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

A former Catholic priest, James Joseph Cunneen, aged 59, is facing a court trial in New South Wales in 2019, charged with sexual offences which were allegedly committed thirty years ago against a number of young males who were associated with the "Holy Name of Mary" Parish Rydalmere in Sydney's north-west.

According to information given in a preliminary hearing, James Cunneen was born in New Zealand. In 1979, he joined a Catholic religious order (the Order of Friars Minor, which is known as the Franciscans). This order has priests working in a number of parishes in Australia and New Zealand. After working with the Franciscan order in Australia, Cunneen returned to New Zealand. By then, he had left the priesthood. Cunneen's defence solicitor the NSW court that, after returning to New Zealand, Cunneen worked for the NZ Department of Education for the next three years. Since then, he has been running betting agencies across the North Island, the defence solicitor said.

Cunneen came to the attention of New South Wales police as a result of information given to Australia's child-abuse Royal Commission.

A police investigation was conducted by detectives from Rosehill Local Area Command of the NSW Police.

In November 2017, NSW Police extradited Cunneen back to Australia in custody. In Sydney's Central Local Court, police filed charges against Cunneen regarding some offences which he allegedly committed against some young males in Sydney's Rydalmere when Cunneen was a priest there in 1987-1989. The prosecutor told the court in the November 2017 hearing: "The victims knew the defendant and were part of the church where he was the priest."

Some of the alleged victims had previously been pupils at a Marist Brothers high school (now named St Patrick's Marist College) at Dundas in the same region of Sydney, the court has been told.

At the November 2017 procedure, Cunneen was granted bail pending the subsequent court proceedings. During 2018, a committal hearing (with a magistrate) was held in a Local Court. After the committal hearing, Cunneen was ordered to undergo a trial with a District Court judge. This trial is expected to be in early 2019. The court's case number for Cunneen is 2015/00347275.

FOOTNOTE: The 1994 edition of the directory of Australia's National Council of priests had a "Father James Cunneen, OFM" listed as a member of the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor (OFM). Fr Cunneen was listed under the heading of "on leave", care of the Franciscans' Australian head office in Waverley, Sydney.

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

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

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

Some background

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

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

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

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

The school building with bedrooms for six priests

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

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

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

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

The story of Tim

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

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

Denham in parishes in the 1980s

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

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

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

Denham at a Sydney school

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

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

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

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

Convicted in 2000

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

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

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

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

Still "reverend" after his conviction

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

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

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

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

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

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

Broken Rites article

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

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

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

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

Another police investigation

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

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

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

More about the school with six bedrooms

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jailed in 2010 and 2015

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

Convicted in October 2018

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

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

By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 30 December 2018

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

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

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

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

The cover-up

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

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

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

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

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

The cover-up ends, 1995

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

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

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

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

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

The first charges, 1996

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

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

The story of Sylvester

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

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

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

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

Sentenced in 1996

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Still a priest"

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

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

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

Convicted again, 1997

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

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

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

Ryan pleaded guilty to all 53 charges.

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

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

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

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

Cover-up by a church official

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

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

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

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

More alleged victims

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

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

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

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

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

Suicide

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

After jail, Ryan was "still a priest"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Compensation to victims

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

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

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

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

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

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

"And the Ryan case was one of the first.

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

Ryan pleads guilty in 2016

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

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

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

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

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

Awaiting a further trial in 2019

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

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

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

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

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

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 30 December 2018

Father Paul Chris Pavlou is a relatively recent recruit to Australia's Catholic priesthood. He was originally a school-teacher but, in his thirties, he began studying to become a priest. Later, in his forties, he was elevated to the priesthood and began ministering in parishes of the Melbourne archdiocese. Soon after this, he admitted in court that he was committing sexual offences against children before and after becoming a priest. Now he is awaiting his sentencing, which will be held in the Melbourne County Court in 2019. Pavlou's story raises questions about how the church selects its priests.

After studying for the priesthood, Paul Pavlou was ordained as a priest in 2004. His religious status (while studying for the priesthood — and afterwards) gave him access to children. Two victims have succeeded in getting Pavlou convicted in court for offences which he committed between 2003 and 2006:

• Pavlou's first conviction (in court in 2009) was for sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy (this abuse occurred in 2006). Originally, the abuse had been discovered by the boy's mother but, unfortunately, she merely reported the crime to the church authorities who then (as usual) managed to conceal the matter from the police. Eventually, however, the family spoke to Victoria Police child-protection detectives, and this resulted in Pavlou being convicted in court in 2009.
• Later, another Pavlou victim spoke to the detectives, stating that he was abused around 2003-2004, when he was aged 12. With the help of the detectives, Pavlou was convicted again in September 2018 regarding this boy. The sentencing is being scheduled for a date in 2019. The 2018-2019 court case is mentioned towards the end of this article.

Some background

Research by Broken Rites has ascertained that Paul Pavlou was born in Australia in 1959, in a family of Greek Cypriot origin. The third of six children, he grew up in Melbourne suburbs (he attended primary school at East Burwood and high school at Richmond and Syndal).

He studied engineering at Melbourne's Monash University for a year before completing a Diploma of Teaching (Primary) at Melbourne’s Frankston State College in 1981, majoring in physical education and social science. He began teaching in state primary schools at Hallam and Mount Waverley (both in Melbourne’s east).

Other members of his family identify with the Greek Orthodox Church but Paul Pavlou became a Catholic and began taking an active role in Catholic affairs.

After spending ten years teaching, he began preparing for a career in religious life. In 1997, he graduated with a Bachelor of Theology at Melbourne’s Catholic Theological College and became a Brother in a Catholic religious order, the Salesians of Don Bosco.

Brother Pavlou lived in Salesian establishments in Melbourne’s east (at Oakleigh, Lysterfield and Ferntree Gully). At Ferntree Gully, Brother Pavlou taught at St Joseph's Regional College, which is conducted by the Salesian order.

In his forties, he was accepted by the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese as a mature-age entrant for the priesthood and did his training at the church's Melbourne seminary.

After being ordained during 2004, he worked as an assistant priest at Croydon (Sacred Heart parish) in Melbourne's outer east. Broken Rites has ascertained that Pavlou was listed as a priest, for the first time, in the next edition of the Australian Catholic Directory (compiled in early 2005).

In late 2005, Paul Pavlou took up duties at the Healesville parish (St Brigid's). He was listed there (as the administrator, or acting priest-in-charge) in the next edition of the Australian Catholic Directory (compiled in early 2006).

The 2009 court case

Father Paul Pavlou of the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese, pleaded guilty in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on 29 June 2009 (when he was aged 50) to one charge of committing an indecent act with a 14-year-old boy and another charge of possessing child pornography.

The offences occurred while Pavlou was ministering at a parish at Healesville, north-east of Melbourne, for about a year in 2005-2006, the court was told. Healesville is within the Melbourne Catholic diocese.

For an indecent act with a child under 16, Father Pavlou was sentenced to 18 months in jail, which was suspended for 24 months.

For knowingly being in possession of child pornography, he was sentenced to a two-year Community-Based Order. As a condition of the CBO, Father Pavlou was ordered to do a program for sex offenders and 50 hours of community work.

The court ordered that Pavlou's name be placed on the Sex Offenders Register for 15 years.

An additional charge of indecent assault was withdrawn following discussions between the prosecutor and the church's defence lawyer.

The church's cover-up

The complaint regarding the 14-year-old boy first came to the surface in October 2006, when the boy’s mother became concerned about the 47-year-old priest's persistent interest in her son, including telephone calls and text messages and regular sleepovers at the priest's home.

The mother notified her concern to the principal of St Brigid's primary school. The mother was then directed to the Melbourne archdiocese’s internal investigation system. This system was supervised by a Melbourne barrister, Peter O’Callaghan, QC, who is engaged by the archdiocese.

As part of the church’s internal process, the church sent two female representatives of the archdiocese to conduct a series of tape-recorded interviews with the boy. Under the church process, Father Pavlou was notified about the boy’s allegations, thus enabling him to prepare his defence.

During the church's internal investigation, Pavlou left the Healesville parish after being there for only 12 months. The reason for his departure, according to the next edition of the Australian Catholic directory (compiled in early 2007) was "sick leave", and his forwarding address was given as "care of the archdiocesan office".

Police investigation

Meanwhile, the mother became dissatisfied by the church process and she decided to consult the police. Unlike the church process, the police acted decisively.

In 2007 the police interviewed Pavlou and checked his computer. Because he had been forewarned by the church process, Pavlou had deleted files from his computer. However, police were still able to retrieve evidence that Pavlou had been using the computer for child pornography.

Police from the Lilydale criminal investigation unit eventually issued Pavlou with a court summons. The case was listed for a mention in court in 2008, and again in early 2009.

Originally, the defence indicated that Pavlou would contest the charges. Normally, this would entail a long hearing, perhaps over several days, with witnesses being examined and cross-examined.

When the "contested hearing" date (29 June 2009) arrived, the defence indicated that Pavlou had decided to plead guilty. This meant a relatively short hearing.

The prosecution agreed to amalgamate the two counts of indecent acts into one charge.

Pornography on computer

The 2009 hearing was told that, during their investigations, police seized a computer hard-drive. Police retrieved a large number of photographs depicting children under 16 in pornographic situations, the court was told.

"The vast majority of the images depicted young adolescent males," the police prosecutor said.

Originally, in the police investigation, Pavlou claimed ignorance about the pornography but police found evidence that he paid for the porn himself. This persuaded Pavlou to change his plea to guilty.

Sentenced in 2009

After Pavlou's guilty plea in 2009, the hearing was largely devoted to submissions by the defence, seeking a lenient sentence.

Church defence lawyer Brian Bourke told the court that, at the age of 50 (in 2009), Pavlou now had little prospect of employment in any field for which he was trained.

As requested by the defence, the magistrate took into account the guilty plea when deciding the sentence.

In sentencing, Magistrate Anne Goldsborough told Pavlou: "These are charges of the utmost significance not only for you but for the young victim involved."

The victim and his family were present in the court for the magistrate's summing up and sentence.

The prosecuting agency in Pavlou's 2009 case was the Lilydale branch of the Victoria Police's criminal investigation unit. The police contact at Lilydale was Leading Senior Constable Mark Molloy.

Awaiting another sentencing in 2019

On 10 September 2018, Paul Pavlou appeared in the Melbourne County Court, charged with offences committed against another child (a 12-year-old boy) in 2003-2004. The police investigator was Detective C. Wastell, of the Warrnambool Criminal Investigation Unit in western Victoria. The charges in the 2018 case include sexual penetration (this is classified as a serious offence). Previously, when this boy's case was first filed in court, Pavlou had indicated that he intended to fight these charges with a "not guilty" plea but in the County Court he changed his plea to guilty. The sentencing is being scheduled for a date in 2019.

Meanwhile, the Victoria Police detectives are available to receive any further information about Paul Pavlou's previous activities.

Further reading

Father Paul Pavlou wasn't the first priest from St Brigid's parish in Healesville who ended up in jail. A previous priest there, Fr David Daniel, was offending while at this parish in the early 1990s. To see a Broken Rites article about Fr David Daniel, click HERE.

Eight months before Paul Pavlou's 2009 conviction, another Melbourne Catholic priest (Father Fr John Haines) was jailed for similar offences. Haines was sentenced on 4 November 2008, after pleading guilty to six counts of an indecent act with a child under 16, procurement of a minor for child pornography and possessing child porn.

For another example of a priest who was involved in child-pornography, see the Broken Rites article about Father Adrian van Klooster.

A feature article about Paul Pavlou in the Melbourne Age, on 10 August 2009, can be seen here.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 30 December 2018

A Catholic priest (Father Carl Stafford, born in 1939) is listed for proceedings in the Sydney District Court, charged with child-sex offences allegedly committed earlier in his working career. Bishop Peter A Comensoli (formerly of the Broken Bay diocese, in Sydney's north) stated publicly in 2017: "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 Stafford 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 Carl Stafford who was living in retirement at a town in north-west NSW. The police charged him with sexual offences against a number of boys:

• One part of the case is related to when Father Stafford was a priest based in a parish in East Gosford (north of Sydney, in the Broken Bay diocese) in the 1990s;
• Another part of the case is related to the 1980s, when Stafford was 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.

Stafford was granted conditional bail pending his court proceedings. On the court schedule, the defendant's full name is given as Carl Edward Stafford. The case had preliminary procedures in with a magistrate in the Gosford Local Court in late 2017 and during 2018. Stafford is pleading Not Guilty. Now the case is scheduled for a trial, with a judge, in the Sydney District Court, to be held in late 2019 (there is a long queue for hearings in the NSW district courts).

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.

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 1 January 2019

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

Why he is already in jail

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Another trial due in 2019

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

Broken Rites research

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some background

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

First court case, in 2013-2015

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Victims' statements in 2013

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jury trials, 2015

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

GUILTY, 2015

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

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

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

"No remorse"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jailed, 2015

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

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

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

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

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

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

Guilty plea in 2018

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

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

Other schools

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

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

Cable later in Canberra

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

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

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

Some more background

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

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

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 10 January 2019

Christian Brother David Michael Curtin, who has been awaiting a court trial in New South Wales, charged with offences against boys at a boarding school thirty years ago, is scheduled now to face his trial in Sydney in 2019.

Brother David Michael Curtin (born 7 April 1951) had a preliminary mention in Goulburn Local Court (in southern NSW) on 8 March 2017, facing two charges of "sexual assault (category 4)/indecent assault of a person under his authority". Police alleged that Curtin sexually/indecently assaulted two boys aged 13 and 14 between March and December in 1986 at the former St Patrick’s boys' college in Goulburn. Curtin was allegedly a teacher and dormitory master at the school at the time. This court appearance was a brief initial procedure for prosecutors to file the charges. Curtin was not required to enter a plea at this stage.

On 10 May 2017, Brother Curtin appeared again in Goulburn Local Court, where prosecutors filed three additional charges of "sexual assault (category 4)/indecent assault of a person under his authority". Again, Curtin was not required to enter a plea at this stage.

Curtin was due to face trial in Sydney District Court in May 2018. But Judge Helen Syme has postponed the trial until 2019, to give the prosecutors and defence time to complete their preparation.

The District Court's official file number for the David Curtin case is 2017/00037935.

FOOTNOTE: The Goulburn Detectives Office has formed a unit, called Strikeforce Charish, to investigate allegations of offences against children at the former St Patrick's Christian Brothers College Goulburn. David Curtin is the fourth Christian Brother from St Patrick’s College to be charged by this unit.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 5 January 2019

In the 1960s, Brian Spillane began training towards a career in the Catholic priesthood. In 2019, he is in jail in New South Wales for sexual crimes which he committed against boys (and also some girls) during his religious career. While he is in jail, police have investigated some additional allegations about Spillane. Now, in 2019 (aged 75), he is awaiting another court appearance, where he is to be charged with having raped a ten-year-old boy in Sydney in 1964.

The case involves one offence of buggery allegedly committed against the ten-year-old boy in a public toilet during a picnic for boys on Shark Island, off Rose Bay, Sydney Harbour, between August and December 1964.

The court's case number is: 2018/00263034.

Some background

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spillane's previous court proceedings

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Convicted regarding female victims

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bail refused in 2010

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

Attempt to stop the proceedings

Meanwhile, in 2010, Spillane's legal team raised certain objections regarding the proposed sentence proceedings (involving the female victims) and also regarding subsequent proposed court proceedings (involving a number of male victims).

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

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

Sentenced regarding the girls, April 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jailed regarding the girls, 2012

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

Charges regarding boys, 2013-2016

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

The boys' cases resulted as follows:

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

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

Another jail sentence, 2017

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A victim speaks out, 2017

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

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

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

Charged again in 2018

In 2019, Spillane is in jail but police have charged him in 2018 regarding a ten-year-old boy who was allegedly sexually abused by Spillane in a public toilet in Sydney in 1964 while Spillane was a trainee with the Vincentian religious order. The case had a brief procedural mention in Sydney Central Local Court on 20 November 2018, with a committal hearing to be held on a later date.

The investigation was conducted by officers attached to the NSW Police Force Marine Area Command. The officers issued a Future Court Attendance Notice to Brian Joseph Spillane, who was in a Correctional Centre at South Nowra, NSW.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article posted 16 January 2019

A 2019 court case has proved that, under Australian law, it is never to late for any child-assault victim to report the crime to the child-protection police.  In 1965, Catholic priest Allan John Mithen (then aged 25) twice indecently assaulted an Aboriginal girl while he was in charge of a West Australian institution for Aboriginal children who had been taken from their families. In the West Australian District Court on 15 January 2019, Father Mithen (now aged 80) pleaded guilty to these two assaults and was convicted.

Allan John Mithen was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1963. Broken Rites research has found that Mithen was a member of the Pallottine religious order, which has provided priests for various Catholic parishes and other institutions around Australia.

The court was told that Mithen's first major appointment was in 1965 as superintendent of the Catholic Church's Wandering Mission, 120km south-east of Perth. Soon afterwards, on two occasions, he indecently assaulted an Aboriginal girl, aged 15.

The court was told that the girl had been removed from her family when she was four years old and taken to the mission, where (the court was told) she suffered incidents of physical, psychologically and sexual abuse.

The girl was aged 15 when Mithen indecently assaulted her in 1965 in his bedroom after a sex education class.

Mithen told the girl that she was bad and he sent her to Confession to admit the sins he had forced her to commit. During confession, another priest told the girl she had committed a mortal sin and would burn in hell.

About six months after the first assault, Mithen assaulted the girl again.

Judge's remarks

Judge Laurie Levy said the victim, having been taken from her family aged four, was particularly vulnerable.

"Rather than protecting her, those involved in running the mission subjected her to physical, emotional, psychological and sexual abuse," he said.

"She was refused an education to a large degree and put to work at a very young age."

Judge Levy said the sexual acts confused and sickened the girl. The judge noted that, in her victim impact statement, the victim said Mithen stole her innocence.

"She speaks of suffering from sadness, depression, fear and a sense of worthlessness. None of that was her making," the judge said. "Unsurprisingly, this caused her to suffer from guilt and shame, that she describes to have been unbearable. One can only imagine the intense turmoil that she went through."

The judge told Mithen: "She was being offended against by you in a vile manner, purely for your sexual gratification in circumstances where it was your role to spiritually guide her and protect her."

Sentence

Judge Laurie Levy sentenced Mithen to 13 months in prison. Because of Mithen's age and medical issues, the sentence was wholly suspended. This enabled Mitthen to return home to the state of Victoria., where he was living in retirement..

Further information

After his time at Wandering Mission in the 1960s, Father Mithen returned to positions as a Catholic priest in Australia's eastern states. His later work included dealing with Aboriginals in the Redfern area in inner-Sydney.

Broken Rites has checked Fr Allan Mithen in some old printed editions of the Australian Catholic Directory. In the 1988 directory, Mithen was listed as based at a Pallottine Fathers retreat centre in Millgrove, 63 km east of Melbourne.

In the 2014 directory, Rev. Allan Mithen was listed as living at a church retirement home for priests in Melbourne.

• By a Broken Rites researcher,article updated 17 January 2019

In 2019, Broken Rites is continuing its research 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 17 January 2019

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 24 January 2019

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

Background

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Charged in Melbourne, 1997

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

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

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

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

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

The victims were not required to appear in court.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Impact statements, 1998

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

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

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

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

Jailed in Victoria, 1998

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

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

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

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

Convicted in Queensland in 2000

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

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

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

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

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

In court again in 2017-2018

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jailed again, Melbourne 2018

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

Update 2019: More charges in Queensland.

On 4 September 2018, Queensland Police began prosecuting Frank Terrence Keating with a brief administrative mention in the Redcliffe Magistrates Court. The case is regarding offences which allegedly occurred at De La Salle College Scarborough in 1989. The next steps in the court process were to be scheduled for a later date. Broken Rites does not know whether this prosecution will continue in 2019 or whether the next steps will have to wait until Keating completes his Victorian jail sentence. Under Queensland law, there are some restrictions on media reporting of the progress of court cases while these cases are in the preliminary stages in magistrates courts.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated on 26 January 2019

Catholic Church authorities knew for years about Christian Brother Desmond Eric ("Neil") Richards'sexual crimes against schoolboys in New South Wales but the crimes were concealed from the police (and from the public). Eventually, Richards was transferred to Rome (away from the NSW police) but NSW detectives arrested him when he returned to Australia in 2013. Richards was jailed in Sydney in 2014 for some of his crimes. On 16 December 2016 (aged in his mid-seventies), he was sentenced to additional time in jail after more of his victims contacted the NSW detectives. Richards pleaded guilty regarding all these victims. On 17 October 2018, he was sentenced again to more jail time for more of his crimes. Other victims of Richards have remained silent but it is still possible for them to speak to the detectives; therefore, the investigation will continue.

Brother "Neil" Richards has spent more than half a century as a Christian Brother, including as a headmaster, in Catholic schools in Sydney and regional New South Wales. According to statements made in court, Richards began teaching as a Christian Brother in 1961 and (it was stated) one of his first sex crimes was committed against a boy in 1962.

In those years, a new Christian Brother would normally adopt a new forename. Hence, Desmond Eric Richards became Brother "Neil" Richards.

Richards' offending continued, in several schools, during his teaching career, and eventually (after he retired from teaching duties) the Christian Brothers organisation transferred him to Rome to be in charge of their website for their Oceania province (that is, for Australia and the Pacific). Thus, a Catholic international website was administered by a child-abuser.

How the police investigation began in 2013

Some years ago, one of Richards' victims contacted Broken Rites, which advised him to have a private interview with a Detectives Office of the NSW Police. Later, another victim from a different school came forward. Detectives then investigated and found two more of Brother Richards' victims.

These four victims were abused between 1972 and 1982.

In 2013 the detectives learned that Richards was working at the Catholic Church headquarters in Rome. When he re-visited Australia, police arrested him in November 2013.

During early and mid-2014, Richards appeared before a magistrate in a Local Court, charged (under his birth name, Desmond Eric Richards), regarding the four victims who had spoken (separately) to the police. The court was told that, after the boys had been sexually assaulted by Brother Richards, they were regularly beaten with a strap.

The court was told that one 12-year-old boy, who had never been the subject of any punishment before the indecent assault, was later strapped on more than 60 occasions at St Patrick’s Christian Brothers College in Albury, while Richards was headmaster there in the early 1970s.

Another boy was regularly singled out for punishment and ordered to stand in the corner of the classroom, while a third was strapped once a fortnight and made to stand outside class, the court was told.

One boy, then aged 11, was assaulted while on a school camp (at Arcadia in north-west Sydney) when Richards got into bed with him.

Richards pleaded guilty to the abuse of four boys aged 11, 12 and 13 at St Patrick’s Albury and Bishop Henschke school in Wagga Wagga (both of these schools are in southern New South Wales) and at St Patrick’s Strathfield (in Sydney). In mid-2014, Richards was placed on bail pending the sentence proceedings to be held later in the year.

On 7 November 2014, Judge Peter Zahra conducted a pre-sentence procedure for Richards in the Sydney District Court. The judge was hearing submissions from the prosecutor and the defence lawyer about what kind of sentence should be imposed on Richards.

During these submissions, the court was told that the Catholic Church authorities had known for many years about Richards being an offender.The church authorities kept the matter "in-house" and it was not reported to the police. Later, the police evidently did learn about one of Richards' victims, and, as a result, in 2006 Richards pleaded guilty to a criminal charge about a previous indecent-assault offence at Gosford on the New South Wales Central Coast, but he was not sent to jail.

In his submission to Judge Zahra on 7 November 2014, Richards' defence lawyer recommended that, because of Richards' guilty plea to the 2014 charges and his remorse, he should be given a non-custodial sentence.

But Judge Zahra disagreed, stating that the need to deter others from committing such serious offences demanded a jail sentence.

"The need for deterrence and community retribution weighs very heavily in favour of full-time custody," he said.

The judge revoked bail and ordered that Richards be taken into custody.

On 27 November 2014, Judge Zahra gave Richards a jail sentence of 3 years and 3 months, with a minimum of two years behind bars before he becomes eligible to apply for parole.

Jailed again in 2016

After Richards' 2014 sentencing, Broken Rites was contacted by a former student who encountered Richards at St Edward's Christian Brothers school in Gosford, on the NSW central coast, in the late 1970s. Broken Rites told this ex-student where he could contact the appropriate unit of NSW Police detectives.

In 2015, another former student of the Gosford school contacted Broken Rites, who again explained where to contact the detectives.

Later, police charged Brother Richards regarding the Gosford offences. The case went through a Local Court, where Richards pleaded guilty on 7 April 2016 regarding two Gosford victims. A week later, the case had a brief procedure with a judge in the Sydney District Court.

Meanwhile, during 2016, police found several more Richards victims. Therefore, he appeared in court during 2016 regarding six victims.

In the Sydney District Court on 16 December 2016, Richards was sentenced to more jail time for these six additional victims. These assaults happened in various years (from the 1960s to the 1980s) and, according to the NSW criminal statutes, the offences were in various categories of seriousness. Therefore, the judge had to impose a different amount of jail time for each incident (according to the penalty that was prescribed in the NSW criminal statutes in the year when a particular incident occurred). And the judge was obliged to give a reduction to the total jail time because of the Guilty plea.

Richards was given a maximum jail sentence of six years.

It is still possible for any more of Brother Richards' victims to speak to the detectives (the investigation is continuing).

More jail time in 2018

On 17 October 2018 in Parramatta District Court, Desmond Eric Richards was sentenced to additional jail time for certain offences at St Patrick’s College Strathfield in 1986 and 1987. This abuse occurred in primary years 5 and 6. Richards will be eligible to apply for release on parole after 15 December 2021.

Broken Rites research

Brother "Neil" Richards has spent more than half a century as a member of the Christian Brothers, where he was sometimes listed (in Christian Brothers documents) as "Brother D.N. Richards".

He has been located in many parts of New South Wales. For example, in the early 1980s he was the headmaster of a Christian Brothers primary school at Concord (in Sydney's inner-west).

Evidently Richards was living at Gosford in 1990, because a list of Australian Christian Brothers in 1990 mentioned "Brother D.N. Richards, Gosford" in that year.

In the 1990s, Brother Richards was associated somehow with the Broken Bay Diocese, which covers parishes in Sydney's northern suburbs and the NSW central coast. In 1997 a church website, reported the minutes of a Broken Bay Diocese committee (held at Waitara) and it said: "A folder, on internet and access, is being put together by Brother Neil Richards from the Diocesan Office."

After retiring from teaching in schools, Brother Neil Richards worked on the Christian Brothers website for their Oceania province (that is, for Australia and the Pacific). On 11 November 2014, well after Richards had been arrested, Broken Rites was still able to access a Christian Brothers worldwide website, which gave the contacts for Christian Brothers webmasters in various parts of the world. One item said:"Christian Brothers Oceania Province Centre ...Webmaster: Neil Richards cfc."

In December 2009, an announcement by the Christian Brothers stated: "A large gathering of Brothers came together today to say farewell to Neil Richards and to congratulate him on his new position on the [Christian Brothers] Congregation website in Rome."

Presumably, even though he was now located in Rome, Richards would still have been able to work on the Christian Brothers' Australian website from Rome, amongst any other duties in Rome.

Brother Desmond Eric ("Neil") Richards' new location in Rome meant that he was out of the reach of the Australian police. But the police were waiting for Desmond Eric Richards when he returned to Australia in late 2013.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 20 January 2019

Australian Marist Brother David Austin Christian was recruited by the Marist Brothers at the age of 15 and became a fully-fledged Brother at 18. By the age of 40 (in the 1980s), he was a school principal — and he was sexually abusing young boys. Years later, some of these victims began to speak (as adults) to child-protection detectives in the state police force. This resulted in David Christian being jailed when he was in his seventies. But how many other victims of Brother David Christian have NOT spoken to the police? For example, one of Brother David Christian's ex-students died by suicide at the age of 21, leaving a suicide note about how his life had been damaged by Brother David Christian.

More details about the suicide are given at the end of this article.

This Broken Rites article demonstrates how it is best for victims to exercise their right to consult the detectives.

For many years, the Marist Brothers in Australia were divided into two Provinces. The northern province was for New South Wales and Queensland. David Austin Christian (date of birth 3 December 1942) belonged to the southern province which supplied Marists Brothers to various schools in Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia. David Christian was teaching in Western Australia when the charged offences occurred (at Newman College junior school in Churchlands) and his court appearances were in W.A.

First conviction, 1995

Brother David Austin Christian, formerly principal of Marist Brothers' Newman College junior school in Perth, pleaded guilty to multiple counts of aggravated indecent assault against two boys (aged 10 and 11) in the principal's office. In a Perth court in 1995, Christian was fined $10,500 ($1,500 per incident) but the Marist Order said it would pay the fine for him. Brother Christian moved to live with the Marist Brothers in Templestowe, Melbourne. According to Marist websites (accessed in 2011), Brother David Christian continued to be accepted by his superiors and colleagues as a member of the Marist order.

Second conviction, 2014

In the W.A. District Court in 2014, Brother David Christian was convicted of one count of indecently dealing with a child. This offence was committed in 1982 at a Catholic primary school in regional Western Australia. It is understood that the victim was a 10-year-old boy in Grade 5. The court gave David Christian a nine months suspended jail sentence.

Third conviction, early 2017

In the same court on 10 January 2017, Brother David Christian was convicted of two offences of indecently dealing with a child under the age of 14 (in the early 1980s),

Sentencing David Christian, Judge O'Neal told him: "You were the principal of the school that this ten-year-old boy attended. You wrapped yourself in a public profession of Christian religiosity as a Marist Brother."

The judge said the offending has had a "catastrophic effect" on the psychological health and wellbeing of the victim.

"Despite high academic achievement as a child, [the victim] left school early with an understandable problem with authority figures like teachers... He [has] had a complete breakdown. He has been struggling with drug and alcohol issues, and his life is at a very low point", the judge said.

"This case is among the most serious examples of breach of trust."

"In view of the seriousness of these offences, a term of imprisonment is the only appropriate disposition."

The judge sentenced Christian to 16 months jail for each of the two incidents. The judge reduced each term to 12 months, to be served consecutively, making a total of two years, with parole possible after 12 months behind bars.

Fourth conviction, late 2017

While David Christian was in jail, another of his victims was speaking to the police regarding two incidents that occurred in 1991 at Perth's Newman College junior school when this boy was aged 12 in Year 7. Brother David Christian was the junior school's principal.

On 5 December 2017, Christian (aged 75 in 2017) pleaded guilty in the W.A. District Court to two incidents of indecently dealing with this boy.

The boy had already been a victim of bullying at the school, the court was told. Brother David Christian summoned this boy to his office. The boy was placed on Christian's lap, and the indecent dealing then occurred.

Christian's defence lawyer said that because his client was recruited by the Marist Brothers about age 15, he did not have the opportunity to explore his sexuality when he was young. He said Christian later explored his sexuality through his behaviour with children.

District Court Judge Mark Herron said David Christian knew the child was particularly vulnerable before the abuse occurred. He said Christian traumatised and confused the victim through his gross abuse of trust.

“Given your position of trust you should have been protecting the child and ensuring he was safe,” Judge Herron said. “Your actions undermine the trust and confidence members of the public, particularly parents, have when they place their children in the care of schools.”

Judge Heron sentenced David Christian to an additional six months jail.

Suicide

Broken Rites has learned that one former student at Perth's Newman College (during Brother David Christian's time as primary principal there) has died by suicide. Broken Rites will refer to this ex-student as "Basil" (not his real name).

In November 2018, Broken Rites interviewed Basil's mother. This mother said (and Broken Rites is changing the boy's name to "Basil"):-

"In 1991, Basil was in Year 7 (aged twelve) at Newman College, Perth, and his class was being taught by a lay teacher. When Basil misbehaved, this teacher sent Basil to Brother David Christian (principal of the primary-level classes) to be disciplined for this misbehaviour. Evidently, Brother David Christian began to sexually abuse Basil, although we did not know this at the time. This abuse evidently disrupted Basil's life. He became alienated from schoolwork and he became a hermit. By the end of Year 7, we had to transfer Basil to a government high school.

"Basil continued to remain silent about his Year Seven abuse. He concealed the abuse from us because he presumed that our very devout Catholic family would not welcome this news and that we would not believe him. During his later teenage years, Basil's behaviour deteriorated even more. His life became in a mess. By the age of 21, he had attempted suicide. The family did not know why.

"Finally, on 10 November 2001, aged 22, he succeeded in dying by suicide. His body was found by his sister. He left a note, telling us (for the first time) that he had been abused by Brother David Christian in Year 7. Unfortunately, his sister was no upset that she destroyed the suicide note. But we managed to find out more from a psychiatrist who Basil had been seeing. The psychiatrist confirmed that Basil's was feeling damaged by the abuse he suffered under Brother David Christian. At last, we learned (too late) the story behind Basil's troubled life."

Broken Rites is continuing its research about Marist Brother David Christian.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated, 28 January 2019

A former Catholic priest, James Joseph Cunneen, aged 59, is facing a court trial in New South Wales in 2019, charged with sexual offences which were allegedly committed thirty years ago against a number of young males who were associated with the "Holy Name of Mary" Parish in Rydalmere in Sydney's north-west.

According to information given in a preliminary hearing, James Cunneen was born in New Zealand. In 1979, he joined a Catholic religious order (the Order of Friars Minor, which is known as the Franciscans). This order has priests working in a number of parishes in Australia and New Zealand. After working with the Franciscan order in Australia, Cunneen returned to New Zealand. By then, he had left the priesthood. Cunneen's defence solicitor told the NSW court that, after returning to New Zealand, Cunneen worked for the NZ Department of Education for the next three years. Since then, he has been running betting agencies across the North Island, the defence solicitor said.

Cunneen came to the attention of New South Wales police as a result of information given to Australia's child-abuse Royal Commission.

A police investigation was conducted by detectives from Rosehill Local Area Command of the NSW Police.

In November 2017, NSW Police extradited Cunneen back to Australia in custody. In Sydney's Central Local Court, police filed charges against Cunneen regarding some offences which he allegedly committed against some young males in Sydney's Rydalmere when Cunneen was a priest there in 1987-1989.

Some of the alleged victims had previously been pupils at a Marist Brothers high school (now named St Patrick's Marist College) at Dundas in the same region of Sydney, the court has been told.

At the November 2017 procedure, Cunneen was granted bail pending the subsequent court proceedings. During 2018, a committal hearing (with a magistrate) was held in a Local Court. After the committal hearing, Cunneen was ordered to undergo a trial with a District Court judge. This trial is scheduled to be held in Sydney's Parramatta District Court in 2019.

The District Court's case number for Cunneen is 2015/00347275.

FOOTNOTE: The 1994 edition of the directory of Australia's National Council of priests had a "Father James Cunneen, OFM" listed as a member of the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor (OFM). Fr Cunneen was listed under the heading of "on leave", care of the Franciscans' Australian head office in Waverley, Sydney.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 5 January 2019

In the 1960s, Brian Spillane began training towards a career in the Catholic priesthood. In 2019, he is in jail in New South Wales for sexual crimes which he committed against boys (and also some girls) during his religious career. While he is in jail, police have investigated some additional allegations about Spillane. Now, in 2019 (aged 75), he is awaiting another court appearance, where he is to be charged with having raped a ten-year-old boy in Sydney in 1964.

The case involves one offence of buggery allegedly committed against the ten-year-old boy in a public toilet during a picnic for boys on Shark Island, off Rose Bay, Sydney Harbour, between August and December 1964.

The court's case number is: 2018/00263034.

Some background

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spillane's previous court proceedings

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Convicted regarding female victims

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bail refused in 2010

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

Attempt to stop the proceedings

Meanwhile, in 2010, Spillane's legal team raised certain objections regarding the proposed sentence proceedings (involving the female victims) and also regarding subsequent proposed court proceedings (involving a number of male victims).

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

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

Sentenced regarding the girls, April 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jailed regarding the girls, 2012

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

Charges regarding boys, 2013-2016

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

The boys' cases resulted as follows:

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

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

Another jail sentence, 2017

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A victim speaks out, 2017

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

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

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

Charged again in 2018

In 2019, Spillane is in jail but police have charged him in 2018 regarding a ten-year-old boy who was allegedly sexually abused by Spillane in a public toilet in Sydney in 1964 while Spillane was a trainee with the Vincentian religious order. The case had a brief procedural mention in Sydney Central Local Court on 20 November 2018, with a committal hearing to be held on a later date.

The investigation was conducted by officers attached to the NSW Police Force Marine Area Command. The officers issued a Future Court Attendance Notice to Brian Joseph Spillane, who was in a Correctional Centre at South Nowra, NSW.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 31 January 2019

On 24 July 2014 a 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, police charged Patrick Holmes (now aged 83) in court again in Perth, regarding additional child-sex offences from 40 years ago. These new charges will be heard in court in 2019.

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.

In court again: 2018 and 2019

During 2018, Father Patrick Holmes (aged 83) made several appearances in a Perth magistrates court, where police filed an increasing number of child-sex offences from 40 years ago, relating to his time in West Australian parishes. These new charges relate to multiple alleged victims, including boys and girls.

One court appearance, in April 2018, was regarding a number of victims who were aged between six and twelve at the time of the offences

In another court appearance in August 2018, police filed more charges regarding more victims. Three of these charges relate to a girl who was aged six in 1970.

In court in October 2018, police filed an additional charge of unlawfully and indecently assaulting a male. The alleged victim was a seven-year-old boy in 1967 while Holmes was a priest in Carlisle.

On 6 November 2018, at a preliminary hearing with a magistrate, Holmes entered a plea of Not Guilty on 16 charges. He was ordered to face a trial with a judge in the W.A. District Court in 2019.

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. Police urge anyone with information about the case to come forward and make a report.

• By a Broken Rites researcher

Broken Rites is doing further research about a Sydney Catholic priest, Father Kevin Cox, who sexually abused vulnerable girls. For example, one victim (Broken Rites will refer to her as "Mandy") has revealed that Father Cox sexually abused her for six years from the age of eleven. Furthermore, the sexual abuse resulted in a pregnancy at age 17 — and then the priest paid for an abortion. But the church continued to protect Father Cox. Church leaders and fellow-priests continued to regard Father Cox as a church hero.

After abusing "Mandy" for six years, Father Cox reluctantly apologised to the family for his sexual abuse of the girl. He also reluctantly admitted the sexual abuse to his bishop. However, the diocese granted him a transfer to another parish and allowed him to continue working as a priest for the next 15 years, until Mandy finally reported the sexual abuse to the police when she was nearly 32.

After the police charged Father Cox in court with his earliest sexual crimes against the child (at the age of 11 to 13), his supporters in the church sprang to his defence. After a jury convicted him of these crimes, church leaders and priests wrote "good-character" references for him, asking the court for a lenient sentence. A judge gave Cox a part-time jail sentence but church lawyers appealed to a higher court against the criminal conviction and won an acquittal for the priest.

Privately, a church leader apologised to Mandy's mother, acknowledging that the priest had broken his priestly vows in doing what he did to Mandy.

And, to cap it all off, when Father Kevin Cox died in 2008, the Catholic Church gave him a grand funeral service, jointly conducted by three bishops and more than fifty priests. He went to his grave as a church hero.

The priest's background

Broken Rites has ascertained that Father Kevin Nicholas Cox was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1930, of an Irish father and Australian mother. Immediately after leaving school, he entered the Catholic order of Cistercian monks (also known as the Trappist order) at Roscrea, County Offaly, Ireland, to train for the Catholic priesthood.

He was transferred to Australia, when the Cistercians established a monastery at Yarra Glen, near Melbourne, in 1954. A year later, aged 25, he was ordained in Melbourne as a Cistercian priest, with Melbourne's Irish-born Archbishop Daniel Mannix performing the ordination ceremony. Cox adopted the "religious" name Father "Dominic" Cox, after the medieval monk Saint Dominic.

After 20 years in the Melbourne monastery, Father Cox transferred from the Cistercians, on loan, to the Sydney archdiocese, changing his name back to Kevin. The Sydney diocese used him as a relief priest at Kogarah (St Patrick's parish) in 1974-75 and Caringbah (Our Lady of Fatima parish) from 1975 to 1982.

Here is Mandy's story

Mandy's life has been shattered by Cox's sexual abuse, the breach of trust, the loss of faith, her disrupted adolescence, the pregnancy, the abortion and the church's hypocrisy and cover-up.

Broken Rites has digested the following account from typed, sworn statements, made by Mandy, her mother Beryl and other family members, and witnessed by a police officer. The statements were later submitted in the preliminary court proceedings.

Mandy, born in mid-1964, is from a large, devout Sydney Catholic family in Caringbah (in Sydney's south), where the family's life revolved around the "Our Lady of Fatima" parish.

When Father Kevin Cox (then aged 45) joined their parish in 1975 as an assistant priest, he began visiting this family. He eventually took a particular interest in "helping" Mandy, aged 11, who was then a pupil at Father Cox's parish school.

The family trusted Father Cox with Mandy "because he was a Catholic priest". He began meeting Mandy for an early-morning jog at an oval near the Caringbah parish school. After one of these jogs, he jokingly put his hand inside Mandy's shorts and underpants for the first time.

He began spending more time alone with Mandy than the family was aware of — almost daily, either before school or after school or at weekends.

He molested her regularly in the Sacristy (a room near the church altar), telling her that, if anybody knocked on the door of this room, she was to hide. Later, other offences occurred regularly in a spare room at the school, in the presbytery, and in a parked car (sometimes after Saturday evening Mass),

At first, the abuse consisted of Father Cox fingering Mandy's genital area. At first, innocent Mandy did not realise that this was "sex", especially because he was a Catholic priest. On later occasions, the priest made Mandy touch his genitals, and he would ejaculate on her naked body. He told her: "If you tell anybody about this, it will cause a scandal for you."

This forced Mandy to bear the burden of secrecy and deception. She was prevented from telling her parents about the abuse.

Meanwhile, during the years of abuse, Father Cox continued to be a "friend" of Mandy's gullible family. He conducted a wedding ceremony for one of Mandy's sisters and baptised one of Mandy's nephews.

Pregnancy and abortion

Until Mandy was 16, the abuse always stopped short of sexual penetration but, at age 16, it progressed to full sexual intercourse. The intercourse continued for about a year and, at 17, Mandy became pregnant. Around this time, she was finishing Year Eleven at high school.

Father Cox then told Mandy to have an abortion. One of her sisters has made a sworn statement that the priest handed cash to the sister for the abortion, which was performed (after her 17th birthday) at a clinic in Surry Hills in inner-Sydney.

After the abortion, Mandy's mother Beryl was told about it. She was devastated because abortion was contrary to Catholic Church teachings and she was doubly shocked to learn that her daughter had been sexually abused by Father Cox. This undermined the whole basis of the family's Catholicism. At this stage (with Mandy aged 17) her mother presumed that the sexual abuse was relatively recent (perhaps for a year), not realising that it had been going on for six years.

The mother told the police in her sworn statement:

• 'I was very shocked, and upset... I remember he [Fr Cox] picked me up in his car and drove to the Camelia Garden, Caringbah. We sat in the car and talked. I said to him something like, "You were a friend of all of us, I don't know how I'm going to tell [my husband], he'll want to kill you."

  'I don't remember what he [Cox] said exactly, he was making excuses. He said, "I'm sorry, it's a terrible thing."

After Cox mumbled his apology, the mother demanded that he tell his bishop about the sexual abuse, which he did. She also demanded that he leave this parish. The mother's statement says: "Father Cox must have spoken to the bishop because he left the parish very soon afterwards. I believe he went to the Pyrmont area [in inner-Sydney]."

Cover-up

The Caringbah parish gave Fr Cox a farewell party but the parishioners were not told the real reason why he was leaving.

The sex abuse did not affect Father Cox's career. Indeed, at his later parishes, he was rewarded with a promotion from "Assistant Priest" (at Caringbah) to "Administrator" or "Parish Priest" (that is, in charge) of Sydney parishes. Broken Rites has found him listed at:

• Pyrmont (St Bede's), 1982-87;
• Auburn (St John of God), 1988;
• Woollahra (Holy Cross parish), 1989-91, acting as the parish administrator on behalf of retired archbishop James Carroll; and
• Enmore-Tempe (St Pius V parish), as the Parish Priest in charge, 1992-96.

The congregations in these parishes were not told the reason why Father Cox had been rescued out of the Caringbah parish.

The impact on Mandy

Because of the priest's sexual abuse, Mandy's personal development was crippled. For example, when assaulting Mandy, the priest used to tell her: "Look what you are making me do — you naughty girl, you!" This blaming of Mandy convinced her that she is a "bad" person, and she is still suffering from the effects of this guilt.

Mandy's mother still did not realise that the sexual abuse began at the age of 11, not just 17. The mother had been puzzled for years why Mandy developed into such a disturbed and "naughty" girl from about age 11 onwards.

Another impact was that the priest monopolised Mandy's adolescent years, so she did not develop proper relationships with boys and girls her own age. And because her first "sexual" experience was with a Catholic priest, this damaged the way in which she would later be expected to develop a sexual relationship with an appropriate person of her own choosing.

She married in 1986 (aged 22) but the marriage broke up. One problem was that the trauma about the priest haunted Mandy's mind and it hindered her sexual relationship with her husband.

Mandy was now living in poverty with her two children, whereas the church was still providing accommodation and income for the priest. Depressed, Mandy tried to take her own life.

The church shuns Mandy

For many years after the abortion, Mandy remained silent about what Father Kevin Cox and the Catholic Church had done to her life. Like many church-abuse victims, she felt powerless to tackle the Catholic Church.

Early in 1996, Mandy began having counselling with a Sydney nun (Sister "Mary") but Mandy's emotional health was deteriorating. After consulting Mandy's family, Sister Mary notified the Sydney archdiocese about what Father Cox had done to Mandy and her family. Around Easter 1996, the archdiocese withdrew Fr Cox from the Enmore-Tempe parish, announcing that he was going "on leave".

To help her healing, Mandy wished to have a meeting with church officials, with Fr Cox present, so that Cox would offer her an apology in person. However, no such a meeting or apology was granted.

During 1996, the Australian bishops announced a new strategy on managing church sexual-abuse complaints (the "Towards Healing" project). On 26 November 1996, one of Mandy's close relatives (let us call her "Abbie") wrote (in confidence) to a leading spokesman for "Towards Healing", pleading for help for Mandy through "Towards Healing". This letter (and Broken Rites has examined a copy) explained how Mandy's life had been disrupted by Cox (damaging her faith and leaving her in poverty) and asking the church to help her to achieve "healing".

However, the archdiocese failed to help Mandy. This neglect was contrary to the "Towards Healing" document, which had promised (in paragraph 17 on page 4 of the 1996 edition): "The church authority shall immediately enter into dialogue with victims concerning their needs and ensure they are given such assistance as is demanded by justice and compassion."

Police charges

From this time on, Broken Rites received an occasional phone call from one or other of Mandy's relatives, reporting on developments and discussing strategies for obtaining justice.

Rejected by the archdiocese, Mandy no longer felt any obligation to maintain the church's code of silence about its sexual abuse. Therefore, she contacted Sydney's Petersham police station and was interviewed by Detective Stephen Rae. In May 1997 (aged 31) she made a sworn, signed police statement, outlining her encounters with Father Cox from the age of eleven onwards.

Following a police investigation, prosecutors selected three of the many incidents in Mandy's statement. The prosecution charged Father Cox with indecent assault (i.e., non-penetrative sexual activity) involving a child under 16. From the numerous encounters between Cox and Mandy, the prosecution charged Cox regarding three incidents:

1. the first jogging incident at the Caringbah oval (when Mandy was aged 11);
2. the first incident in the church sacristy (aged 11); and
3. one of the early car-parking incidents (at Wanda Beach, aged 13).

The prosecution alleged that these assaults up to age 13 included Cox fingering the girl's genitals and also him rubbing his own genitals against her until he ejaculated on the outside of her body.

The prosecutors confined the charges to these early incidents because the penetrative sex after the age of 16 is more difficult to prosecute if the defendant claims to have had the 16-year-old victim's consent (whereas "consent" is not allowable as a defence if the victim is a child under 16). Nor was it a criminal offence for a priest to pay for an abortion.

When Mandy's mother Beryl (at the age of 71) learned the details of these charges, she realised for the first time that the priest's sexual abuse of Mandy began at age 11, not 17.

Preliminary court hearing

Late in 1997, preliminary proceedings were held before a magistrate at Sutherland Local Court.

Cox's defence was arranged by the legal firm Carroll and O'Dea, who were the solicitors for the Sydney Catholic archdiocese. He was represented in court by a senior (and up-and-coming) barrister, whose sibling was a very senior priest in the Sydney archdiocese.

Cox was driven to court every day by a fellow priest, who sat in the courtroom as Cox's personal support person.

The clergy, however, did not comfort Mandy or her mother or sisters. In fact, in court the church's legal team was clearly trying to defeat Mandy.

In court, armed by the church's legal team, Father Cox entered a plea of "not guilty".

Journalists knew that the charged priest was named Father Kevin Cox, but during these preliminary proceedings, the magistrate imposed a media-suppression order, prohibiting media outlets from naming the priest or the parish. A barrister from News Limited (publishers of the Sydney Daily Telegraph) went to the court, applying for the suppression order to be lifted, but the magistrate refused.

The intercourse, the pregnancy and the abortion at age 17 were mentioned at the magistrate's hearing, and this information helped to demonstrate Father Cox's propensity for sexual abuse.

Following normal practice in a contested case, the magistrate then "committed" Cox (that is, he scheduled him) to undergo a jury trial in a higher court, the New South Wales District Court.

Jury trial

The jury trial was held, chaired by a judge (not a magistrate), in the District Court at Campbelltown (in Sydney's south-west) in October 1998. For jury purposes, the prosecutors again confined the charges to the three incidents that had been selected for the 1997 preliminary hearing.

Before the jury was selected, the judge made rulings about the trial procedure. The judge ruled that the jury must not be allowed to know about the intercourse and the pregnancy, both of which occurred after Mandy's 16th birthday. The judge's reason for this is that the three charged incidents were confined to Mandy's earlier years (at the age of 11 to 13) — well before the pregnancy and the abortion. In any sexual assault case, the victim's 16th birthday is an important cut-off date, because after this birthday a defendant can try claiming that he had the victim's consent, which is not possible to claim under the age of 16.

The judge refused to let the jury hear evidence from Mandy's mother or two sisters.

He allowed the church lawyers to ask Mandy very personal questions about when she entered puberty.

The church lawyers tabled a letter (mentioned earlier in this article) which "Abbie" (a relative of Mandy) had written in confidence to "Towards Healing" about Father Cox's abuse of Mandy and the effects on Mandy's subsequent life. In court, the church lawyers used this letter in an attempt to discredit Mandy, claiming that Mandy's allegations must have been merely a trick to obtain "compensation".

Guilty verdict

In October 1998, the District Court jury found Cox guilty on the first two incidents and it let him off on the third.

The judge heard submissions from the prosecution and from the defence regarding what sort of sentence should be imposed.

Ms Robyn Denes, who appeared in court representing the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions, told court that the seriousness of Father Cox's offences could not be under-estimated.

She said: "The breach of trust is all the more stunning because of the awe and respect the children [in the parish] held him in. He was a priest in a parish who committed offences against a young girl who was part of the parish. The evidence discloses a systematic abuse of a young child. She was eleven years old when it happened."

Ms Denes said that there had been no evidence of contrition or remorse from Father Cox.

The church's legal team had assembled a thick file of "character" references from bishops and priests, all urging a lenient sentence for the priest. This file was submitted in court by the church's defence lawyer Paul Byrne, Senior Counsel. Byrne, who was hired for this trial (though not for the previous preliminary prodeedings), was one of the most prominent criminal lawyers in Sydney.

A part-time sentence

Instead of sentencing Cox to a normal jail term, the judge gave him two years of periodic detention — that is, part-time jail, which could be served (for example) at weekends.

The state prosecutor then asked the judge to lift the media-suppression order on the publication of Cox's name but the judge refused, thereby protecting the priest and the church. At this stage, therefore, Father Cox's name (and his conviction) could not appear in the media. The sentence was reported in the Sydney Daily Telegraph on 31 October 1998, page 15, with the priest not named.

Appeal

The NSW Director of Public Prosecutions appealed to a higher court about the leniency of Cox's sentence, while the church lawyers appealed against the conviction.

Three judges heard the appeal. This was not a re-trial and there was therefore no jury. The three judges reviewed the transcript of the jury trial and based their decision on this reading, plus legal submissions by the prosecutors and the church lawyers.

The appeal judges delivered their written judgement on 31 March 1999. The appeal judges noted that, although Cox was charged with three incidents, Mandy had difficulty in distinguishing each of the three charged incidents from the numerous other similar uncharged occasions.

The judges allowed Cox's appeal on the ground of the complainant's inability in evidence to state precise dates and times of the three charged offences.

They also decided that the two convictions were unreasonable because they were "inconsistent" with the acquittal on the third charge. Therefore, to achieve "consistency", the judges overturned the convictions on the first two charges.

One of the appeal judges, in his written judgement, made several puzzling statements, including:

• This judge rejected the allegation that Cox's sexual assaults occurred almost daily. He wrote: "While this intensity of sexual activity is, of course, possible, to my mind it is improbable." (Really?)
• This judge mistakenly referred to the jogging incident taking place at the "Canterbury" oval instead of the Caringbah oval. (How carefully did His Honour read the trial transcript?)

Media reports

At the appeal hearing, the church lawyers neglected to seek an extension of the media-suppression order. Therefore the appeal result was reported in Sydney newspapers, which published Father Kevin Cox's name for the first time. The Daily Telegraph named Cox on (1 April 1999, p. 15.

Later, Mandy's family was keen for the church's behaviour to receive more detailed media exposure. Mandy gave an interview to the Sunday edition of the Sydney Morning Herald (the Sun-Herald), which published a feature article by senior journalist Alex Mitchell. This article, too, named Cox.

Thus, the cover-up was exposed.

Despite Cox "getting off" in the criminal courts, the church hierarchy acknowledged privately that Father Cox did indeed break his priestly vows in his sexual abuse of Mandy. According to the church's "Towards Healing" document, the breaking of priestly vows constitutes sexual abuse.

A senior member of the Sydney archdiocese hierarchy later visited Mandy's mother and apologised on behalf of the church for what Father Cox had done to Mandy and to the family.

"Still a priest"

From the time he was charged by police in 1997 until the appeal court result in 1999, Father Kevin Cox was listed in the annual Australian Catholic Directory as "on leave", although still living in church premises. Mandy's family members believe that, during his court proceedings, Cox was residing in the Leichhardt parish (in Sydney's inner-west), where a friend of Cox was working as a priest.

After his successful appeal, the Sun-Herald reported that Cox would continue as a priest, possibly overseas. (This indicated that Cox still had the blessing of the Catholic hierarchy in Sydney and elsewhere.)

The Sun-Herald article about Cox alarmed many readers, who were concerned about the issue of child protection, especially as some of the Catholic Church's abuse victims were starting to report these crimes to the police, instead of just reporting them to a church official. This public exposure of Father Cox (and the church's cover-up) embarrassed the church, which issued a written statement a week later at the Caringbah parish, acknowledging the Cox court case but declaring the matter "closed".

Another victim

The Sun-Herald article about Mandy prompted an anonymous woman to write to her after tracing Mandy's family through the telephone directory. This letter provided proof that Mandy was not the only person who was sexually abused by Father Cox. The letter, received by Mandy on 26 May 1999, said:

• "I was saddened and a little distressed to read of your recent experience with the law and the church. Not only because of the apparent injustice of the situation, but because I believed that you were most likely to be telling the truth.

  "And the reason for this belief is that I, too, had a liaison with the person in question [that is, Father Cox]. However, since I was married, in my early twenties, at the time, I've always thought that it was my responsibility and my fault. I did not realise that I had other feelings about it all until I read of your experiences. Perhaps I could have expected to be protected from such an experience. Perhaps I could have expected better behaviour from a priest, maybe that he would protect me from my own self-destructiveness, not collude with me in it. Maybe it wasn't ALL my fault.

  "I'm really not too sure of the purpose of this letter, except to tell you that I support you and feel for you. I can't imagine what it must be like to have gone through all that, and then have it turned back on you. I only hope that, in some way, you can now put it behind you, and become the woman you were meant to be, unfettered by memories of the past, and strengthened by the courage and conviction you demonstrated in telling your story.

  "I have this vision of you receiving great bags of mail, just like this one, from all the women who most likely have a similar story to tell. Perhaps they, too, will in some way be freed by your story, and now be able to recognise that it was not their fault. They did not, and do not, deserve to be treated in this manner. My hope is that the burden you have carried will be lifted from you, and that you will now be free to achieve your potential.

  "No-one can really understand what you have endured, but in sending you these thoughts of love, and encouragement, and thanks, perhaps I can return a little of what you have given to me

  "P.S. Because I lack your courage, I will remain anonymous."

Broken Rites is wondering: How many other victims did Father Kevin Cox have?

No more parishes

After the publication of Cox's name in the Sydney newspapers, the church did not appoint him to any more parishes in Sydney. Every year since 1999, Broken Rites has checked Fr Kevin Cox's listing in the annual edition of the Australian Catholic directories. From 2000 to 2008, these volumes continued to list Fr Kevin Cox as a priest of the Sydney archdiocese. His address was listed as "retired, care of the Sydney archdiocesan office".

The Catholic Church continued to look after Father Cox. About 2002, when he was aged 72, the church provided accommodation for him in a residence for retired priests at Culburra, a popular holiday destination on the New South Wales south coast.

A grand farewell for a church hero

In 2008, Reverend Father Kevin Cox (still a priest and still "reverend") died, aged 78. His funeral took place in one of his former Sydney parishes — at St Pius' Church, Enmore — on Thursday, 4 December 2008. A glowing obituary of Father Cox appeared in the Sydney Catholic Weekly, 21 December, 2008.

Cox's Requiem Mass was concelebrated (that is, jointly conducted) by three of Sydney's auxiliary bishops (Bishops David Cremin, Julian Porteous and Terry Brady) and more than fifty priests.

Bishop Cremin, who was one of Sydney's three auxiliary bishops at the time of Mandy's pregnancy, was born in Ireland (the same country as Kevin Cox) in 1930 (the same year as Cox). Cremin retired in 2005.

Auxiliary Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, who retired in 2004 (and who often has expressed sympathy for church victims), is not mentioned in the report of the funeral. Presumably he did not attend.

The Catholic Weekly obituary stated: "His [Fr Cox's] requiem was a prime example of good liturgy. It was free-flowing and personal, like Fr Cox himself. "

The obituary said: "The Mass, led by Bishop David Cremin, from the placing of symbols to the final commendation, led by Fr Tom Feunell, was personal, reverent and prayerful. Bishop David let it flow and proceed without in any way interfering with the harmonious liturgy arranged by Fr John Ford and colleagues."

According to the 2010 edition of the annual Australian Catholic Directory, the above-mentioned Father John G. Ford has retired from parish work. His former Sydney parishes include Pyrmont, Stanmore and Leichhardt.

At the requiem, a homily was delivered by Fr Kevin O'Grady (a Sydney priest for more than fifty years), who told those present: "Kevin Cox was my friend. You are here today because he was your friend also."

Summing up Father Cox's life, Fr O'Grady told the congregation: "What a wonderful mixture of a life so joyful."

Broken Rites is wondering what Mandy and her mother and sisters would make of this final day of cover-up.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated1 November 2018

This Broken Rites article is the most comprehensive account available about how the large Catholic order of Salesian Fathers harboured an Australian paedophile priest, Father Frank Klep, for many years — allowing him to commit sexual crimes against defenceless boys. Gradually, with help from Broken Rites, some of his victims managed to expose Klep and the Salesians during three court cases. Now he is in jail. In a fourth court case on 26 October 2018, Klep has pleaded guilty regarding three more of his victims. He will be sentenced again in early 2019.

Frank Gerard Klep was ordained as a priest of the Salesian teaching order in Melbourne in 1972.Years later, ex-students began to reveal that they had been sexually abused by Father Klep when they were children in his "care". During his career, Klep's colleagues and superiors had turned a blind eye to his crimes.

Eventually, in 1994, two ex-students managed to get Klep convicted in Melbourne for indecently assaulting them, when they were aged 13, in the sick dormitory of a Salesian secondary school, Salesian College (also known as "Rupertswood"), at Sunbury in Melbourne's north-west. The offences occurred in the 1970s but were covered up until the 1994 court case.

On the day of the 1994 court case, a Broken Rites researcher was visiting the court building (for a different case) and discovered that a Catholic priest (Father Frank Klep) was in an adjoining courtroom on child-sex charges. Therefore, Broken Rites began researching Frank Klep and the church's cover-up. Broken Rites later found more victims of Klep.

The Salesians eventually transferred Klep from Australia to the Pacific island Samoa -- and they illegally concealed his Australian criminal conviction from the Samoan authorities. In Samoa, he was out of reach of the Australian police. In 2004, after more Melbourne victims contacted the Australian police, Samoa deported Frank Klep back to Australia, where he eventually pleaded guilty regarding the additional victims. He was again convicted. Even as Klep entered jail in December 2005 (eleven years after his first conviction), his Salesian superiors still had not removed him from the priesthood.

In court again on 2 December 2013 (after more of his victims contacted Broken Rites and the police), Klep pleaded guilty to more crimes against boys, including rape and attempted buggery.

This story raises questions not just about Frank Klep but about the Catholic system that sheltered him from justice.

The priest's background

Broken Rites has compiled the following account from court submissions and witnesses' testimonies. Broken Rites was present in court during the main court proceedings.

Broken Rites has ascertained that Father Frank Gerard Klep was born in Holland on 3 October 1943, in a family of nine children. He arrived in Australia with his family when he was aged ten. He went to school at Salesian College, Chadstone (in Melbourne's south-east), and, by age 16, the Salesian Fathers viewed him as a future priest. He began boarding with the Salesians and spent his final two school years (years 11 and 12) in a special classroom of  "aspirants"  for the priesthood. At 18, he joined the Salesian order, the formal name of which is the "Salesians of Don Bosco". Klep's Catholic family (according to his barrister in court in 2005) enjoyed the prestige of having a future priest in the family. One of his younger siblings became a nun.

Klep's Salesian training in the 1960s included teaching in a Catholic school in South Australia. He is also believed to have taught at Dominic College, Glenorchy, Tasmania.

In 1968, aged 25, he went to the United States for theological studies, including at Pontifical College (a Catholic seminary in Ohio).

Catholic priests are advertised as living a life of "chastity" but Klep's barrister told the court in 2005 (at time of sentencing) that, while Klep was in the U.S. in 1968, he met a fellow male student-priest who fondled him sexually. (This kind of experience is not uncommon in the Salesian order.) Klep's barrister said that this was Klep's first experience of "sex" and his first orgasm.

Ordained as a priest in 1972, aged 29, Father Frank Klep worked as a teacher at "Rupertswood", where he was the "religion" co-ordinator. "Rupertswood" then was a boys-only school, with boarders as well as day students. The boarders included many from distant farming communities in northern Victoria and southern New South Wales.

The boarders slept in dormitories, partitioned at the end by a curtain, behind which a Salesian priest or brother slept to maintain order. There were about 19 priests, brothers and lay brothers at "Rupertswood".

Klep was in charge of the infirmary, where sick boys were kept. Klep slept in a partitioned section in the infirmary. He administered medication to sick or injured boys.

The prosecution alleged that Klep used to touch the genitals of some boys while the boys were in bed asleep and that, in some cases, he performed oral sex on the boys. Furthermore, some boys alleged that Klep gave them sedatives, or a drugged drink, to put them into a deep sleep before abusing them. Some alleged that he inserted a medical suppository into their anus.

At that time, Frank Klep's victims were unable to report the sex-abuse to their parents or the police. As boarders, the boys were a long way from home. Furthermore, their parents were devout Catholics who would not welcome - or even believe - the complaints. The boarders also knew that a complaint would result in reprisals from the school administration.

Klep transferred from "Rupertswood" at the end of 1979 to become the principal of Salesian College in Brooklyn Park, Adelaide. He is recorded as taking part in many activities with Adelaide boys, including one trip with boys in May 1981 to visit the Salesian houses around Melbourne.

Complaints surfaced in the 1980s

In the 1980s, some "Rupertswood" parents were alarmed that their sons, now becoming adults, seemed to have had their personal development disrupted at the school. Gradually, these ex-students admitted to their parents that Father Klep sexually abused them in the infirmary in the 1970s. Being adults now, the ex-students felt safe to reveal what they could not have said when they were children.

In 1982-6, Klep was back at "Rupertswood" as principal. Alarmed by this promotion, a dozen parents confronted the Salesians' Australian administration and demanded Klep's removal but the Salesians refused. Klep denied everything. These parents also reported Klep to the then chief administrator of the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese but he ignored the complaints.

Eventually, after the parents threatened legal action, the Salesians "solved" the problem by awarding Klep a "study" trip to Rome and the United States.

Returning to Australia in 1989, Klep helped to train priests at Salesian Theological College in Oakleigh (in Melbourne's south-east).

Despite the complaints of 1986, he was again put into contact with boys in 1992 -- as head of the Salesians'Don Bosco Hostel and Youth Centre, 715 Sydney Road, Brunswick, a blue-collar suburb of Melbourne. This centre included some potentially vulnerable youngsters.

One ex-Rupertswood parent, "Cath", said she and the other parents were horrified by this Youth Centre appointment. She complained in writing to the Salesians in 1992 and (she said) received a scolding from the order's Australian head at the time. She dropped her protests.

"I just tried to do the right thing, but we never got anywhere," Cath said later. "They absolutely had it covered, like the Mafia."

Conviction in 1994

In 1993, some Klep victims from "Rupertswood" in the 1970s contacted Victoria's child-protection police, instead of merely telling the Salesians or the Melbourne archdiocese. The child-protection police, unlike the church authorities, took the matter seriously.

First, two siblings ("Kerry" and "Paddy") made sworn police statements at what is now called the Sexual Offences and Child-abuse Investigation Team (SOCIT) unit. These boys, who were boarders at "Rupertswood", were from a Victorian country town, where their parents were "pillars of the church". Kerry encountered Klep in Year 9 in the mid-1970s, when he was 13. Paddy, who is four years younger, encountered Klep four years later, in Year 9 when he too was 13. Both boys said they were indecently assaulted in the infirmary.

Paddy said that Klep gave him sedatives. In addition to indecent touching of genitals, Klep inserted a medical suppository into Paddy's anus, the boy said.

Klep denied everything and pleaded not guilty. The Salesians left him on duty throughout the court process in 1994.

Senior Sergeant Steve Iddles, the prosecutor, later said: "He [Frank Klep] forced himself on them [the boys]. Lie down and do as I tell you."

In the Melbourne Magistrates Court on 12 December 1994, a magistrate found Frank Klep guilty and sentenced him to nine months jail, which he was allowed to serve in community service, gardening at nursing homes.

The Salesians' barrister immediately told the court that Kelp would appeal against the conviction. This discouraged the media from reporting the conviction.

A Broken Rites researcher, who attended the Magistrates Court on the day of the conviction, followed up on the progress of the appeal. Broken Rites eventually found that, in fact, Klep did not proceed with the appeal.

By this time, the metropolitan media had lost interest in the case. However, Broken Rites tipped off a local weekly newspaper, the Sunbury "Regional" (circulating in the district around "Rupertswood"), and this newspaper published four paragraphs about the Klep case on 20 December 1994.

After the conviction, Klep had discussions with Catholic Church psychiatrist Richard Ball but (according to statements made in court in 2005) this did not constitute "treatment" because Klep's plea of "not guilty" indicated that he showed no remorse. The Salesians arranged no subsequent on-going professional treatment for Klep -- and this indicates that the Salesions, too, felt no remorse.

One victim, Kerry, told Broken Rites : "Klep's actions have altered my life in many ways. I feel cheated by the Catholic Church which for years must have known of this problem with many clergy and yet took no stand to remove those responsible or even to apologise to the victims concerned."

Another victim comes forward

After the 1994 conviction, Father Frank Klep was transferred to a position at Auxilium College (a training and retreat centre for clergy) at Lysterfield, south-east of Melbourne.

In 1996, another former "Rupertswood" student ("Pierre") contacted the police Sexual Offences and Child Abuse unit. Pierre alleged that, when he was in the infirmary in 1973 aged 14, Klep had fondled him, performed oral sex on him and penetrated his anus with a finger.

Police interviewed Klep in June 1996 but, once again, he denied the allegations. When the investigating detective was transferred to a country area, the file lay dormant in Melbourne for a while.

Klep in Samoa

About May 1998, the police began instituting charges against Frank Klep (regarding the victim "Pierre") but the Salesians arranged for Klep to work at Moamoa Theological College in Samoa. In August 1998, Melbourne police tried to serve a criminal summons on Klep in Melbourne (for five sexual assaults on Pierre) but Klep was already in Samoa -- and Australia has no extradition treaty with Samoa. Police then issued an Australia-wide arrest warrant for Klep.

The people of Samoa were not aware that the newly-arrived friendly priest was a convicted child molester who was wanted on more charges back in Australia. Neither he nor the church felt an obligation to tell anyone about all that.

In 2002, Broken Rites was contacted by a United States journalist, Reese Dunklin of the "Dallas Morning News", Texas, who was investigating the Catholic Church's habit of allowing sexually-abusive priests to move from one country to another. Broken Rites told Dunklin about Father Frank Klep and certain other Australian Salesians who had gone to Pacific islands. Dunklin eventually flew to Samoa and published a long article about Klep in the "Dallas Morning News" on 18 June 2004.

To satisfy Klep's victims, the Salesians' Australian headquarters had previously claimed that Klep would never again deliver Mass publicly or participate in any activity that may bring him into contact with children. But Dunklin found that Klep was helping during Mass at a Samoan church and at the nearby Salesian schools. A photo in the "Dallas Morning News" showed Father Klep in Samoa handing out sweets to children after Sunday Mass. The paper reported that teenaged boys were waiting for Klep outside.

Samoa's top Catholic, Archbishop Alapati Mataeliga, told Dunklin that he was startled to learn about Frank Klep's criminal conviction. He said the Salesians should not have hidden the conviction from him.

The archbishop said he had just learned, from the media, about the Salesians' promise that Frank Klep would not deliver Mass or participate in any activity that may bring him into contact with children. The archbishop said he should have been told this earlier.

Dunklin's article pointed out that the Salesians of Don Bosco, one of the largest Catholic religious orders, concentrate on educating and housing some of the world's most needy and vulnerable children. Yet influential Salesian officials, worldwide, have spoken out forcefully against cooperating with law enforcement agencies investigating sex-abuse allegations.

Dunklin said that Salesian officials worldwide had spoken out against co-operating with police investigating sex-abuse allegations. He quoted Salesian Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez of Honduras - then regarded as a possible candidate to be the next pope - as saying: "It would be a tragedy to reduce the role of a pastor to that of a cop. I'd be prepared to go to jail rather than harm one of my priests."

Broken Rites showed Dunklin's article to several Australian journalists who began investigating Australian aspects of the Klep story.

Frank Klep back in Australia

In late June 2004, the Samoan government deported Klep because he had failed to disclose his 1994 conviction. On his visa application for Samoa, Klep had sworn that "I ... have never been convicted of a criminal offence." The lie was witnessed, and endorsed, by Klep's then Salesian boss.

Returning to Australia on 25 June 2004, Frank Klep was immediately arrested on the 1998 charges involving Pierre. The publicity about Klep's return from Samoa resulted in more victims contacting the police Sexual Offences and Child Abuse unit.

Embarrassed by the publicity about Father Klep, the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese wrote to Klep immediately after his arrival, stating that he was no longer authorised to function as a priest within the boundaries of the Melbourne diocese. (However, this prohibition related only to Melbourne; the Melbourne diocese had no power to ground a Salesian priest in other dioceses or other countries.)

At the Melbourne Magistrates Court in April 2005, Frank Klep was charged with 28 incidents of indecent assault [i.e., touching of genitals] and one of buggery [i.e., Pierre's allegation of digital penetration]. These alleged offences were against eight "Rupertswood" boys, mostly aged 14 to 15, in 1973. Klep's lawyers (hired by the Salesians) contested the charges fiercely but, after hearing evidence, the magistrate decided that there was certainly enough evidence for a jury to convict Klep and he therefore ordered Klep to stand trial.

Pleaded guilty

When the matter was scheduled for a higher court (the Melbourne County Court) later in 2005, Klep decided to plead guilty.

The guilty plea meant that the evidence would not need to be argued in court. The defence and prosecution submitted an "agreed statement of facts", describing certain incidents of indecent assault committed by Klep. These were "representative" charges -- just one or two incidents per victim, although some of the victims had allegedly been assaulted numerous times during several years.

As these court proceedings were getting under way, two more "Rupertswood" victims contacted police. In December 2005, Frank Klep finally pleaded guilty in the County Court to 13 incidents of indecent assault involving ten Rupertswood boys. All were boarders and all were assaulted in the infirmary.

Klep's barrister asked the court for a wholly-suspended sentence, particularly in view of the long delay in reporting the offences to the police. The publicity and the disgrace were a sufficient punishment, the defence claimed.

However, Judge Francis Hogan quoted a letter from the Salesians' Australian head, Father Ian Murdoch, dated 13 December 2005, which stated that the Salesians had not yet decided what to do about Klep's future as a priest. Murdoch failed to explain why Klep was still a priest in 2005 (11 years after the 1994 conviction) and why there was still a hesitation about removing him from the priesthood.

The prosecution sought an immediate jail sentence, pointing out that the boys were particularly vulnerable because they were ill and because, as boarders, they had no parents on hand to whom they could complain; and, furthermore, the delay in reporting was because the boys could not tell their devout parents about church sex abuse.

Off to jail

Early in December 2005, just before Klep was due to be sentenced, another "Rupertswood" victim contacted police, and his case was included in the sentencing, making 14 incidents involving eleven victims.

Sentencing Klep on 16 December 2005, Judge Francis Hogan said Klep had violated the innocence of his students. The judge told Klep: "You betrayed their trust in a most appalling way. Not only were you in a position of trust but you were also in a position of power."

The judge also said: "Offences of this kind are difficult to detect because they are committed against children who are scared and do not complain."

Judge Hogan sentenced Klep to a total of 36 months jail, with one year behind bars and the remainder possibly on parole. However, this sentence was later increased considerably by the Victorian Court of Appeal [see below in this article].

Judge Hogan ordered that Klep's name be placed permanently on the Register of Serious Sexual Offenders and that a sample of his saliva be taken for DNA testing. (Detectives took Klep's fingerprints in 1994.)

Klep's conviction was widely reported in radio and television bulletins and in newspapers.

Sentence increased

On 19 April 2006, the Director of Public Prosecutions for the State of Victoria appealed aginst Judge Hogan's sentence as being too lenient. Three Supreme Court judges heard submissions from the prosecution and the defence.

The defence counsel submitted that the sentence should be reduced because Klep had received an additional punishment - "losing his job". However, the defence counsel admitted that Klep had not been expelled from the Salesian order.

That is, according to the defence, Klep was still a priest. And this was four months after his December 2005 conviction -- and eleven years after his 1994 conviction.

The appeal judges increased Klep's sentence to a total of 5 years 10 months jail, with parole possible after 3 years 6 months.

How the church hurt the victims

Klep's victims submitted written impact statements to Judge Hogan before the sentencing in December 2005. Each victim described how Klep and the Salesians had adversely affected the victim's subsequent life. The impact was caused not only by Klep's actions but also by the church's culture of cover-up. The effects included: losing trust in other people; disrupting the boys' relationship with their families; becoming socially withdrawn; sexual identity problems; substance abuse; and destroying their relationship with their fellows in the Catholic community.

In her sentencing remarks, Judge Hogan emphasised that Klep had left his victims with profound and lasting psychological scars.

For many victims of Father Frank Klep and other Salesians, the anchor of their lives has been cut, leaving them spiritually and emotionally adrift. They consider it a high price to pay for the bad faith of Salesian priests and administrators.

One victim, Kerry (from the 1994 case), told reporters on 16 December 2005 that his mother, a church person all her life, has lost all trust in the Catholic Church, as have the rest of Kerry's family.

In court again in 2013

In early 2013, after some more of Klep's victims had contacted the police, Klep was investigated again by detectives from Task Force Sano in the Sex Crime Squad of the Victoria Police.

In the Melbourne Magistrates Court on 2 December 2013, Klep (then aged 70) pleaded guilty to 14 charges, including one count of rape, one count of attempted buggery and 12 charges of indecent assault.

[Victoria's criminal statutes have been revised since the 1970s. The definition of an offence, such as "rape" or "buggery", always depends upon the definition that was used in Victoria's criminal laws in the particular year in which each offence was committed.]

These 14 charges were not the only offences in the prosecutors' charge-sheets. When Klep pleaded guilty to these 14 charges involving the 14 victims, prosecutors withdrew another 22 charges against him.

After the December 2013 hearing, Klep was released on bail, until he would be called to face a judge in the Victorian County Court in 2014 for sentence proceedings.

Pre-sentence hearing, April 2014

On 3 and 8 April 2014, Frank Gerard Klep (aged 70) appeared in the Victorian County Court, where he pleaded guilty to 12 counts of indecent assault, buggery, attempted buggery and rape.

Judge Frank Gucciardo heard submissions from the prosecution and the defence about what sort of sentence should be opposed upon Klep regarding the additional victims.

And several victims each made an impact statement to the court, explaining how this church-abuse had affected them in their teenage and adult years. These victims told the court about the depression, substance abuse and failed relationships they have experienced in the years since Klep's crimes.

"Frank Klep, you left a lasting impression on me that will never be erased," one victim said. "I'm often ashamed of myself. How did I let this happen to me?"

One man spoke of the shame and helplessness he felt when Klep attended his grandmother's funeral after assaulting him. This victim told Klep: "I can never forgive you for having the gall to turn up and participate in the funeral. I can still see you standing there."

Another victim told the court he abused alcohol as a coping mechanism for the trauma. He said: "When I had dark days I would drink myself into unconsciousness." He recalled waking in cold sweats after dreaming he was back at the Sunbury school.

Klep preyed on many of the boys as they lay ill in the school's sick bay, which he operated. Several of the boys awoke during the night to find Klep had removed their pants and was interfering with their genitals. One boy was pinned to his bed and raped. Another boy was sexually abused by Klep when he used a pay phone outside his office to call home.

During this hearing, Klep read out a written apology for his crimes. But several victims were upset by this and they walked out of the courtroom, exercising a power they never had when Klep was their principal and teacher.

Defence barrister Julie Sutherland said the apology was evidence of Klep's true remorse for what she claimed were "stale and antique" offences.

But Judge Gucciardo said: "There's nothing 'stale or antique' about the hurt echoing in the court this morning."

Referring to the victims' walk-out, the judge said: "The human wreckage he [Klep] leaves behind him gets to file out of court" he said. "Where's their [the victims'] rehabilitation program?"

Jailed again, May 2014

Sentencing Klep on 26 May 2014, Judge Gucciardo said Klep knew that his position of authority as a priest and teacher would prevent his victims from coming forward. The boys who tried to tell their parents were not believed, the judge said.

In determining the length of Klep's new jail sentence, Judge Gucciardo took into account several factors regarding these 15 new victims: the number of victims this time; the seriousness of each crime in this batch; the length of the 2005 jail sentence; Klep's early guilty plea this time; his current age (turning 71 in October 2014), et cetera.

After making these calculations, Judge Gucciardo gave Klep a new jail sentence of 10 years and six months, with a non-parole period of six and a half years.

When the 2005 sentence and the 2014 sentence are added together, this means that Klep's maximum jail sentences will have totalled 15 years 6 months, with a total of 10 years 6 months behind bars.

Further victims

In Klep's three court appearances (in 1994, 2005 and 2014), a total of 25 victims helped the police to bring Klep to justice. But these were not Klep's only victims; these 25 were merely those who bothered to have a chat with the detectives. According to research by Broken Rites, most Catholic Church sex-abuse victims remain silent for many years (or perhaps forever).

Some of the victims in the above-mentioned court cases, from 1994 onwards, have told Broken Rites that they know of other Klep victims who, for family reasons or other reasons, have not contacted the police. Such a victim might remain silent because, perhaps, he has still not told his devout Catholic parents about being sexually abused by a Catholic priest. And some victims might have (unwisely) reported Klep's crime to the Salesians (that is, to Klep's mates), instead of to the police.

Victims said that they know of several "Rupertswood" former students who have committed suicide since leaving the school and who are believed to have been victims of sexual abuse.

More charges against Klep in 2017-2018

On 25 August 2017, Frank Gerard Klep appeared in Melbourne Magistrates' Court (via video-link from jail), charged with committing indecent assaults against some additional male students at Melbourne's Salesian College "Rupertswood" between 1976 and 1982. The new charges were laid by detectives from the Sano Taskforce in the Victoria Police. In the Melbourne County Court on 26 October 2018, Frank Gerard Klep (aged 75) appeared via video link from jail. He pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting three boys under 16 . He is due to reappear in court on 7 March 2019 for a plea hearing ahead of sentencing.