests — has publicly acknowledged that some former students have complained about having been indecently handled during their time at the school.

In May 2016, the rector of Xavier College (Fr Chris Middleton) announced that two plaques would be erected soon at Xavier (one in the Chapel and one in the grounds) to "acknowledge the shadow of sexual and other abuse that occurred at Xavier a number of years ago."

Fr Middleton said that Xavier's sports complex, previously named the "Stephenson Centre" in honour of the late Father Patrick Stephenson (1896-1990), would be given a new name.

Fr Middleton said:

"The Jesuit Province has indicated its belief that it would be appropriate for Xavier to change the name of the Stephenson Centre. Consequently, the College will rename the Stephenson Centre as The Xavier Sports Centre. Fr Paddy Stephenson SJ served Xavier for more than sixty years, and is remembered with great affection by many thousands of old-Xaverians. There are, however, a small number of complaints on record in terms of inappropriate touching while he was interviewing students."

Fr Middleton's announcement was carried, next day, by the Melbourne Herald Sun, ABC news and the Guardian Australia online.

Private settlements

Broken Rites research has found some examples of former students who have complained about having been molested by Jesuits at Xavier College during their student days. These ex-students say they have each received a private settlement from the Jesuits to end their complaint. The Jesuits gave each settlement on the condition that each ex-stsudent signed away his right to sue the college in the civil courts.

Here are some examples, from Broken Rites, of church settlements regarding Xavier College :

• Fr John Byrne, SJ

The Jesuits have accepted (and settled) a complaint by a former Xavier student (first name, Mark) that he was sexually abused (at the age of eleven) by Fr John Byrne, SJ, at Xavier's junior school (Burke Hall) in 1971. Mark says that the abuse (and the cover-up) badly affected his later life. Fr John Byrne also taught at the Jesuit's "prestigious" Sydney school — St Ignatius College, Riverview. See more from Broken Rites about Fr John Byrne HERE.

• Brother Paul Schulze, SJ

Br Paul Schulze taught at Xavier College's prep school, Burke Hall, in the 1960s. A former student, who went to Burke Hall at the age of ten, tackled the Jesuit authorities many years later, complaining that he had been sexually abused by Schulze. The Jesuits have settled this complaint.

Br Paul Schulze's career was not confined to Xavier College. Schulze has also been the subject of a complaint by a different ex-student, who attended St Ignatius parish primary school in Richmond, Melbourne, in the 1970s. The complainant, born in the 1960s, was aged from 7 to 10, when he encountered Schulze at St Ignatius's school (the Jesuits operate the local parish in that suburb). In 2005, this former pupil tackled the Jesuit authorities with a formal complaint. He alleged that Schulze's actions included serious criminal offences. The Jesuit authorities informed the ex-student (correctly) that Schulze had recently died. (Therefore, the police no longer able to charge Schulze.) However, the Jesuits have made a settlement with this Richmond ex-student. (This Richmond student was never at Xavier College.)

Furthermore

The above two settlements, about Father Byrne and Brother Schulze, are merely examples that have been uncovered in Broken Rites research. The Catholic Church does not volunteer any information about such cases and, according to the Victoria Police, the church does not arrange an appointment for any victim to have a chat with detectives from the Sex Crime Squad.

There have been various other complaints about Jesuits by former students of Xavier College. For example, Broken Rites is researching Father Donal Lane who was a Jesuit in Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney.

A sports coach at Xavier

A German-born athlete, Willi Kovac (the name has also been spelt as Vili Kovac) was an athletics coach at Melbourne's Xavier College and Marcellin College and other Catholic schools and worked as a co-ordinator at summer camps for Catholic school children. Xavier College sacked Kovac when it learned that he was a child-abuser but it then breached its duty of care by allowing him to work at other Catholic schools, putting more boys in danger.

In Melbourne County Court in December 2005, Willi Kovac (then aged 73) was jailed for a maximum of nine and half years' jail, with a non-parole period of 5½ years, after pleading guilty to indecently assaulting three boys (aged between nine and fourteen) in the 1960s and 1970s. Judge Pamela Jenkins said that, since the offences, Kovac's three victims had struggled with life, including drug and alcohol abuse and relationship breakdowns, and had under-achieved in their work-life. These three boys were not Kovac's only victims. He also had victims from other Catholic schools. Some additional victims have contacted Broken Rites.

After Kovac's jailing was reported in the media, more of his victims contacted the police. On 7 December 2017, Vili Kovac (then aged 85) appeared in court again, charged with sexual crimes committed against two more boys:

1. Kovac committed multiple indecent assaults against one of the boys while he was a teacher at Xavier College (this boy, aged eleven or twelve, was not a student at Xavier).

2. Several years later, while he was a teacher at Marcellin College, Kovac raped a Marcellin student, aged 12 or 13, while on a school camp. In court, Kovac pleaded guilty to indecent assault but did not admit a more serious charge of buggery, forcing his second victim to give evidence at a jury trial.

In sentencing Kovac regarding both boys, County Court Judge Susan Cohen detailed the terrible impact the sexual abuse had had on the boys, who are now men aged in their 60s. She said one of the men had described the offending as "turning his world upside down" while the other still suffers shame and guilt over the abuse which has affected his personal relationships, including with his grandchildren.

Judge Cohen sentenced Kovac to a maximum of four years' jail, with release on parole after serving 12 months behind bars.

After this sentencing, two more of Kovac's victims contacted the police. Therefore, Kovac faced court again in mid-2018 regarding these two victims. The court again convicted him, and his jail time was extended slightly.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 22 August 2018

A retired Catholic priest (now aged 78) is listed to appear in a magistrates court in 2018, charged with child-sex offences allegedly committed in New South Wales earlier in his working career. The Catholic Diocese of Broken Bay (in Sydney's north) has announced that the retired priest is FatherCarl Stafford. And Bishop Peter A Comensoli (formerly of the Broken Bay diocese) has stated publicly: "Originally a Marist Brother, Fr Stafford left this Order [the Marists] and took up a lay teaching position with St Gregory’s College Campbelltown before entering the seminary in 1989. Ordained as a priest for the Diocese of Broken Bay in 1994, Fr Stafford held appointments in Mona Vale, Gosford, Toukley/Lake Munmorah and Kincumber parishes." (According to church sources, Father Carl is still a priest and he is merely retired from parish appointments.)

An official document in the Marist Brothers head-office archive confirms that "Carl STAFFORD (born 8 July 1939)" was originally a Marist Brother but this document does not indicate what year he left the Marist Order.

On 16 October 2017, following an extensive investigation by detectives, police arrested the 78-year-old retired priest at a town in north-west NSW.

The police charged him with sexual offences against three boys:

• two boys while he was a priest based in a parish in East Gosford (north of Sydney, in the Broken Bay diocese) in the 1990s;
• and another boy in the 1980s, while working as lay a teacher (known as "Mister" Stafford) at the Campbelltown school (in Sydney's south). St Gregory's College was an agricultural boarding school, with boarders from various regional areas in NSW.

Carl Stafford was charged with a total of 13 sex-related offences against these three boys.

He was granted conditional bail until his court proceedings begin. The case was listed (on the NSW courts website) to have its first mention in a courtroom at Gosford Local Court on 30 October 2017 (for the matter to be officially filed in a brief administrative procedure). It was later listed for further preliminary mentions in the same court on in January 2018 and March 2018, with the next steps expected to be held later in 2018.

On the court schedule, the Stafford case-number is given as 2017/00314987, and the defendant's full name is given as Carl Edward Stafford.

Meanwhile, the Detectives Office at Gosford Police are continuing their inquiries. The Gosford detectives are also handling the other allegations regarding Carl Stafford at St Gregory's College Campbelltown. The Gosford and Cambelltown allegations are being combined in the same police investigation. The detectives wish to hear from anybody with factual information relevant to this case.

Broken Rites has been told that Mister Carl Stafford taught at St John's College, Dubbo NSW, in the 1970s. Mr Stafford told students that he had previously taught at St Gregory's College Cambeltown and that he had been a Marist Brother. He returned to Cambelltown after 1978.

FOOTNOTE: After Father Carl Stafford retired from parish work in 2010, the Broken Bay Diocese section in the annual printed edition of the Australian Catholic Directory continued to include "Rev. Carl Stafford" among the Broken Bay Diocese's list of "Retired Clergy". The 2014 edition of the Directory gave Father Carl Stafford's retirement address in that year as a villa unit at Kincumber.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 22 August 2018

The Marist Brothers have been forced to acknowledge that yet another one of their members — Brother Thomas Joseph Butler (known as "Brother Patrick") — committed sexual offences against children. Former students, from several Marist schools in New South Wales and Queensland, have told Broken Rites that the Marists knew about Butler's offences but the Marists allowed him to continue teaching — and offending — throughout his long career.

Broken Rites has researched the background of Brother "Patrick" Butler. His life story was typical among Australia's Marist Brothers. When he was still a schoolboy, he was groomed and recruited by the Marists and was inducted into the Marist's ways of behaving.

Thomas Joseph Butler was born in Sydney on 19 May 1929. He became a pupil at a Marist Brothers school in Eastwood (Sydney), where (by the age of 13 and a half) the Marists groomed him to consider a career as a Marist Brother. In January 1943 he was enticed away from his parent's home to live in a Marist Brothers "juniorate" (a boarding school for Marist "aspirants"), where he completed his secondary schooling (to year 11), followed by 18 months of Marist religious education and teacher-training, which included adopting the name "Brother Patrick". Then, just after his 17th birthday, he began his lifetime of "celibacy" (wink, wink) as a teacher in Marist schools in New South Wales and Queensland

Broken Rites has researched Brother "Patrick" Butler's teaching appointments. Between the late 1940s and the year 2001, he taught at many Catholic schools

• In New South Wales, Brother Patrick taught at the following Marist schools: Hamilton (in the late 1940s, again in the mid-1960s and again in the 1970s), Mosman, Darlinghurst, Hunters Hill (St Joseph's College), Eastwood, Parramatta,Kogarah, and Randwick (Marcellin College).
• In Queensland, he taught at Brisbane's Marist College Ashgrove (in 1962 and again in 1989-2000).

Broken Rites has interviewed ex-students of Brother Patrick Butler from three of his schools. They all said that Brother Patrick would invasively handle a boy's genitals, either from inside or outside the boys' pants. Brother Patrick did this openly, in the classroom, during a lesson, they said.

One ex-student ("Barnaby") told Broken Rites in 2002:

"I encountered Brother Patrick when he was the principal at Marist Brothers Eastwood in Sydney in the 1960s. He would sit down beside a pupil and place his arm around you and fondle your genitals through your shorts pocket. 

"One day, after school was finished for the day, I was required to see him to explain my reason for having been absent from school recently. After a brief questioning, he attempted to take my shorts off. I panicked and hit him with my open hand and ran out the door. My parents were notified a week later by mail that I was expelled from school for truancy.

"I could not tell my mother about the sexual abuse. She was a strict Catholic and would never believe that a thing like sexual abuse could ever be committed by Catholic clergy  or religious Brothers, so I was never vindicated."

"My entire school days, apart from my last year were spent at catholic schools and often we would hear different stories of this Brother or that Brother doing strange things to the kids."

"Brother Pat" died in 2006, aged 77.

In April 2015, responding to questions from the Newcastle Herald, the Marist Brothers Australian head office made a statement, admitting that it had received complaints about Brother Patrick from students at three Marist Brothers schools, although it did not name the schools. The Marists' statement made "an enduring apology to the victims of Patrick Butler and the victims of other Brothers or school employees."

In September 2016, Australia's national child-abuse Royal Commission held a public hearing (in Newcastle) to examine how the Marist leadership handled Brother Patrick Butler (plus some other offenders).

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 28 August 2018

On 24 July 2014, Catholic priest, Father Patrick Holmes (then aged 79), was jailed for sexually abusing two young girls in Western Australia many years ago (one girl in 1969 and the other girl about 1981). The first victim eventually reported Father Holmes to the church authorities in 2000, but (according to Broken Rites research) the church continued to list "Reverend Patrick Holmes" as a priest in the annual editions of the Australian Catholic Directory. In 2014 this victim finally spoke to police, who immediately charged Holmes. In 2018, Patrick Holmes (now aged 83) is facing court again in Perth, charged with additional child-sex offences from 40 years ago.

Some background

Broken Rites research has ascertained that Father Patrick Holmes is a member of a Catholic religious order called the Camillian Fathers (or Ministers to the Sick). This order specialises in providing chaplains for hospitals as well as working in parishes. Father Patrick Holmes has worked in parishes of the Perth Archdiocese.

The Camillian Fathers have their world headquarters in Rome. The Australian leader of the order is in Sydney. When Broken Rites checked in 2014, the Camillian order had 15 priests in Australia, nine of whom were each listed as a chaplain at hospitals in New South Wales.

The 2014 court case

In the 2014 case, Holmes was sentenced in the District Court of Western Australia after pleading guilty to six child-sex charges.

The court was told that the first three offences were committed in 1969 (when Holmes was aged 34) and involved a girl aged about six or seven. Holmes was then the parish priest at Holy Name parish in Carlisle (a suburb of Perth) and the offences were committed against this girl in the presbytery.

The court was told that this girl was a pupil at the primary school next to his church. She would regularly visit Father Holmes after school and was given treats and cash in return for her co-operation and silence.

The court was told that Father Holmes placed his hand down this girl's pants and also rubbed his crotch against hers.

The second girl was abused about 1981 (when Holmes was aged about 46), in the presbytery of the Saint Aloysius parish in Shenton Park (another Perth suburb) where Holmes was again the parish priest. The girl was aged 10 or 11.

Holmes touched this girl's breasts, vagina and buttocks, the court was told. She was given treats.

Later, during the 1990s until 2000 (according to the annual editions of the Australian Catholic Directory), Father Holmes was the parish priest of St Joseph's parish, Subiaco (a Perth suburb).

In 2000 (when Holmes was aged 65), the first victim notified the Catholic Church authorities about Holmes's offences, and Holmes wrote her a letter of apology. Holmes took retirement from parish work but the church authorities continued to list him as a priest ("Reverend Patrick Holmes, retired") in the annual editions of the Australian Catholic Directory.

The 1969 victim reported the matter to police in January 2014 - fourteen years after telling the church about it. The police, unlike the church, made sure that Holmes was charged. He appeared in a Perth magistrates court on 15 April 2014 for preliminary proceedings, at which he pleaded guilty. The sentencing was then scheduled for mid-2014.

[A media report of the April 2014 court hearing stated: "Holmes was most recently working as a hospital chaplain.]

At the pre-sentencing proceedings, Holmes' lawyer told the court that Holmes started studying to be a priest when he was in his teens, and was ordained when he was 21.

In his sentencing remarks, Judge Henry John Wisbey said that Holmes had abused his position of trust, authority and pastoral regard, and exploited the naivety and young age of his victims "to achieve your criminal purposes".

The abuse had had an extremely significant and long-lasting adverse psychological impact on his victims, Judge Wisbey said.

He told Holmes: "You have brought considerable shame on yourself, that is a consequence of your offending behaviour."

The judge said that the only mitigating factor in sentencing was that Holmes had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and had co-operated with police.

Judge Wisbey said an immediate term of imprisonment was the only appropriate sentence. He took into account Holmes' old age and low risk of reoffending.

He sentenced Holmes to three years jail. Holmes would be eligible for parole after serving 18 months behind bars.

More charges in 2018

In April 2018 (and again in July 2018 and August 2018), police charged Father Patrick Holmes (now aged 83) with more child-sex offences from 40 years ago, relating to his time in the Carlisle and Shenton Park parishes. These new charges relate to multiple alleged victims, including boys and girls. Police say the victims were aged between six and twelve at the time of those offences

On 13 July 2018, Patrick Holmes appeared in Perth Magistrates Court, where the latest charges had a brief procedural mention. On 17 August 2018 the case had another mention in court, with Holmes now facing more charges regarding more victims (now a total of 15 alleged incidents). Three of the latest charges relate to a girl who was aged six in 1970.

The matter is due to come up again in court on a later date.

The charges against Fr Patrick Holmes are a result of investigations by the Child Abuse Squad of the West Australian police. Police say the investigation is extensive and ongoing.

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

This Broken Rites article is the most comprehensive account available about the paedophile priest Brian Joseph Spillane — and how the Catholic Church enabled him to commit his sexual crimes against children. Father Spillane's victims were mostly boys who were assaulted while he ministered at St Stanislaus College — a Catholic day and boarding secondary school for boys, in Bathurst, New South Wales. And he assaulted girls in parishes elsewhere. In 2018, Brian Spillane is in jail for those crimes and now police are taking him to court again regarding an alleged sexual assault of a ten-year-old boy in Sydney in 1964 while Spillane was a trainee priest (see more about this at the end of this article).

Reverend Brian Spillane, C.M, was a priest in the Catholic order of Vincentian Fathers and Brothers (also called the Congregation of the Mission — hence the initials "C.M." after his name). The Vincentians are an Australia-wide order, not confined to a particular diocese. As well as establishing the St Stanislaus boys' boarding school in Bathurst, the Vincentians have also provided priests for several parishes in Sydney, Melbourne and Queensland.

Police have been told that, sometimes, a Vincentian clergyman would try to groom a young boy. Sometimes such a boy might be recruited for training as a future Vincentian brother or priest.

Traditionally, the Vincentians' sexual-abuse has been successfully concealed from the public but, in recent years, some of the Vincentians' victims have finally spoken (separately) to NSW Police detectives. Thus, a significant number of Vincentian priests and brothers have recently been charged in the criminal courts.

How the Spillane cases began

In 2008 and 2009, after an investigation by NSW Police detectives, the NSW Office of Public Prosecutions charged Brian Joseph Spillane with sexual offences against a number of boys and girls.

Spillane had a legal team to fight the court proceedings on his behalf. He pleaded Not Guilty to all charges.

Spillane's legal costs (to 2016) are estimated to have exceeded a million dollars. It would be interesting to find out where these dollars came from. Did the defence funds include money placed on the collection plate in parishes? Or from school fees paid by parents? Did a friendly bishop or archbishop make a contribution from diocesan funds?

The prosecutors chose to hold the girls' case first. In 2010, a jury convicted Spillane regarding the girls and he was jailed for these particular incidents.

The prosecutors then began preparing for the St Stanislaus College boys' case which was more complex. Spillane's legal team tried to obstruct, or delay, the process. For legal reasons, the boys were eventually divided into several groups, with each group being handled by a different jury. These trials were to be held one-at-a-time.

St Stanislaus College (and the Vincentian religious order) had already gained public notoriety for child-sex crimes, and fears were expressed in court that this notoriety might affect the consecutive juries, thus damaging the whole procedure. Therefore, the court placed a temporary media-suppression order regarding all the St Stanislaus boys' proceedings, so as to prevent any jury being influenced by media reports of a preceding St Stanislaus trial.

The media-suppression order was finally lifted on 5 December 2016 after the final Spillane trial was finished. Spillane is still in jail, and on 16 February 2017 he was sentenced regarding the most recent St Stanislaus trials.

Career outline:Broken Rites research

Broken Rites has researched Spillane's life in electoral rolls and church documents.

Born about 1943, he began training for the Vincentian priesthood in Sydney in 1960. The Australian electoral rolls from 1964 to 1968 listed Brian Joseph Leonard Spillane as a student, located at a Vincentian address in Balaclava Road, Marsfield, Sydney.

After completing his training, he was evidently ordained as a priest in the late 1960s (the 1969 Australian electoral roll listed him at St Stanislaus College, Bathurst, as a priest).

According to a St Stanislaus College yearbook, Father Spillane served two periods at this school, totalling 19 years. The first was from 1968 to 1978, during which he had various roles: a form master of various forms from year 7 to year 12; a dormitory master; a full-time teacher of many subjects, mainly language; a sports coach; the dean of discipline; a lieutenant in the cadet unit; and supervisor of the band.

The pupils boarding at St Stanislaus came from towns and farms throughout New South Wales.

Vincentian priests and brothers were living in bedrooms on the St Stanislaus College premises.

From 1979 to 1983, Father Spillane was away from St Stanislaus, doing parish and mission work including a period at St Anthony's parish in Marsfield, Sydney.

For three years from early 1981, Spillane joined a "renewal team" led by the Australian head of the Vincentian order which visited Vincentian parishes around Australia, promoting Catholic teachings. These visits to various parishes (and to families) gave him access to girls as well as boys (Spillane was a danger to both genders).

From 1984 to 1991, he was again at St Stanislaus College as the school chaplain. He was the Superior (that is, the leader) of the Vincentian clergy living at this school.

After leaving St Stanislaus College, Spillane was still remembered in the school's 1992 yearbook, in which the two Year Seven classes were each named after a teacher (one of these classes was labelled in the 1992 yearbook as "Year 7 Spillane").

In the early 1990s, Father Spillane ministered at a Vincentian parish (Mary Immaculate) at Southport on Queensland's Gold Coast. From 1995 to 1997, his postal address was the Catholic Mission, Oxenford, near the Gold Coast.

From 1998 to 2004 he was listed as the Parish Priest at a Vincentian parish (St Vincent's) in Ashfield, Sydney.

The above-mentioned addresses were Father Spillane's official workplaces but these were not necessarily his only residential addresses. For example, from the late 1980s onwards, Father Hugh Murray of the Vincentian order conducted a community centre in Tempe House, at Arncliffe, Sydney; and Fr Murray has said that Vincentian priests who spent time living at this address included Brian Spillane.

In 2004, Brian Spillane left the Vincentian order and began living privately in Sydney.

Convicted regarding female victims

In Sydney in November 2010, a New South Wales District Court jury found Brian Joseph Spillane (then aged 67) guilty of indecently assaulting three girls aged between six and seventeen.

The jury convicted Spillane on nine counts of indecent assault against three girls. The alleged events occurred in the 1970s and early 1980s in various circumstances:

• Some of the offences against girls allegedly occurred when Spillane visited a family in a rural area in north-western New South Wales. Spillane had become acquainted with this family as a result of his work in Bathurst.
• Other offences against girls allegedly occurred while Spillane was working (in 1979 onwards) from a Vincentian base in Marsfield, a Sydney suburb. He became the leader of a group of Vincentian priests and brothers at Marsfield and he also carried out duties in the local Catholic parish (which was staffed by Vincentians) and at the local parish primary school.

The court was told that Spillane gained access to children through his role as a Catholic priest. The prosecutor, Brad Hughes, told the court that Spillane "would not have been within a bull's roar of these girls if he hadn't been a priest."

The court was told that friendly families welcomed him to their homes. He conducted Mass in their sitting rooms, played games with their children and, according to the evidence, abused their daughters. Spillane would sometimes appear at a family’s house uninvited, the court was told. One mother told the court how Spillane brought presents for the parents and the children.

The court heard how Spillane’s role as a priest protected him. Some of the children mentioned vaguely to their parents that Father Spillane had touched them. There was no evidence in court that any of the parents (or any of the church authorities) reported Spillane to the police at the time of the incidents.

The court was told that, while hearing Confession of children in his parish, Spillane would invite children as young as eight to sit on his lap. Spillane told the court that this “was my pastoral approach to break down the barrier between the fearful God and the loving God."

The court charges in the Sydney court proceedings were confined to incidents that allegedly occurred within New South Wales. The court heard about an incident involving a girl in Queensland but this matter is outside the jurisdiction of the NSW courts.

Bail refused

On 30 November 2010, after the jury verdicts, the court heard an application by Brian Joseph Spillane, seeking to be released on bail while he would be waiting for further court proceedings. Spillane was refused bail and was removed from the court in custody pending his next court appearance.

Attempt to stop the proceedings

Meanwhile, Spillane's legal team raised certain objections regarding the proposed sentence proceedings (involving the female victims) and also regarding subsequent proposed court proceedings (involving a number of male victims).

These objections needed be debated at length in the courts, including the New South Wales Court of Appeal, and this caused a delay in the proceedings.

Finally, in early April 2012, the NSW Court of Appeal cleared the way for the Brian Joseph Spillane proceedings to resume.

Sentenced regarding the girls, April 2012

On 19 April 2012, after Spillane had been in custody for 17 months, Judge Michael Finnane sentenced him in the Sydney District Court regarding the female victims.

In his sentencing remarks, the judge called each assault "serious, planned and callous". He said Spillane's position as a priest and his "standing in the community" allowed him to gain access to the homes of his victims, many of whom came from devout Catholic families.

Some of the offences occurred when Spillane was alone with his victims in their bedrooms for night-time prayers. One happened in a car after he had said Mass at a memorial service.

"He was very trusted and the parents of each of the victims readily gave him access to their daughters because of that trust and the esteem in which he was held," Judge Finnane said.

"The victims in this trial were all girls to whom he got access when he was conducting parish missions or ... when he was visiting a country town.

"It was sexual abuse carried out by a trusted priest and was a major breach of trust."

The judge said Spillane had shown no remorse and no contrition for his offending "which means that there can be little hope of rehabilitation".

Jailed regarding the girls

Judge Finnane sentenced Spillane, then aged 69, to jail for nine years with a right to eventually apply for release to serve the final part of his sentence on parole. (This jail sentence was reported in the media.).

Charges regarding boys

The cases regarding St Stanislaus College were held between 2013 and 2016, using separate juries (hence the need for a non-publication order during these trials, so that the cases would not be jeopardized by the media).

The boys' cases resulted as follows:

• After a trial in 2013, Spillane was convicted of assaults on five St Stanislaus College boys.
• In 2015 he pleaded guilty to assaults on four St Stanislaus boys, committed in the late 1980s.
• During 2016, he was convicted of assaults on five St Stanislaus boys, committed between 1974 and 1990.
• In early December 2016, a jury found him guilty of 11 charges, including sexual assault, indecent assault and buggery on four St Stanislaus boys between 1976 and 1988. He was acquitted of one charge of buggery.

The media-suppression order was finally lifted on 5 December 2016 after the final St Stanislaus trial was finished. Spillane was already in jail, still serving his sentence for his crimes against the girls.

Another jail sentence

On 3 February 2017, Judge Robyn Tupman held a pre-sentence procedure for Spillane regarding the boys. This was an opportunity for any victim to submit an impact statement showing how Spillane's crime (and the church's cover-up) affected this victim's life. The Judge takes these impact statements into account when preparing Spillane's sentence.

On 16 February 2017, Judge Tupman sentenced Spillane to at least nine years in jail (with a maximum of 13 years) for 16 offences (including buggery) against the male victims. As the sentences (for the girls as well as the boys) will run partially concurrently, Spillane's eligible release date has been extended by five years to November 2026.

The judge said Spillane abused his position of trust as a teacher and chaplain and "used religious rituals to increase his power over his victims".

"Most of the complainants were boarders [at St Stanislaus College], a long way from home and in many cases away from home for the first time," she said.

"Many of the complainants didn't realise what was happening was inappropriate, in large part because he was a priest.

"They didn't tell anyone for many years. Perhaps more insidiously, they didn't expect to be believed.

"He knew that he could act with impunity and there was almost no chance his offending would be revealed."

A victim speaks out

Outside the court, after the sentencing on 16 February 2017, one St Stanislaus College victim (Damien Sheridan) was interviewed by television, radio and newspaper reporters. He authorized the media to publish his name and photograph. Damien also released copies of the typewritten Victim Impact Statement that he had submitted to the court's February 3 pre-sentence hearing.

Damen said: "I was a shy, well-mannered boy from a small country town of Forbes with very little wisdom in the ways of how the world works. I was raised a Catholic with strict catholic morals, although no one ever told me to be aware that there are wolves dressed as sheep out there."

Damien said that Spillane's abuse (and the church's cover-up) devastated his later development, leaving him with post-traumatic stress disorder. He has had difficulty getting and keeping employment.

Charged again in 2018

In 2018, Spillane is in jail but police have charged him regarding an additional boy who was allegedly sexually abused by Spillane in Sydney in 1964 while Spillane was a trainee priest.

On 28 August 2018, NSW Police issued this statement to media outlets:

"A former Catholic priest has been charged with historical sexual assault at Rose Bay in 1964.

"Officers attached to the NSW Police Force Marine Area Command commenced an investigation into the alleged sexual assault of a 10-year-old boy that occurred in 1964 on Shark Island, Rose Bay.

"Following inquiries, officers issued a 75-year-old man a Future Court Attendance Notice for the offence of buggery at a Correctional Centre at South Nowra.

"He is due to appear at Central Local Court [in Sydney] on Tuesday 25 September 2018."

Several media outlets, including the Daily Telegraph website and the Daily Mail website, immediately published the defendant's name as Brian Spillane, former priest. The Daily Telegraph website stated:

"Serial paedophile and former Catholic priest Brian Spillane has been charged with raping a 10-year-old at an altar boys’ picnic. Spillane, 74, allegedly sexually assaulted the boy in the public toilets during the picnic on Shark Island in Sydney Harbour..."

• By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 1 September 2018)

This Broken Rites article reveals how the Catholic Church harboured a child-sex abuser, Marist Brother Gerard Joseph McNamara, teaching in Catholic schools, for four decades until eventually some of his victims began speaking (separately) to the Victoria Police child-protection detectives. When the police finally charged McNamara regarding the first batch of these victims, the Marists enthusiastically supported McNamara and ignored the victims. But Broken Rites supported the victims — and in 2004-2005 McNamara finally pleaded guilty to this first batch of victims and was convicted. This prompted more of McNamara's former students to contact the detectives. In 2016, McNamara pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting two more of his victims, resulting in another conviction. In 2018, McNamara (aged 80) has pleaded guilty to sexual offences against five more of his former schoolboys. In September 2018, he is awaiting sentence in the Melbourne County Court regarding these five boys — case number CR-18-00580. The 2018 court case is reported towards the end of this Broken Rites article. Meanwhile, after his life of crime, McNamara is officially still a Marist Brother.

McNamara's background

From statements made in court (in 2004-2005), Broken Rites has compiled the following details about McNamara's background.

Gerard Joseph McNamara (born 9 March 1938) became a trainee Marist Brother, straight from school, at age 18 in 1956. He belonged to the Melbourne-based province of the Marist Brothers, where he was originally known as "Brother Camillus" (not to be confused with another, older "Brother Camillus" in the Sydney province). McNamara began teaching in Marist schools at:

• Sale VIC (St Patrick's College) 1960-4;
  Wangaratta VIC 1965-6;
  Bendigo VIC 1967;
  Forbes NSW (Red Bend College) 1968; and
  Traralgon VIC (St Paul's College) 1970-6.

In the mid-1970s, while officially still attached to the Traralgon school, McNamara spent some time in Fiji. About 1977, after his period of offending at the Traralgon school, he also spent some time away from teaching, visiting the Catholic Church's "National Pastoral Institute" (now defunct) in Melbourne. (Catholic priests and brothers were sometimes "warehoused" at the National Pastoral Institute after being exposed for child-sex crimes.)

Despite McNamara's behaviour at the Traralgon school, the Marist Brothers kept him in the Order and appointed him to more schools. His next postings were to:

• Mt Gambier in South Australia 1978-80;
  Preston VIC 1980-5;
  Shepparton VIC 1986-92;
  Sale VIC 1993-9;
  Preston VIC 2002-3; and
  Sale VIC 2003.

More background, 1994 to 2004

In April 1994, "Sam" (born in 1960) telephoned Broken Rites, alleging that Brother Gerard Joseph McNamara sexually abused him at St Paul's Catholic College in Traralgon, in eastern Victoria, in the 1970s. Also in 1994, Sam complained to a senior Marist Brother about McNamara's offences but this complaint was unsuccessful; and McNamara continued teaching as a Marist Brother. At a school reunion in 1998, Sam found that half a dozen other ex-students still remembered McNamara as an abuser. Finally, in 2003, on the advice of Broken Rites, Sam contacted the Sexual Offences and Child-abuse Investigation Team (SOCIT) of the Victoria Police. Detectives then easily found more victims of Gerard McNamara from just this one school.

In the Melbourne County Court on 13 December 2004 (ten years after Sam's first call to Broken Rites), Gerard McNamara (then 66) finally faced justice.

A Broken Rites researcher was present throughout all the McNamara court proceedings, taking notes.

The court was told that when Sam contacted the police, McNamara rejected the allegations, and continued convincing his friends and supporters that he had done nothing wrong.

A Marist cheer squad at the court

When McNamara turned up for his court appearance in 2004, he was accompanied by a throng of his colleagues and supporters, who filled the corridor outside the courtroom. This support team included leaders of the Marist Brothers Order. If any victim arrived, he had to weave his way through this support squad to approach the courtroom.

When the courtroom door was opened, the Marist support squad filled nearly all the seats in the courtroom's public gallery, leaving little space for victims.

Thus, no Catholic Church representatives attended court to support the victims. However, Broken Rites representatives were present to provide this support.

Helped by Broken Rites, one victim had alerted the media, and therefore (unfortunately for the Marists) journalists were present in court, taking notes. This ensured that the court case would not be covered up.

The 2004 court case begins

When the court hearing began, the courtroom was informed that detectives had obtained statements from not just one victim ("Sam") but six.

When asked how he wished to plead regarding these six victms, McNamara announced "Guilty". He admitted indecently assaulting these six students, mostly aged about 11 or 12, in 1972-73. These six were not McNamara's only victims — they were merely those who provided police statements. And the detectives had investigated only one of McNamara's schools — St Paul's College, Traralgon.

(St Paul's College, Traralgon, has since merged with a girls' school to become a part of the enlarged co-educational Lavalla Catholic College).

The offences in the 2004 case

Because of the "Guilty" plea, McNamara's victims were not required to give verbal evidence in court. However, the court possessed written statements, compiled by the victims during their police interviews.

The victims' written statements described how McNamara would send a boy alone to a sports equipment shed at the school for a "remedial massage". The massage, using oil or smelly "Dencorub", extended from the ankles to the genitals. McNamara sometimes took the victim to a bedroom near his office. McNamara was not a qualified masseur, the court was told.

The court was told that McNamara's abuse was well known to students at the campus, all of whom came to dread an invitation to the notorious shed. Other students knew what the smell of "Dencorub" meant and what being sent to the shed would result in. The "Dencorub" made the boys embarrassed after going back to class (or going home on the school bus) smelling of the substance. One embarrassed 11-year-old boy fled from the school and made his own way home from Traralgon to Moe, 30km away, instead of returning to class, after a "massage" from McNamara.

Some of the "massages" were purportedly for sports injuries — mostly an injured ankle but also an injured knee or an injured back — but some were for disciplinary reasons.

The court was told that McNamara was a violent teacher, regularly using a strap to discipline students. The prosecutor said McNamara was the deputy principal, sports co-ordinator and discipline co-ordinator at the time of the offences and later became the principal — positions that gave him power over his victims.

One victim wrote: "It was like discipline was his God, I remember seeing fellow students wet their pants while being dealt with by Brother Gerard."

Another victim said that during a sport class McNamara pushed him into a wooden vaulting horse and ordered him to stay back after school to have the injury massaged.

"I said it's not necessary ... I told him I had to go home after school, he insisted I was to stay back," the victim wrote. "I was petrified and fearful. I knew something was going to happen. It was well known around school Brother Gerard spent time alone with boys."

He said McNamara took him to a room in the school, told him to lie on a bed and rubbed a cream on him and massaged him for half an hour.

"I felt very dirty, I think I was in shock. I knew Brother Gerard had done something wrong but I didn't understand, I was very confused, embarrassed and ashamed," he said.

The culture of cover-up

McNamara also taught "religion" which included teaching "morals", the court was told during the 2004 hearing.

The court was told that McNamara held a position of exalted trust within the Catholic community, and his defenceless victims were too afraid to speak out.

When some boys did eventually reveal the abuse, the parents did not believe them. These parents had been conditioned to believe the Marist Brothers, rather than the children, the court was told.

Impact of the crimes

One boy ("Mitch") did tell his parents but his mother reprimanded him for "telling lies" about a Marist Brother — and his father thrashed him. This destroyed his relationship with his parents, both now dead. Even his brother disbelieved him until recently. After the court proceedings began, Mitch's brother apologised for doubting Mitch but the brotherly relationship is damaged, and Mitch (at the time of the 2004 court case) is still estranged from other family members.

The victims said that the long-term effects of McNamara's crimes included: low self-esteem; inability to form relationships; a feeling of powerlessness; the loss of their relationship with the church community; and a disruption of family relationships. Only one of the boys in the case has gone on to have a normal life, the court was told.

One boy wrote that this was his first "sexual" encounter and he carried the burden of guilty around for all these years, until this court case.

Pre-sentence submissions in 2004

Because of the "Guilty" plea, the victims' written evidence was not in dispute. The court began hearing submissions from the prosecution and the defence about what kind of penalty should be imposed on McNamara.

The prosecutor referred to the seriousness of the offences, committed on defenceless young boys (aged 11 or 12, not big teenagers) by a man in an exalted position. And, despite McNamara's guilty plea, he still has not expressed remorse, the court was told.

The Marists' defence lawyer stated that Brother McNamara has received overwhelming support, "as shown by the number of supporters in court today."

The Marists' lawyer asked for a non-custodial sentence, adding that McNamara's public disgrace would be a punishment in itself, as shown (he said) by the presence of "reporters in court today".

Media coverage of the 2004 case

At the end of the 13 December 2004 hearing, McNamara was remanded on bail pending the resumption of the pre-sentence proceedings on a future date.

McNamara's December 2004 guilty plea was immediately reported in the media. This prompted a seventh victim to come forward. When the pre-sentence proceedings resumed on 3 June 2005, McNamara the seventh victim was added to the case, and McNamara pleaded guilty regarding this victim.

At the June 2005 hearing, Marist leaders again attended court but many of McNamara's former large throng of supporters stayed away. Again, journalists were present in court.

Sentenced in 2005 and disgraced

On 17 June 2005, Judge Jim Duggan sentenced Gerard McNamara to a 36-month jail term which was suspended.

Certainly, the judge could have made McNamara serve part of this 3-year sentence (say, six months) behind bars but the Marist Brothers' lawyers could then appeal against the jailing — and, for legal reasons, the Appeals Court could easily release him (because it is quite common for the courts to give a suspended sentence in a case of this kind, where the incidents occurred many years ago).

The judge placed McNamara on the Register of Serious Sexual Offenders. McNamara now could never again work near children, not even driving a school bus. And the worst penalty of all is that (much to the embarrassment of the Marist Brothers Order) his 2005 conviction was publicised in Melbourne newspapers, on radio news bulletins and on television.

Radio interview

After the sentencing in 2005, Broken Rites arranged for one victim ("John") to be interviewed on Melbourne radio 3AW's drive-time program. After John's interview, several talkback callers spoke negatively on 3AW about the Marist Brothers culture. One caller said that he was an additional victim of McNamara — that is, this man had not been to the police and he was not one of the seven victims in the court case.

More Marist victims

As well as making sure that McNamara's conviction was reported in the Melbourne media, his victims also made sure that it was reported in local newspapers (and on local radio) in Traralgon and other districts in which McNamara had taught.

These media reports (plus this McNamara article on the Broken Rites website) caught the attention of other Marist victims. One of these was "Jeremiah" (not his real name), who was a victim of Marist Brother Aubrey Tobin at the Traralgon school. After the McNamara conviction, Jeremiah wrote to Marist headquarters in Melbourne, expressing his sympathy for the McNamara victims. The then head of the Marist Order in Australia's southern states, Brother Paul Gilchrist, replied to Jeremiah in a letter dated 28 June 2005. This letter indicates that Gilchrist participated in the defence lawyers' submissions on behalf of Brother McNamara at the pre-sentence proceedings. Gilchrist wrote in his letter to Jeremiah:

• "At the court hearing, I informed the presiding judge that the Marist Brothers are very sorry for any damage that has been caused, not only through Gerard's actions but through the subsequent impact of these actions that all or any of the former students have experienced."

[However, this expression of regret came thirty years too late for McNamara's victims at the Traralgon school.]

Further complaints about Marists

Since McNamara's sentencing in 2005, more ex-students have said that they have similar complaints about sexual abuse in Marist schools. Such ex-students, in the state of Victoria, should have a chat with the specialist police officers of the Sexual Offences and Child-abuseInvestigation Team (SOCIT) units which are located around Melbourne and around Victoria (for example, there is a SOCIT team at the Morwell police station, investigating such cases in the Gippsland region in eastern Victoria). Such a case could also interest the specialist detectives in the Sano Taskforce of the Victoria Police sex crime squad, in Melbourne.

Convicted again in 2016

On 14 November 2016, Gerard McNamara, 78, pleaded guilty in the Melbourne County Court to indecently assaulting two males under the age of 16 at St Paul's Catholic College in Traralgon (eastern Victoria). These offences occurred in 1975 when Brother Gerard McNamara was the principal and sports master of the school.

The court was told that the younger victim was 11 or 12 at the time and was in Year 7 (the lowest form in the school). This boy went to the school's office after injuring his knee (and damaging his pants) while playing soccer. He was standing in an office in his underwear while a female staff member repaired his pants.

McNamara then came into the office and used a pungent cream ("Dencorub") to massage the boy's leg. While doing this, he indecently attacked the boy's genitals.

"The victim returned to class smelling of liniment and was laughed at by the other students," the prosecutor told the court. "Unfortunately, the accused had a reputation among the students – a common expression used was 'getting a rub down from Brother Gerard'."

The second victim (when aged 14) was indecently assaulted twice after getting an injured thigh while playing football. First, McNamara indecently assaulted this boy in the sports shed and told him to return two days later. The boy returned and was indecentely assaulted again.

During a pre-sentence procedure on 14 November 2016, each of these two victims submitted an impact statement to the court, telling how this crime (committed by a Catholic Brother in a Catholic school) had damaged his life, leaving him emotionally scarred. Both victims said they still carried the consequences decades later.

On 6 December 2016, Judge James Parrish sentenced Gerard McNamara to 16 months in prison, wholly suspended.

The investigation for the 2016 case was conducted by detectives in the Sexual Offences and Child-abuse Investigation Team (SOCIT) at Morwell.

After the 2016 conviction, Victoria Police detectives continued to investigate further complaints concerning Brother Gerard Joseph McNamara. Detective Senior Sergeant Christopher SKURRIE, of Morwell Police, prepared a case to go to court in 2018.

Pleading guilty again in 2018

On 19 March 2018, Gerard Joseph McNamara (aged 80) appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court, where he pleaded guilty to indecent assaults committed against five more former schoolboys, between January 1970 and December 1975, during his time at St Paul's College, Traralgon. After his guilty plea, the Marist Brothers’ Province of Australia immediately released a media statement, finally acknowledging McNamara's offences: "The charges that have been pleaded guilty to today by this Brother represent the most profound breach of trust of children. We acknowledge that the effect of these actions is often lifelong and we apologise unreservedly to those who have suffered great pain as a result." [But Broken Rites believes that the church's "apology" (a business tactic) has come many years too late for McNamara's victims and their families, who are still feeling damaged by the disruption that the church cover-up has caused to their lives.]

On 18 July 2018, pre-sentence proceedings began with a judge in the Melbourne County Court. All five of his victims were present in court and each presented a written impact statement to the judge, describing how the abuse affected their lives. 

Each victim described how his life was damaged by Brother Gerard's offending. Alcoholism and anger were common themes as well as a lack of trust. Several victims told the court they still suffered depression, anxiety and PSTD (post-traumatic stress disorder).

One of the victims said his relationship with his mother broke down after the offending, describing McNamara as "evil", and that he ended up a ward of the state, living in a boys' home and on the streets.

Another victim described how he felt ashamed and dirty after the offending. "Brother Gerard was an imposing, scary person to me then and I was intimidated by him and what he was doing."

Another victim described how he was bullied by other students for being one of Brother Gerard's "chosen ones".

Students who smelt of "Dencorub" would be embarrassed, another victim added. "It was impossible not to know. Every student in that school knew. That was so humiliating. I've made a number of attempts at suicide in my life all as a result of shame and degradation."

Judge Duncan Allen condemned the "appalling culture that existed" at Marist Brothers schools of the era.

The judge extended McNamara's bail. The sentencing process will resume soon.

• FOOTNOTE: Meanwhile, in late January 2018, Gerard Joseph McNamara appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on a separate matter, in which he was charged with sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy (who was not a student of his). This abuse occurred in Melbourne in the late 1970s, when McNamara used to visit the residence of this boy's family. The hearing began with legal argument between the defence lawyer and the prosecutor about the proposed evidence. The defence decided not to call or cross-examine any witnesses. McNamara then entered a plea of "Guilty" regarding what he had done to this 12-year-old boy. On the second day of the hearing, the magistrate gave McNamara a 12-months custodial sentence, which would include some months spent behind bars. McNamara gave notice that he will appeal against the jail period. He is on bail, pending the outcome of the appeal. The County Court case number for this appeal is AP-18-0201.

By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 1 September 2018

In Australia in 2018, the Catholic Church is publicly defending the "secrecy of the Confessional". This Broken Rites article is about a Melbourne priest, Father James Scannell, who raped a 12-year-old boy. After the rape (in the early 1970s), the priest subjected the boy to the Catholic ritual of "Confession" and ordered the boy never to tell anybody about what had happened. Intimidated by the church's authority, the boy obediently kept this "secret of the Confessional". The church's code of secrecv damaged the victim's life and it took him forty years to bring the priest to justice — in 2014.

In 2010, the victim's aunt died. The victim (by then in his fifties) was shocked to learn that the funeral was to be conducted by the same priest who had raped him at the age of 12. The victim finally reported this crime to the Victoria Police in 2010, and child-abuse detectives began an investigation.

• In the Melbourne  County Court on 1 July 2014, a jury convicted Father James Henry Scannell, then 88, on a charge of buggery, committed against the 12-year-old boy in the early 1970s. In court, Scannell expressed no remorse.
• On 7 August 2014, Judge David Parsons gave Scannell a two-year jail sentence. The priest must serve 12 months before he becomes eligible for parole.

The crime and the "confession"

The jury was told that in the early 1970s, Father Scannell (then aged in his mid-forties) was doing some ministering in a Melbourne parish (St Anne's, East Kew), where the 12-year-old boy lived with his mother. The boy's father was absent from the family.

The boy's Catholic aunt was acquainted with Reverend Father Scannell and she presumed that a Catholic priest would be a good "male role model" for the boy. The boy was paid to do some odd jobs at the priest's house in East Kew.

The aunt asked Father Scannell to discuss puberty with the boy some time. When the boy visited the priest's house again to do some more odd jobs, Father Scannell (wearing only a dressing gown) led the boy into the priest's bedroom, stripped him naked and raped him.

In the ritual of Confession after the rape, the boy was required to "confess" the boy's sin for having participated in the sexual event (that is, for having been raped). The ritual was not for the priest to confess his own crime in being the perpetrator.

Thus, a 12-year-old child received some priestly "sex" education  but this introduction to "sex" consisted of a boy being invaded by a priestly penis.

Overcome by shame and despair, the boy had to cope alone with the trauma. He knew that he could not tell his Catholic aunt or mother, because it would hurt them to learn that they had negligently placed the child in danger. Anyway, who would believe that a Catholic priest had committed a serious criminal offence against a child?

The court was told about the long-term consequences of the victim's emotional predicament. extending into his fifties.

Broken Rites research

Simultaneously with his work in parishes, Father Scannell also spent much of his career acting as a "chaplain" for children with an intellectual disability who lived in a residential institution which was known as the "Children's Cottages, Kew" (now abolished). According to the annual editions of the Australian Catholic Directory, he was listed as doing this work at the Kew Cottages by 1968. And he was listed as doing work there in the early 1970s, when the rape of the 12-year-old boy in the Kew East parish occurred. (The Kew East 12-year-old boy was living in a private suburban house and was not associated with the Kew Cottages.) Scannell kept up his interest in the Kew Cottages, on and off, throughout his career while he was based in other Melbourne parishes, He stopped being in charge of parishes about 1995.

When he appeared in court in 2014, Father Scannell (date of birth 17 April 1926) was still listed in the 2014 printed edition of the Australian Catholic Directory as a "Supplementary Priest" of the Melbourne archdiocese. Supplementary priests are no longer in charge of a parish, but they are available to do relief work for other parish priests or for conducting weddings or funerals. Thus, in 2010 he was invited to conduct the funeral for the aunt of the Kew East rape victim.

In the 2014 printed edition of the Catholic Directory, Father Scannell still had the letters "PE" (pastor emeritus) after his name, which means that the Melbourne archdiocese had awarded him the honour of being a distinguished retired priest. Judging from the 2014 Catholic Directory, Scannell still possessed his priestly status at the time of his jailing. In accordance with its normal practice, the church deleted Scannell's listing from the Australian Catholic Directory in 2015, now that his exposure had become public.

Preliminary court proceedings, 2013

The court process began when James Henry Scannell appeared for a preliminary ("committal") procedure in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on 26 June 2013, accompanied by supporters.

Scannell was charged with one incident of buggery and two incidents of indecent assault. He pleaded Not Guilty to all charges.

In a police document, tendered in court in 2013, the victim stated that Father Scannell paid him some pocket money to do odd jobs around the priest's house on a Saturday morning. The jobs included weeding the garden, washing his car and sweeping paths.

"On about the third or fourth occasion when I finished my jobs, he would sit me down on the couch in the lounge room and start talking to me about things that made me feel uncomfortable," the victim stated.

He stated that, after these talks, the priest "would tell me to kneel beside his chair and face him, then take Confession." 

The victim stated that the abuse happened several times before the final time he went to the priest's home to do odd jobs. "I don't remember even doing any work. He took me straight into his lounge room and sat me on the couch. He was only wearing a dressing gown," he stated.

The victim detailed to police how the priest "cuddled me and tried to kiss me on the lips. I kept trying to turn away ... he wouldn't let me go.

"I remember being frozen with fear and was scared of what was happening."

The victim stated that the priest then took him to a bedroom where the priest undressed the boy and committed the criminal act.

The priest then made the boy take Confession again before ordering that "this event should never be talked about with anybody," the victim stated.

The boy then walked home crying, the court was told. He never went back to the priest's house again.

The victim stated that he kept the incidents as a secret for many years.

As well a submitting his written statement, the victim also gave verbal evidence to the court. The court arranged for the victim (aged 54 in 2013) to appear, via closed circuit television, from a different room in the court building. He answered questions from the prosecutor and the defence lawyer.

As usual in such committal proceedings, the Magistrates Court was closed to the public during this evidence, so as to protect the privacy of witnesses.

The court was told that the victim first revealed the allegations when he and his wife were watching a documentary about Catholic priests. The wife told the court that the documentary made her husband angry and he then told her about the priest who had molested him.

The court was told that, when the victim's aunt died in October 2010, the victim's sister contacted Father Scannell, asking him to conduct the funeral.. When the victim heard about the proposed funeral arrangements, he said he would refuse to attend if this priest was there - and the victim then revealed what the priest had done to him as a child.

The sister told the court that, after hearing about the abuse, she contacted the priest and told him not to conduct the funeral or attend.

According to court documents, the victim became angry at himself after his aunt's funeral, for never reporting Scannell's crime to police. After the funeral, he finally decided to contact the police. After being interviewed by a detective, he eventually made his signed police statement.

In court, in line with his Not Guilty plea, Scannell denied molesting the boy.

Magistrate Ann Collins decided that there is indeed sufficient evidence for the case to go to trial, to be conducted by a judge in a higher court, the Melbourne County Court.

At this preliminary stage, media reports of the committal result referred merely to an un-named priest.

Magistrate Collins released the priest on bail while the County Court scheduled the jury trial for a later date (normally some months away).

• [Two days after the Magistrates Court hearing, the Melbourne Herald Sun published a comment from Melbourne retired priest Father Bob Maguire who said (in reply to a question from a reporter) that he had known the accused priest since the 1960s. Father Maguire indicated that, in this court case between the complainant and the priest, he was supporting the priest.]

Jury trial, 2014

At the jury trial in the County Court in June 2014, Scannell was faced with one charge - the buggery. He again pleaded not guilty and the jury was presented with the evidence.

After the  completion of the evidence, prosecutor Kristie Churchill told the jury that the complainant (aged 55 at the time of the trial) is a reliable and believable witness who had given his evidence in graphic detail and "like it was".

Father Scannell's defence lawyer told the jury that it was difficult to prove one person's allegation against another when so much time had elapsed.

After the jury's Guilty verdict, Judge David Parsons allowed Scannell to remain on bail pending the sentencing process. As a result of the jury's Guilty verdict, the judge's remaining  role would be to analyse the trial and to consider what sort of punishment should be imposed on Scannell.

Pre-sentence hearing

In the Melbourne County Court on 1 August 2014, Judge David Parsons held a pre-sentence procedure, to hear submissions by the prosecutor and the church's defence lawyer about the possible kind of sentence.

The prosecutor had submtted a written impact statement from the victim, outlining how the church-abuse disrupted his his later life. The victm stated that he had lived with feelings of loss and guilt every day in the past 40 years. The breach of trust had damaged his ability to form one-on-one friendships and it had put a strain on his marriage, he said.

"I have lost my religion, I lost this the day I was molested, The memories start every time I walk past a church."

He said the only time he enters a church now is to attend a wedding, christening or funeral. "These leave me devastated," he said. "I will live with this for the rest of my life."

Scannell's defence lawyer told the judge that Scannell has been well regarded by his peers and the community. He emphasised that only one complainant had spoken to the police, and Scannell was being sentenced for only one incident.

The defence requested a non-custodial sentence.

Prosecutor Kristie Churchill said that general deterrence was of paramount importance in cases such as these.

Judge David Parsons noted that Scannell had expressed no remorse for what happened to the boy. "There is not the slightest hint in any of the materials of remorse," the judge said.

This lack of remorse would weigh heavily in the balance of sentencing considerations, the judge said.

The judge also said: "I found the evidence of [the victim] compelling. I found the evidence of Mr Scannell less compelling."

The judge then remanded Scannell in custody untll the sentencing six days later. A security officer escorted Scannell from the court for transferring to the remand prison.

Sentenced

In his sentencing remarks on 7 August 2014, Judge Parsons gave a summary of the trial. He outlined the incident of the sexual assault, including the ritual of Confession immediately after the assault.

The judge gave a summary of Scannell's 70-year-career as a full-time professional practitioner in the church, beginning as a Marist Brother and then as a priest. He noted Scannell's work as chaplain for children at Melbourne's Kew Cottages, where (the judge said) he worked in conjunction with psychologist Valerie Chandler in developing an educational program for autistic children. The judge noted the testimonials that had been submitted to the court by persons who supported Scannell's work as a priest.

Announcing the jail sentence, Judge Parsons said that Scannell had abused his authority. He said that Scannell was guilty of a serious breach of trust and the court had no choice but to sentence Scannell to an immediate term of imprisonment.

The judge took into account Scannell's present age and state of health.

He imposed a jail sentence of two years, with parole possible after 12 months.

Scannell was then removed from the courtroom, heading for prison.

Police contacts

The Victoria Police investigation for the Scannell case was conducted by the Sexual Offences and Child-abuse Investigation Team (SOCIT) in Box Hill, Melbourne. This SOCIT office is still available for receiving any further information about James Henry Scannell.

In addition, the Sexual Crimes Squad, Melbourne, has a unit of detectives (called the Sano Taskforce, at 637 Flinders Street West in Melbourne) which specialises in similar child-abuse cases.

More research by Broken Rites

As a schoolboy, James Henry Scannell was educated by the Marist Brothers, who groomed him to join their religious order. By 1945, aged 19, he was a fully-fledged Brother, adopting the "religious" name "Brother Frederick". He taught at schools in the Marists' southern province; this province, with headquarters in Melbourne, supplied "reverend Brothers" to schools in Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia. Broken Rites has ascertained that "Brother Frederick" once taught, for example, at the Marist Brothers school in Northam W.A., along with other Marist child-sex offenders, including Brother "Bertinus" and Brother Frank Hesford.

In 1966, aged 30, Scannell was ordained as a priest of the Melbourne archdiocese, where he became known as "Father Jim Scannell". Broken Rites has searched the annual editions of the Australian Catholic Directory, and found that Scannell was first listed as a priest in the 1967 edition, which said he was then based at the parish of St Mary of the Angels, Geelong.

From 1968 until the late 1990s, Fr Jim Scannell was listed as chaplain at the Geriatric Hospital and the adjoining Children's Cottages in Kew, Melbourne. Simultaneously he did some work in parishes around Melbourne, including Kew East, Kingsville, Brighton East, Warburton, Clayton South and Flemington.

The Kew Children's Cottages and Geriatric Hospital had originally been known (in the 19th century) as the Kew Lunatic Asylum or later as the Kew Mental Hospital or Willesmere. The site was beside the Yarra River, only 6 kilometres from central Melbourne. These institutions have now been closed and the site has been developed for private housing.

Even after he ceased being in charge of parishes in 1995, Scannell continued to be known for his association with the Kew Cottages. For example, on 8 April 1997 the Melbourne Age newspaper reported a ceremony at the Kew Cottages, at which Father Jim Scannell was a speaker.

The Kew Cottages were established in 1887 to accommodate unwanted children who have an intellectual disability. Some Wards of the State and other various "difficult" children were also admitted. Many of those children remained in residence at the Cottages as adults. The Kew Cottages institution was finally closed in 2008.

Broken Rites is continuing its research on Father James Henry Scannell, including his work with children at the Kew Cottages. Did Father Jim Scannell ever provide "sex" education for any of these vulnerable children? And did he make any of these Kew Cottages children undergo the ritual of Confession?

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 4 September 2018

Irish-born Catholic priest Finian Egan was transferred to Australia in 1959, and he soon began committing sexual crimes against Australian children. The Catholic Church protected him in Australia for the next five decades until some of his victims (with help from Broken Rites) succeeded in getting him convicted. A Sydney court sentenced Egan to a minimum of four years in jail, and this sentence expired on 19 December 2017, when Egan was released, aged 82. According to church law, Father Egan still retains his priestly status (but is retired from parish work). In 2018, the Australian immigration authorities tried to deport Father Egan back to Ireland but Egan contested this order with support from church sources, including support from his previous superior in Sydney, Bishop Peter Comensoli. In 2018, Bishop Comensoli has become the new archbishop of Melbourne.

In the Sydney District Court on 20 December 2013, Finian James Egan was sentenced to at least four years' jail after a jury found him guilty of seven counts of indecent assault and one count of rape, committed against three girls who were aged from 10 to 17, between 1961 and 1987.

Thus, these three victims exposed the Catholic Church's 50-year cover-up of Egan.

These three girls were not Egan's only victims; these three are merely those who helped the prosecution in this jury trial. Broken Rites knows of other Egan victims, including some males.

Broken Rites research

Broken Rites first heard of Father Finian Egan in January 2003, when we were contacted by one of his victims. Five years later, in 2008, Broken Rites was contacted by a second Egan victim and later by a third, fourth, fifth and sixth victim. These six victims (mostly female) were from several parishes. They were of various ages. They did not know each other. And they contacted Broken Rites separately, not realising that Broken Rites already knew about Egan.

Broken Rites advised each of these victims to have a confidential chat with detectives in the criminal investigation branch of the New South Wales police service. After each victim was interviewed by a detective, each victim was invited (but not obliged) to sign an individual written statement for the Director of Public Prosecutions, outlining this victim's encounter with Egan. Prosecutors eventually used five of these statements (from four of the female victims and from one of the male victims) to launch the prosecution of Egan. In preparing for the trial in 2013, it was decided to confine the 2013 trial to female victims, using three of these women.

Beginning our research about Egan in 2003, Broken Rites ascertained that Finian James Egan was born in Ireland in the mid-1930s. He was recruited to the priesthood in Ireland and was ordained there on 14 June 1959. He was among a significant number of Irish priests (including some pedophiles) who were exported to Australia around that time.

Broken Rites traced Egan's movements in the annual editions of the Australian Catholic Directory. Egan spent his career as a diocesan priest working in parishes in the Sydney metropolitan region. For example:

• Broken Rites found that in the 1961 directory Egan was listed as an assistant priest in St Columba's parish, Leichhardt North (in Sydney's inner-west). He frequently visited St Martha's residential institution (for disadvantaged girls), which was situated at 38 Renwick Street, Leichhardt. There he would commit sexual crimes against these vulnerable girls. One of these victims (let's call her "Dorothy"), says she was aged ten when Egan digitally penetrated her in 1961. In 2010, Dorothy contacted Broken Rites, who arranged for her to speak to a Detectives Office in the NSW Police. She then exercised her right to be included in Egan's criminal prosecution.
• Broken Rites found that Egan's next Sydney parishes included, for example, Cronulla (St Aloysius) and Fairfield (Our Lady of the Rosary).
• Broken Rites found that Egan's later work included parishes at, for example, The Entrance (Our Lady of the Rosary) and Narrabeen (St Joseph's), both located north of Sydney. One of his female victims from The Entrance was pleased to be included in the 2013 prosecution.
• For twenty years, between 1978 and 1999 he was the Parish Priest in charge of St Gerard Majella parish, Carlingford. Here he took an interest in the parish's "Antioch" youth group. He attacked multiple youngsters, one of whom (her first name is Kellie) eventually gained the opportunity to participate in Egan's criminal prosecution.

In the 1980s the Sydney archdiocese became divided into smaller dioceses, and Fr Finian Egan's final parish(Carlingford), then came under the new Broken Bay diocese, comprising Sydney's northern suburbs, while the original Sydney archdiocese became confined to the south side of the Harbour.

The 1988 Australian Catholic directory stated that Fr F.J. Egan was the secretary of the Clergy Remuneration and Retirement Fund in the Broken Bay Diocese. (This enhanced his significance among his fellow priests.)

A visit from a paedophile priest

In 1989, while Fr Finian Egan was at Carlingford, this parish was visited by a paedophile priest (Father John Joseph Farrell) who had been sent on extended leave from the Armidale Diocese in northern New South Wales. In 1989, according to church documents, this Armidale priest (nearly 20 years younger than Egan) spent several months based in the Carlingford presbytery. Fourteen years later, in 2013, this Armidale priest began facing criminal court charges regarding sexual crimes allegedly committed against children in the Armidale Diocese 30 years earlier. In 2013, at this early stage of the prosecution process, the prosecutors and the defence lawyers began referring to this Armidale priest's surname (for legal reasons) as Father "F".

Active in retirement

Finian Egan retired from full-time parish duties in 1999 but he continued to be an active priest in retirement. In the 2000 Australian Catholic directory, he was listed for the Broken Bay diocese — as a "supplementary priest". He was still listed as a "supplementary priest" in the edition of the annual Directory, published in mid-2013, during his criminal court appearances.

Priests who are listed publicly as "supplementary" are still presumed by the public to be available for weddings, funerals and other freelance work, including sometimes acting as a relieving priest for another priest who is away.

A church website said that, even after retiring from full-time duties, Fr Finian Egan continued to "have a presence" at the Carlingford parish.

Father Finian Egan was also associated with a church group (the Serra Club) which seeks to attract new recruits to the priesthood. A church website said in 2007: "Fr Finian Egan will be celebrating Mass for Serra [Club] on Wednesday 22nd August 2007 at the Catholic Parish of Waitara, Our Lady of the Rosary Church, and will be our guest speaker."

According to a church website, the objective of the Serra Club is "to foster and promote vocations to the ministerial priesthood of the Catholic Church."

Support for Father Finian Egan

At Fr Finian Egan’s final parish (St Gerard’s parish in Carlingford), his parishioners included Gregory Eugene Smith, a lawyer who was elected in March 2007 as the Liberal Party’s member for the metropolitan seat of Epping in the New South Wales parliament.

In his inaugural speech in the NSW Parliament in 2007, Greg Smith mentioned that he had been a parishioner of Fr Finian Egan at St Gerard Majella's parish at Carlingford.

Greg Smith added:

• "At St Gerard's, Father Finian Egan charmed us with his Irish wit and his pastoral devotion to his flock."

Greg Smith’s website has stated:

• “Greg is a man of enduring faith and commitment and has been heavily involved in the life of the Catholic Church…

  “Greg was also formerly the President of NSW Right to Life…

  “Greg is a Cantor at St Gerard’s Church, Carlingford…"

When Barry O’Farrell’s Liberal Party government came into office in NSW in 2011, Greg Smith became the Attorney General, putting him in charge of the state’s legal affairs. Greg Smith then appointed Damien Tudehope (a lawyer) as his chief of staff. According to media reports, Damien Tudehope had been a long-time associate of Fr Finian Egan in the Catholic community.Damien Tudehope has been connected with the Australian Family Association. Tudehope has a great interest in family issues — he has stated that he and his wife have nine children.

The church "investigates" itself

By 2008, at least one former parishioner of Finian Egan had lodged a complaint with the Catholic Church about having been sexually abused by Egan. But, instead of arranging for the complainants to speak to detectives in the New South Wales police, the church began "investigating" Egan itself. This "investigation" continued for two years.

By 2010, at least one of Egan's victims by-passed the church authorities and contacted detectives in the NSW police. Thus, an investigation by the police finally began.

Therefore, the Broken Bay diocese issued a media statement on 17 May 2010, admitting that its "investigation" of Egan had so far lasted for two years. The church claimed that it had "suspended" Father Egan "from public ministry" during this "investigation". However, the diocese confirmed reports (made in the media) that, despite being "suspended", Fr Egan had conducted Mass during his "suspension" without obtaining approval from the bishop.

Moreover, media reports revealed that, during his period of "suspension", the Catholic Church allowed Fr Finian Egan to say Mass during a visit to Ireland. The Broken Bay Diocese did not inform the Irish church authorities that, at the time of the Ireland trip, Fr Egan was supposed to be under suspension from priestly ministry.

Thus, by 2010 Egan's crimes were being investigated by the proper authorities - detectives in the NSW police. The investigation team was located at Eastwood Detectives Offrice, Sydney.

Court proceedings begin

In 2012, police charged Egan with multiple child-sex offences. He appeared briefly before a magistrate in a Local Court and was placed on bail for the duration of the forthcoming court processes. By the end of 2012, he had opted to proceed straight to a trial before a judge in Sydney's District Court, instead of first having a preliminary airing of the evidence in a Local Court.

When the District Court hearing began at Sydney's Downing Centre courts in October 2013 (with Judge Robyn Tupman), Egan was now facing eight counts of indecent assault and one count of rape in relation to four girls aged 10 to 17 in the 1960s, 1970s and 1990s.

Egan pleaded not guilty to all charges. This necessitated a jury trial, held in October 2013. Early in the District Court proceedings, It was decided to base the trial on three of the victims.

Guilty verdict

On 4 November 2013, a jury returned the Guilty verdicts against Egan (aged 78 in 2013) regarding each of the three women.

Before sentencing Egan, the judge heard submissions from the prosecution and the defence - and from the victims. In a pre-sentence hearing on 16 December 2013, each of the three women entered the witness box to make impact statements to the court, describing how this church-related abuse had disrupted their lives. They described the guilt, shame, pain and fear they have been forced to endure during their adult lives.

One woman (Broken Rites is referring to her as "Dorothy"), now in her 60s, was indecently assaulted by Egan on multiple occasions when she was sent at the age of ten to St Martha's School for disadvantaged girls in Leichhardt (in Sydney's inner-west) in the early 1960s.

''Father Egan pulled me on to his knee, he put his hands up my dress, pulled down my underwear and put his hands into my vagina,'' the victim said of the incident, which occurred in the church's sacristy.

She told the nuns what was happening but they accused her of lying and subjected her to violent punishments, including forcing her to drink vomit-inducing doses of castor oil, for speaking wicked things about a priest.

"I was a 10-year-old child who needed to be cared for, but instead I was manipulated, abused, punished and humiliated," the woman told the court through her tears.

Another woman said Egan took away her childhood, her innocence and her trust in people.

"Father Egan took away the chance for me to experience my first kiss with a boy, my first sexual experience," the woman said, adding Egan was like a member of her family who then abused her under her mother's nose.

A third woman (her first name is Kellie) told the court that she refuses to be labelled as a victim.

"I'm not a victim. I'm a survivor," the woman said.

She told the court that her Catholic mother had disowned her, blaming the child for not stopping the abuse.

"Still to this day I'm being crucified for what he has done," the woman said.

"I'm here today to lay the blame where it belongs: at the feet of the pedophile sitting in front of you."

[Kellie asked the media to publish her full name, including her surname, but Broken Rites has a policy of not identifying any victims and therefore we are not publishing Kellie's surname].

Jailed

On 20 December 2013, Judge Robyn Tupman sentenced Finian James Egan to a maximum of eight years jail with parole possible after four years. Thus, Egan was released from jail on 19 December 2017, aged 82.

During the trial, the court was told that, although he is retired from full-time parish work, Father Finian Egan is still officially a priest of the Catholic Church. That is, he is a priest without a parish.

Broken Rites is continuing its research about how the Catholic Church placed children at risk in the hands of Father Finian James Egan.

Support from Bishop Peter Comensoli

In 2018, Australia's federal immigration department proposed to deport Father Finian Egan back to Ireland but Egan went to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and successfully blocked the deportation. In the AAT hearing, Egan submitted references from various people supporting his claim. The supportive references included one from Egan's bishop in the Broken Bay Diocese, Bishop Peter Comensoli. In June 2018, the Pope appointed Bishop Comensoli to become to new Archbishop of Melbourne.

The immigration department is appealing to the Federal Court against the AAT's decision.

On 3 July 2028 (just after Bishop Peter Comensoli's appointment as the new Archbishop of Melbourne), Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper published a long article (on page 10 in the printed edition) outlining Archbishop Peter Comensoli's involvement in Finian Egan's fight against deportation.

The Herald Sun article begins thus:

"Melbourne's new Catholic archbishop and Immigration Minister Peter Dutton are on a collision course over whether paedophile priest Finian Egan should be deported.

"Mr Dutton is determined to expel the convicted child rapist, but Bishop Peter Comensoli is arguing he should stay..."

The Herald Sun article also said:

"The Herald Sun successfully challenged an AAT decision banning publication of its ruling, Egan's name, and evidence such as Bishop Comensoli's support for Egan."

Update

On 4 September 2019, the Herald Sun revealed (after a freedom-of-information application) that Finian Egan has renounced his Irish citizenship. Egan hopes that this would make it impossible for Australia's immigration department to deport him, because he no longer is a citizen of a foreign country.

Did Bishop Peter Comensoli's lawyers help Finian Egan in his Irish citizenship renunciation?

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 4 September 2018

When Frank Keating became a De La Salle Brother in his late teens, he was given the religious name "Brother Ibar", in honour of an ancient Irish saint. But Brother "Ibar" Keating was no saint — he was committing sexual crimes against his pupils. His superiors knew this but they allowed him to continue offending in Catholic schools around Australia for many years more. Eventually, some of Keating's victims in Victoria and Queensland reported him to the police, and he was jailed in Victoria in 1998. Since his jailing, additional victims from the 1970s have spoken to police, and therefore Keating was jailed again in Victoria on 20 April 2018, aged 75. Now, in late 2018, he is being prosecuted again by Queensland police. This Broken Rites article gives the full story of the church's cover-up of Brother "Ibar" Keating.

Background

Frank Terrence Keating (born in Melbourne on 10 September 1942) worked as a reverend Brother, teaching in De La Salle schools in several Australian states from the 1960s to the 1990s.

For years (according to evidence given in court in 1997) Brother Ibar Keating habitually put his hand inside his pupils' pants and interfered with their genitals. The offences happened at school, in sports changing rooms, at school camps, in the Brothers' residence and in the victims' homes. Under criminal law in Australia, this crime is called indecent assault of a child, and it is particularly serious when it is committed by a person who has authority over the child.

Keating left the De La Salle Order in 1991 and then worked in ordinary Catholic schools as a lay teacher ("Mister Keating") until the police caught up with him in 1997 for offences committed in his earlier years. These earlier offences led to him being convicted in Victoria and again in Queensland (for offences committed in those two states), and he was jailed in Victoria.

Keating's barrister said in court that Frank Keating came from a family of five children. He was originally a pupil of the De La Salle Brothers at St Ignatius primary school in Richmond, Melbourne. At age 14, he was recruited as an aspirant for the brotherhood and became a boarder at the De La Salle junior seminary at Castle Hill in western Sydney, where he completed his secondary education. This was followed by two years of religious training and two years of teacher training.

In 1964-67, Brother Ibar was on the staff of a De La Salle boys' school in Western Australia. Since then, this school has amalgamated with a girls' school and has became known now as La Salle College, Middle Swan (Midland, WA).

In the late 1960s, he taught at Oakhill College, Castle Hill (Sydney).

In the 1970s, Brother Ibar Keating taught Year 7 and Year 8 students at De La Salle College in Malvern, Melbourne. And it was some of his  Melbourne victims who eventually (in their adult years) got Keating convicted in 1997 for his crimes against them.

Charged in Melbourne, 1997

In the 1990s, when Broken Rites began researching church sexual abuse, we began receiving calls from former students of Brother Ibar Keating in Victoria. We gave these callers the contact details for the Victoria Police Sexual-Offences and Child-Abuse Investigation Teams (the SOCIT units).

One ex-student finally contacted the Victoria Police in 1997, and detectives easily located a large number of Victorian victims, 12 of whom signed formal statements.

One victim told police that Brother Ibar "indecently assaulted most of the boys in my class". One boy said he had been indecently assaulted while he sat at his desk with other students looking at him and sniggering.

The victims told the police that the Catholic culture prevented them from contacting the police in the 1970s.

In the Melbourne Magistrates Court in December 1997, Keating (then aged 55) pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting twelve boys (aged 12 and 13) at De La Salle College in Malvern, Melbourne, between 1972 and 1978.

The victims were not required to appear in court.

On 17 February 1998, Keating appeared before Judge Crossley in the Melbourne County Court for sentencing.

A Broken Rites researcher was present throughout the Melbourne court proceedings, taking notes.

Victoria Police alleged (and Keating's barrister, Edward Delany, confirmed) that the De La Salle order knew during the 1970s that Brother Ibar was sexually abusing boys in Melbourne but it let him continue teaching.

After a parent protested in 1978 about his son being abused, the De La Salle order still did not get rid of Brother Ibar. Instead, it rewarded him by supporting him for two years' study at a university in South Australia.

Next, in 1981 the De La Salle order appointed Brother Ibar to its school (now called Southern Cross Catholic College) in Scarborough, near Brisbane, Queensland, where he became deputy principal and then principal.

Brother Ibar left the brotherhood in 1991 and worked as a lay teacher ("Mr Keating") at Catholic schools in Port Augusta and Port Pirie (South Australia) in 1992-3 and in Ferntree Gully and Werribee (Victoria) in 1993-5. He then worked as an administrator in the Catholic Education Office, Melbourne, until the Victoria Police charged him in 1997.

Keating's barrister told the Melbourne County Court that Keating was "not a real paedophile" because (he said), while at Scarborough, Brother Keating had a ten-year heterosexual relationship with a woman. (The barrister did not explain how this ten-year flouting of Keating's vow of celibacy should influence the court in Keating's favour.)

Impact statements, 1998

Some victims in the 1998 case submitted a written impact statement to the Melbourne County Court, explaining how Brother Ibar's abuse affected their life. The purpose of such statements is to help the judge to decide an appropriate sentence.

One victim said he had been silently upset about the assaults for 20 years. He said: "My memory is that Ibar's superiors knew what was happening. That they did nothing to stop it continuing has totally destroyed my faith and trusts in teachers and religious teachers in particular."

Judge Crossley commented that Keating sometimes bribed victims with money or gifts to silence them.

In sentencing Keating, Judge Crossley commented about the action of the De La Salle order in recruiting Keating into the order at such an early age. The judge told Keating: "I accept that your sexual development was confused and retarded over many years. That circumstance was no doubt contributed to by the fact of your early recruitment into the Brotherhood and the vows you took upon your final entry into the order."

Jailed in Victoria, 1998

The Melbourne County Court proceedings in 1998 ended when Judge Crossley sentenced Frank Keating to three years' jail, eight months of which was to be served behind bars with the remainder suspended.

The Melbourne County Court case related only to crimes committed in Victoria but a Victorian victim alerted the media in the other states where Ibar/Keating had worked — Queensland and South Australia. Keating's Victorian conviction was widely reported in the media in Brisbane, Scarborough, Adelaide and Port Pirie. This was likely to encourage more victims to contact the police.

Therefore, De La Salle's Australian head office in Sydney tried to harness other victims of Keating. It issued a press release in Victoria, Queensland and South Australia, apologising for Keating's "misconduct" (no mention of criminal offences). The statement urged all victims to phone a De La Salle number in Sydney to arrange free "counselling".

The statement would have been more genuine if it had given the phone numbers for the police child-abuse units. Experience proves that, when victims report sexual crimes firstly to the church or to a church "counselling" service, the victims choose not to notify the police.

Convicted in Queensland in 2000

After reading about the Victorian conviction, one Queensland victim contacted Broken Rites, which gave him the phone number of the Queensland Police child exploitation unit. This victim put the police in touch with more Queensland victims and Keating was then charged in Queensland.

In Brisbane District Court in April 2000, Frank Terence Keating (then aged 57) pleaded guilty to molesting 12 boys on 33 occasions in the 1980s at De La Salle College, Scarborough, Queensland.

Keating's defence counsel said that in late 1991, after a decade at Scarborough, Keating was given six months "sabbatical" leave in the USA. Back in Australia, he stayed at a De La Salle house in Sydney and then left the order. In 1992 he became a lay teacher at Catholic schools in South Australia and Melbourne.

In sentencing Keating, Judge Robertson criticised the De La Salle Brothers for remaining silent about Keating while he continued committing crimes against children. The judge said it was another sad case where church organisations should have taken steps to prevent such behaviour but did not.

Judge Robertson sentenced Keating to 12 months’ jail but he suspended this because Keating had already been behind bars in Victoria in 1998 for Victorian offences.

In court again in 2017-2018

In December 2017, Frank Terrence Keating appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court because more of his Victorian victims had spoken to the Sex Crimes Squad of the Victoria Police. The investigation was conducted by detectives in the Sano Taskforce. In court, Keating pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting eight boys at a Catholic boys-only school (De La Salle College in Malvern) in the early 1970s. The victims were aged 11 to 15, and Brother "Ibar" Keating was then aged between 28 and 35.

In December 2017, the magistrates court ordered that Keating be placed in custody to await his sentencing.

In March 2018, Keating appeared in the Melbourne County Court to confirm his guilty plea. The court heard impact statements written by victims, each telling the court how this offending by a Catholic religious Brother (plus the church's cover-up) had damaged each victim's later life and also how it affected each victim's relationships within a religious Catholic family.

On 20 April 2018, Keating appeared before County Court Judge Gregory Lyon for sentencing .

Judge Lyon outlined Keating's pattern of offending and the lack of disciplinary action against him. Keating brazenly abused some boys during class while other students were present.

"[One victim] felt helpless as you were his teacher and this was occurring in class," Judge Lyon said.

Another boy was abused under the pretext of Brother Keating adjusting the student's uniform at the front of the classroom.

Keating, who was also a football coach, abused another boy in the change room before and after games.

Jailed again, Melbourne 2018

On 20 April 2018, for these Victorian offences, Judge Lyon sentenced Frank Terrence Keating (aged 75) to a maximum of five years and three months in jail. He was ordered to serve at least three years behind bars (dating from December 2017) before becoming eligible for parole.

More charges, Queensland 2018

On 4 September 2018, Queensland Police began prosecuting Frank Terrence Keating with a brief administrative mention in the Redcliffe Magistrates Court. The case is regarding offences which allegedly occurred at De La Salle College Scarborough in 1989. The next steps in the court process were to be scheduled for a later date.

By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 5 September 2018

Broken Rites is continuing its research about a Catholic religious order — the Patrician Brothers — who have been prominent in Catholic boys' schools in western Sydney. One of the Patrician Brothers' most senior members in Australia (Thomas William Grealy, known as "Brother Augustine") has admitted in court that, as a school principal, he indecently assaulted young boys, either in his office or in the classroom. In his office, according to court evidence, he would cover a statue of the Virgin Mary with a coat to hide his shame before assaulting a pupil. Grealy served a jail sentence but, after leaving jail, he was still accepted as a member of the Patrician Brothers.

In 1997, Grealy (then aged 68) pleaded guilty to repeated indecent assaults of two young boys at a Partrician Brothers school in Granville, western Sydney, in the 1970s. He was sentenced to seven years jail (eligible for parole after four years).

Thomas Grealy was born on 19 March 1929. In 1949 he became a novice (that is, a trainee Brother) in the Patrician Brothers (or the Brothers of Saint Patrick) — a Catholic order similar to, but smaller than, the Marist Brothers. Adopting the religious name "Brother Augustine Grealy", he taught in several Patrician Brothers schools.

He was a senior Brother

During his teaching career, Brother Augustine Grealy was a senior member of his order in Australia. According to a Patrician Brothers document, Brother Augustine Grealy was the Acting Provincial (that is, acting head) of the Patrician Brothers in Australia in 1968 -- that is, just a few years before the offences in the early 1970s for which he was eventually jailed.

Around this time, Augustine Grealy was a member of the Patricians' national council in Australia.

He was also involved in the training of Patrician Brothers at the order's novitiate at Narellan, New South Wales.

Broken Rites helped to bring Grealy to justice

Broken Rites first heard of Brother "Augustine" Grealy, when one of Grealy's victims ("Cyril", which is not his real name) phoned us in November 1994. Broken Rites explained to Cyril the options available for obtaining justice. As a result, Cyril (then aged 32) contacted the New South Wales Police child protection unit, where he received sympathetic help from two detectives — Peter Devine and Bob Mills.

Meanwhile, the Patrician Brothers transferred Grealy to Ireland (the world headquarters of the order) but the New South Wales police caught up with him when he returned to Australia in 1996.

In Bankstown Local Court, Sydney, on 23 January 1997. Grealy pleaded guilty to four incidents of indecent assault (meaning indecent touching) and one incident of buggery. These charges all related to one victim, "Cyril". These were not the only offences against "Cyril" that were investigated by the police — these were merely the charges that were selected for the court case. In view of the guilty plea, the prosecution withdrew a second buggery charge, also relating to "Cyril".

According to the police prosecution brief, Grealy began performing indecent acts on "Cyril", then aged ten, after school hours. The offences continued into the boy's teens, culminating in buggery, the prosecution said. Grealy was transferred from the school in 1975.

The Local Court magistrate remanded Grealy on bail for sentencing by a District Court judge.

A second victim

At the request of Cyril, Broken Rites alerted the media to attend Grealy's sentence proceedings, which began in the Liverpool District Court on 28 February 1997. Thus, a report of the pre-sentence hearing appeared in the Sydney Daily Telegraph next day. 1 March 1997.

This media coverage prompted another Grealy victim ("Mervyn", not his real name) to contact the police, pointing out that Grealy had other victims.

Detectives then interviewed "Mervyn" and obtained his account of Grealy's abuse. He told police that Grealy mauled him indecently as a nine-year-old in 1973.

On 22 April 1997, Grealy stood in the dock of Liverpool District Court for sentencing. This time, he also admitting indecently touching the second boy, "Mervyn".

Impact on the first victim

A psychologist's report was submitted to the court regarding the first complainant, "Cyril". The report said this victim (aged 35 at the time of the court case) had been adversely affected by the abuse and by the fact that it was committed by a respected person of authority.

The report said the church-abuse had damaged Cyril's sexuality. His marriage had failed and he had undergone more than a hundred sessions of counselling, the report said.

[The second complainant, "Mervyn", similarly had his teenage development disrupted drastically by the church sexual-abuse. Unable to tell his parents about Grealy, Mervyn became a troubled young adult and became estranged from his siblings. In his thirties he finally revealed the church-abuse but by then his life was a mess. Thus, the church-abuse impacted on the whole family.]

Because of Greely (and because of the pressure on church victims to remain silent), both Cyril and Mervyn left school prematurely at the first opportunity (after year 10) and this limited the careers of both boys.

Judge's remarks

In sentencing, Judge Jack O'Reilly said Grealy had brought great shame on himself, his family and his religious order and caused lasting damage to his victims.

"This is one of the saddest cases I have seen in my 45 years in law," the judge said.

"You were not only a teacher but it was you who the parents had entrusted the spiritual welfare of their children.

"Children do not expect this sort of behaviour from people in authority and when this sort of thing happens the child inevitably internalises the guilt.

"Where little children are concerned, they deserve protection and I must impose a sentence which contains a measure of deterrence to discourage others from committing similar offences."

Judge O'Reilly sentenced Grealy to a total of seven years' jail, with a four-year fixed term relating to one count of buggery and four of indecent assault. Grealy was to serve the sentence in protective custody [because many jail inmates are parents who object to child molesters]. He was to be eligible to apply for parole in 2001.

Outside the court, the Patrician Brothers' Australian head (Brother Peter Ryan) apologised to the victims on behalf of the order. [This apology, however, came two decades too late for Grealy's victims.]

More media coverage, more victims

Grealy's jailing was reported prominently, with a big article on page 5 in the Sydney Daily Telegraph 23 April 1997.

From time to time since then, other ex-pupils have contacted Broken Rites, reporting on Augustine Grealy's hands-on teaching methods. A former pupil ("Monty"), who was in Grade 6 at Patrician Brothers Granville in the mid-1970s, told Broken Rites in 2010:

• "As well as being the Primary Head, Br Augustine also took temporary classes for sick students who were unable to attend the weekly sports afternoon -- and during these classes he would touch me indecently.
• "Five or six years later, when some of my classmates and I had moved on to Patrician Brothers Fairfield to do Years 11 and 12, I learned that most of my old classmates at Granville had been molested by Brother Augustine."

In 1997, the year of Grealy's jailing for his offences at Granville, the secondary section of the Patrician Brothers' Granville school (years 7 to 12) became a co-educational college and was subsequently renamed Delany College after the Patrician Brothers' founder (Bishop Daniel Delany in Ireland in 1883).

After jail, he is still a Brother

Broken Rites has ascertained that, after he completed his jail sentence, the Patrician Brothers continued to accept Thomas Grealy as a member of their Order. Although he was now officially a convicted criminal, he was allowed to continue living (as "Brother Tom" Grealy) with other Patrician Brothers in an official Patrician residence in Sydney.

The Patrician Brothers' locations

In Australia the Patrician Brothers have operated mostly in New South Wales. According to the 2009 edition of the Official Directory of the Catholic Church in Australia, the Patrician Brothers are still located at six addresses in New South Wales — at Blacktown, Bradbury, Casula, Fairfield, Ryde and The Entrance. In the 2004 directory, the Patrician Brothers were also located on Thursday Island, off the northern coast of Queensland. In the 1988 directory they were also located at Narellan NSW and Wahroonga NSW.

The Patrician Brothers have been active in Third World countries, including Papua New Guinea, India, Pakistan and Kenya — beyond the reach of Broken Rites Australia.

In approximately 2005, the Catholic Church authorities appointed a senior member of the Patrician order, Brother Philip Mulhall (born as Francis Mulhall), as executive officer of the church's National Committee for Professional Standards. The NCPS superintends the church's Australia-wide "Towards Healing" process which claims to "help" the church's sex-abuse victims.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 6 August 2018

This Broken Rites article is an interesting case-study in the Catholic Church's notion of priestly "celibacy". A Sydney priest, Father Robert Fuller, was jailed on 24 February 2010 (then aged 54) after he admitted seeking a 13-year-old girl, through the internet, for sexual purposes.

Father Fuller used a webcam to show himself masturbating during online chat sessions with somebody who he thought was a 13-year-old girl, a court was told.

Father Fuller had approached the "girl" in an internet chat-room, unaware that "the girl" was actually an undercover detective.

The priest began a three-week-long cyber seduction, police alleged. Father Fuller allegedly had sexual conversations with "the girl" via the internet and sent her lewd pictures of himself, where (it was alleged) his face is clearly seen.

Father Robert Macgregor Fuller had been a priest in the Sydney archdiocese for 30 years. Since 2003, he had been the parish priest in charge of All Saints parish at Liverpool, in western Sydney.

In court, police alleged that Father Fuller sent chat-room messages in July and August 2009, and even tried to arrange a meeting to engage in sexual activity.

During the alleged grooming, Fuller did not mention that he is a Catholic priest, or that he is old enough to be the girl's grandfather.

Police alleged that eventually it was arranged that Father Fuller would meet the girl on 13 August 2009 at a car park at a swimming pool in Parramatta in western Sydney. At the car park, instead of meeting the young girl, he was arrested at 12.30pm by officers from the Child Exploitation Internet Unit.

Police also executed a search warrant at Father Fuller's presbytery (in George Street, Liverpool), where they seized laptop computers, documents, photographs and a mobile phone.

Police then charged Father Fuller with grooming a person under the age of 16. He was refused bail and was held in custody overnight.

First court appearance

Father Fuller appeared first in Parramatta Local Court next day, 14 August 2009, facing a magistrate.

In a police document tendered in court, it was alleged that, between July 21 and August 13, Father Fuller had communicated with a person on an online messenger service, Yahoo7 Messenger, who he thought was a 13-year-old girl.

In fact, the other person was an investigator from the Sex Crime Squad's Child Exploitation Internet Unit.

Father Fuller used two names during the conversations -- "r r" and "rogers_2468", the document stated.

There were a total of 25 conversations between the priest and the investigator, the court was told.

"During the communications the accused was sexually explicit with the [investigator] with a view to grooming and procuring 'her' for sexual activity," the document stated.

The accused masturbated in front a of a web camera and encouraged the presumed girl to masturbate, the document stated.

"The accused ... states he is concerned about getting into trouble because of her young age.

"During five of the conversations the [accused] activated his web camera and his face was captured by investigators."

Eventually a meeting was arranged with Father Fuller near Parramatta Park and he was arrested by police nearby.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Kai Peninkilampi told the court: "This is a clear abuse of a position of authority within the church, particularly as the defendant is in a position of having unvetted access to (children)."

Seaside holiday house

At the August 2009 hearing, Father Fuller was represented in court by lawyer Greg Walsh, who previously has represented various other Catholic priests on sex-offence charges. Applying for bail, Mr Walsh said Father Fuller could live in a holiday apartment owned by the Catholic Church in Terrigal [a seaside resort, north of Sydney], while he went through the court proceedings. Another priest would live with him and no internet connection would be allowed at the flat, the lawyer said.

In support of the bail application, the defence called evidence from Father Terence Bell, who was a colleague and long-time acquaintance of Father Fuller. The court was told that Father Terry Bell was currently carrying out some of the administrative duties of the regional bishop in this part of Sydney. [Under the archbishop, the Sydney diocese has four auxiliary bishops, responsible for administering different regions.]

The court was told that Fr Terry Bell would arrange for a $25,000 surety to be paid to secure Father Fuller's release on bail, pending his future court appearances.

Referring to the seaside apartment where Fr Fuller would live, Father Bell said it is a three-bedroom unit that is owned by the Sydney diocese, and it is available for priests to use for holiday purposes.

Opposing bail, Sergeant Penninkilampi said the charges of using a carriage service to procure persons under 16 and groom persons under 16 were extremely serious, carrying jail terms of up to 15 and 12 years respectively. He said that Father Fuller being on bail could pose a risk to the community. He also said it did not matter if Father Fuller lived away from children.

"The defendant has shown an absolute preparedness to travel wherever and whenever to contact [the presumed girl] and I would submit it doesn't matter where he lives," the prosecutor said.

In granting bail at the August 2009 hearing, Magistrate Peter Miszalski required Father Fuller to surrender his passport, not approach points of international departure, not to use the internet or approach children or places where children congregated and to be supervised at all times. And $25,000 in cash would have to be lodged as part of the bail conditions.

The case was scheduled for further court proceedings on a future date. Meanwhile, Father Fuller would be living in the holiday apartment by the beach.

Jailed

On 24 February 2010, Fuller appeared in the Parramatta District Court for sentencing. (This is a higher court, presided over by a judge instead of a magistrate.)

Judge Allan Hughes sentenced Fuller to a maximum of 18 months in jail for grooming and procuring a child under the age of 16. However Fuller was given a six-month parole period and six months off his sentence for an early guilty plea.

Judge Hughes told the Court that Fuller knew what he was doing was wrong and expressed this in his conversation with the assumed 13-year-old girl.

"Adults might not like us to meet because I'm too old for you ... I have not dated someone so young ... girls I have dated have been over 16," Fuller was quoted as saying in a conversation.

Judge Hughes also told the court that Fuller's "vow of celibacy" might have had a role in his sexual urges.

[Comment by Broken Rites: According to dictionaries, being "celibate" merely means not being married. For example, many people who obtain sex through a night-club or a dating agency are "celibate" -- that is, not married.]

"It [celibacy] is suppressing a human instinct," the judge said.

"I don't know why they don't change the rules. It is archaic, it is cruel, it is cruel."

Fuller told the court the chat rooms were part of a fantasy world and he did not truly believe the person watching was a pubescent girl.

"There's not necessarily any truth in what they say; it's a fantasy in the sense," Fuller told the court.

"It's a game, it's a fantasy.

"Unless you see them or meet them you don't know. It's the image they presented and I went on with it."

How the story first broke

Until Friday morning, 14 August 2009, the Sydney public did not know that this case was coming up.

Shortly before 6.00am on Friday morning 14 August 2009, Sydney newsrooms learned that detectives had arrested "a 54-year-old man" who would face Parramatta Local Court that morning regarding "alleged internet child-grooming offences." At this stage, the public was not told the man's name or any other details about him.

By 8.00am, radio bulletins were reporting that the man is a Catholic priest (still not named).

By 11.00 am that day, radio bulletins and media websites were reporting that Father Robert Fuller, of Sydney's Liverpool Catholic parish, had appeared in court. By mid-day, the media websites were publishing extensive details of the court proceedings.

It was in this way that the parishioners of Liverpool began hearing about the charging of their parish priest. Later in the afternoon, as some parents arrived at Liverpool's Catholic schools to collect their children for the weekend break, the news spread by word of mouth at the school gates.

A newspaper quoted one parent as saying: "I went to Mass this morning and the priest was saying, 'Please pray for Father Robert,' and I wondered what's wrong with him."

Meanwhile, pupils at least one school learned about the arrest before their parents did. On Wednesday 19 August, the Liverpool Champion weekly newspaper reported: "Pupils at All Saints Primary School were told at an assembly on Friday morning that Father Fuller had been arrested. Teachers told the children they should not to speak to the media. Staff from the school and the church would not comment on the arrest."

Many parents did not hear about the case until perhaps on Friday evening's television news bulletins.

The Catholic education authorities did not give parents any written information or advice about the court case. Parents were not given any counselling about how to explain the issue to their children. Thus, it was left to the secular news media to perform this task, instead of the church doing it.

The fact that the story broke late on Friday meant that parents and children had a whole weekend to discuss it.

The parish schools

Four Catholic schools were affiliated with Father Rob Fuller's Liverpool parish:

• All Saints Catholic Primary School (kindergarten to year 6);
• All Saints Catholic Boys College (years 7 to 10);
• All Saints Girls College (years 7 to 10);
• All Saints Catholic Senior College, Casula (years 11, 12, co-ed).

These schools had issued newsletters and reports giving an administrative and staffing list that includes Fr Robert Fuller's name as the parish priest.

The annual report of the All Saints Catholic Parish Primary School for 2006 stated that "our Parish Priest, Fr Robert Fuller", a parent and the principal represent the school on the Liverpool Catholic Schools Council.

Background

It is not known (except by the police) how Fr Fuller first came to the attention of the police, or how long the police had been interested in him.

It is not known (except by Father Fuller) what else Father Fuller had been doing during his long career in the priesthood.

Robert M. Fuller trained for the priesthood in the 1970s at St Columba's College seminary at Springwood, west of Sydney, and then at St Patrick's College seminary, Manly, Sydney. He was ordained as a priest for the Sydney archdiocese on 1 September 1979 (aged 24) and began working as an assistant priest in parishes.

In September 1980 he was appointed as an assistant priest at "Christ the King" Catholic parish in North Rocks (north of Parramatta, in western Sydney). One of his roles was to work with young girls and boys in the church's Antioch youth group. Antioch is for "young people of high-school age (equivalent to Years 10, 11 and 12) and a little older".

In the mid-1980s, Fuller was an assistant priest at St Mary's parish in Concord (in Sydney's inner-west).

In the index of the 1988 Australian Catholic directory, his address was listed as "Our Lady of Mount Carmel" parish at Mount Pritchard in western Sydney.

In the 1991 directory, he was listed at St Catherine Laboure parish in Gymea, in Sydney's south.

In the 1994 directory, he was listed as the parish priest in charge of St Jerome's parish at Punchbowl, in Sydney's south-west.

He was appointed parish priest for Liverpool in 2003.

Fr Robert Fuller and Fr Terry Bell were both are listed as New South Wales contacts for the Schoenstatt Movement, a Catholic lay organisation, described as a movement of renewal within the Catholic Church. Father Terry Bell was appointed in 2008 as the parish priest in charge of "Our Lady of the Rosary" parish at Fairfield, in western Sydney.

World Youth Day, 2008

In July 2008, Sydney was the international centre for Catholic Church World Youth Day festivities, which lasted for several days. Father Rob Fuller's Liverpool parish accommodated 1,000 young people who stayed in the Liverpool parish schools and in home-stay accommodation with the parish's families.

The Liverpool Champion local newspaper (23 July 2008) published an article about Father Fuller's participation in the World youth Day weekend. The article began: "Exciting, chaotic and fun. That's how Father Robert Fuller of All Saints Catholic Church described his experiences with World Youth Day."

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 7 September 2015)

An Australian woman, who allegedly suffered sexual abuse by a Catholic priest when she was just six years old, has finally broken her silence after 50 years. At the age of 56, Gina Swannell finally exercised her right to have a private interview with Australia's national child-abuse Royal Commission. She has told how the priest's tactics included using the sacrament of Confession.

Gina Swannell says she was abused several times over a six month period by Father Charles Holdsworth when she was a student at St Francis Xavier's boarding school at Urana, in south-west New South Wales in 1966.

Ms Swannell was placed into this boarding school with her elder sister Kerrie in 1966 when their mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer and their father was working in the air force.

The alleged abuse started when Ms Swannell, then aged six years, was required to attend Confession with Fr Holdsworth to prepare for her First Holy Communion.

She alleges that Father Holdsworth, who was killed in a car accident in 1969, digitally penetrated her, and he forced her to watch him masturbate on multiple occasions.

When she attempted to report the abuse to the head nun, Gina was told by the nun: "That man [Fr Holdsworth] was hand-picked by God … any more of this nonsense and there will be no Communion for you."

The order of nuns which ran the school, the Presentation Sisters, has since offered to mediate the case but the other respondent to the action (the Wagga diocese) has dithered, she said.

Therefore, the matter is scheduled now to be submitted to the New South Wales Supreme Court on 16 October 2015. There is still time for the church authorities to enter into mediation with Ms Swannell's lawyer, thereby making court action unnecesary.

Wagga Bishop Gerard Hanna has stated: “We [the church authorities] have to work through the legal questions. We are definitely open to mediation, we just need some time.”

Ms Swannell said her adult life had been punctuated by anger issues, drug addiction and broken relationships, all stemming from the abuse.

“It [the abuse] destroyed my trust in everyone, including my own family,” she said.

“I want justice, I want an apology, I want compensation. The church says one thing to the public and then does another thing behind closed doors.”

Reverend Father Charles William Edward Holdsworth died in November 1969, when Gina Swannell was nine years old, after his car crashed into a tree in southern NSW. A newspaper report gave Holdsworth's address as "the Bishop's House, Wagga".

FOOTNOTE:
Broken Rites has a policy of protecting the privacy of victims — for example, by not publishing the victim's name. However, Ms Swannell has spoken to the Australian media, giving them permission to publish her name.

By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 5 September 2018

Broken Rites is continuing its research about a Catholic religious order — the Patrician Brothers — who have been prominent in Catholic boys' schools in western Sydney. One of the Patrician Brothers' most senior members in Australia (Thomas William Grealy, known as "Brother Augustine") has admitted in court that, as a school principal, he indecently assaulted young boys, either in his office or in the classroom. In his office, according to court evidence, he would cover a statue of the Virgin Mary with a coat to hide his shame before assaulting a pupil. Grealy served a jail sentence but, after leaving jail, he was still accepted as a member of the Patrician Brothers.

In 1997, Grealy (then aged 68) pleaded guilty to repeated indecent assaults of two young boys at a Partrician Brothers school in Granville, western Sydney, in the 1970s. He was sentenced to seven years jail (eligible for parole after four years).

Thomas Grealy was born on 19 March 1929. In 1949 he became a novice (that is, a trainee Brother) in the Patrician Brothers (or the Brothers of Saint Patrick) — a Catholic order similar to, but smaller than, the Marist Brothers. Adopting the religious name "Brother Augustine Grealy", he taught in several Patrician Brothers schools.

He was a senior Brother

During his teaching career, Brother Augustine Grealy was a senior member of his order in Australia. According to a Patrician Brothers document, Brother Augustine Grealy was the Acting Provincial (that is, acting head) of the Patrician Brothers in Australia in 1968 -- that is, just a few years before the offences in the early 1970s for which he was eventually jailed.

Around this time, Augustine Grealy was a member of the Patricians' national council in Australia.

He was also involved in the training of Patrician Brothers at the order's novitiate at Narellan, New South Wales.

Broken Rites helped to bring Grealy to justice

Broken Rites first heard of Brother "Augustine" Grealy, when one of Grealy's victims ("Cyril", which is not his real name) phoned us in November 1994. Broken Rites explained to Cyril the options available for obtaining justice. As a result, Cyril (then aged 32) contacted the New South Wales Police child protection unit, where he received sympathetic help from two detectives — Peter Devine and Bob Mills.

Meanwhile, the Patrician Brothers transferred Grealy to Ireland (the world headquarters of the order) but the New South Wales police caught up with him when he returned to Australia in 1996.

In Bankstown Local Court, Sydney, on 23 January 1997. Grealy pleaded guilty to four incidents of indecent assault (meaning indecent touching) and one incident of buggery. These charges all related to one victim, "Cyril". These were not the only offences against "Cyril" that were investigated by the police — these were merely the charges that were selected for the court case. In view of the guilty plea, the prosecution withdrew a second buggery charge, also relating to "Cyril".

According to the police prosecution brief, Grealy began performing indecent acts on "Cyril", then aged ten, after school hours. The offences continued into the boy's teens, culminating in buggery, the prosecution said. Grealy was transferred from the school in 1975.

The Local Court magistrate remanded Grealy on bail for sentencing by a District Court judge.

A second victim

At the request of Cyril, Broken Rites alerted the media to attend Grealy's sentence proceedings, which began in the Liverpool District Court on 28 February 1997. Thus, a report of the pre-sentence hearing appeared in the Sydney Daily Telegraph next day. 1 March 1997.

This media coverage prompted another Grealy victim ("Mervyn", not his real name) to contact the police, pointing out that Grealy had other victims.

Detectives then interviewed "Mervyn" and obtained his account of Grealy's abuse. He told police that Grealy mauled him indecently as a nine-year-old in 1973.

On 22 April 1997, Grealy stood in the dock of Liverpool District Court for sentencing. This time, he also admitting indecently touching the second boy, "Mervyn".

Impact on the first victim

A psychologist's report was submitted to the court regarding the first complainant, "Cyril". The report said this victim (aged 35 at the time of the court case) had been adversely affected by the abuse and by the fact that it was committed by a respected person of authority.

The report said the church-abuse had damaged Cyril's sexuality. His marriage had failed and he had undergone more than a hundred sessions of counselling, the report said.

[The second complainant, "Mervyn", similarly had his teenage development disrupted drastically by the church sexual-abuse. Unable to tell his parents about Grealy, Mervyn became a troubled young adult and became estranged from his siblings. In his thirties he finally revealed the church-abuse but by then his life was a mess. Thus, the church-abuse impacted on the whole family.]

Because of Greely (and because of the pressure on church victims to remain silent), both Cyril and Mervyn left school prematurely at the first opportunity (after year 10) and this limited the careers of both boys.

Judge's remarks

In sentencing, Judge Jack O'Reilly said Grealy had brought great shame on himself, his family and his religious order and caused lasting damage to his victims.

"This is one of the saddest cases I have seen in my 45 years in law," the judge said.

"You were not only a teacher but it was you who the parents had entrusted the spiritual welfare of their children.

"Children do not expect this sort of behaviour from people in authority and when this sort of thing happens the child inevitably internalises the guilt.

"Where little children are concerned, they deserve protection and I must impose a sentence which contains a measure of deterrence to discourage others from committing similar offences."

Judge O'Reilly sentenced Grealy to a total of seven years' jail, with a four-year fixed term relating to one count of buggery and four of indecent assault. Grealy was to serve the sentence in protective custody [because many jail inmates are parents who object to child molesters]. He was to be eligible to apply for parole in 2001.

Outside the court, the Patrician Brothers' Australian head (Brother Peter Ryan) apologised to the victims on behalf of the order. [This apology, however, came two decades too late for Grealy's victims.]

More media coverage, more victims

Grealy's jailing was reported prominently, with a big article on page 5 in the Sydney Daily Telegraph 23 April 1997.

From time to time since then, other ex-pupils have contacted Broken Rites, reporting on Augustine Grealy's hands-on teaching methods. A former pupil ("Monty"), who was in Grade 6 at Patrician Brothers Granville in the mid-1970s, told Broken Rites in 2010:

• "As well as being the Primary Head, Br Augustine also took temporary classes for sick students who were unable to attend the weekly sports afternoon -- and during these classes he would touch me indecently.
• "Five or six years later, when some of my classmates and I had moved on to Patrician Brothers Fairfield to do Years 11 and 12, I learned that most of my old classmates at Granville had been molested by Brother Augustine."

In 1997, the year of Grealy's jailing for his offences at Granville, the secondary section of the Patrician Brothers' Granville school (years 7 to 12) became a co-educational college and was subsequently renamed Delany College after the Patrician Brothers' founder (Bishop Daniel Delany in Ireland in 1883).

After jail, he is still a Brother

Broken Rites has ascertained that, after he completed his jail sentence, the Patrician Brothers continued to accept Thomas Grealy as a member of their Order. Although he was now officially a convicted criminal, he was allowed to continue living (as "Brother Tom" Grealy) with other Patrician Brothers in an official Patrician residence in Sydney.

The Patrician Brothers' locations

In Australia the Patrician Brothers have operated mostly in New South Wales. According to the 2009 edition of the Official Directory of the Catholic Church in Australia, the Patrician Brothers are still located at six addresses in New South Wales — at Blacktown, Bradbury, Casula, Fairfield, Ryde and The Entrance. In the 2004 directory, the Patrician Brothers were also located on Thursday Island, off the northern coast of Queensland. In the 1988 directory they were also located at Narellan NSW and Wahroonga NSW.

The Patrician Brothers have been active in Third World countries, including Papua New Guinea, India, Pakistan and Kenya — beyond the reach of Broken Rites Australia.

In approximately 2005, the Catholic Church authorities appointed a senior member of the Patrician order, Brother Philip Mulhall (born as Francis Mulhall), as executive officer of the church's National Committee for Professional Standards. The NCPS superintends the church's Australia-wide "Towards Healing" process which claims to "help" the church's sex-abuse victims.