• By a Broken Rites researcher, article posted on 14 July 2016

A Marist Brother (Br. Michael Gerard Rush, now aged 76) has been charged in the Melbourne Magistrates Court in 2016 with child-sex offences allegedly committed, earlier in his teaching career, while he was working at Catholic schools in Victoria.

The case has already had a first mention in the Melbourne Magistrates Court, where the charges were officially filed. The case is due to have a second mention in court in later in 2016, when the court will fix a date for the next step in the judicial process.

The Magistrates Court number for this case is G11181310.

The police investigation was conducted by detectives in Taskforce Sano at the Victoria Police Crime Command in Spencer Street, Docklands, Melbourne.

Michael Gerard Rush (born on 5 February 1940) joined the Marist Brothers as a trainee in the late 1950s. His teaching career was spent in Marist Brothers schools from the early 1960s onwards.

In those times, the Marists had several schools for boys in Victoria, including:

• Assumption College, a boarding school at Kilmore;
• St Patrick's College, a boarding school in Sale;
• St Paul's College in Traralgon;
• A boarding school at Wangaratta.

The Marist Brothers in Australia were divided into two provinces. Brother Michael Gerard Rush belonged to the Melbourne-based province, which provided Marist Brothers for Catholic schools in Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory, plus a couple of schools in the Riverina area of New South Wales. The other province, based in Sydney, catered for NSW and Queensland.

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 14 July 2016)

The Catholic Church harboured a child-sex abuser, Marist Brother Gerard Joseph McNamara, for four decades until some of his victims brought him to justice. When the police charged McNamara with child-sex crimes, the Marists enthusiastically supported McNamara and ignored the victims. But Broken Rites supported the victims — and in 2004 McNamara finally pleaded guilty. In 2016, detectives from the Sexual Offences and Child-abuse Investigation Team (SOCIT) at Morwell (in eastern Victoria) are laying additional charges against McNamara.

How the cover-up ended

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

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

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

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

A Marist cheer squad at the court

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

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

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

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

The court case begins

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

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

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

The offences

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The culture of cover-up

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

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

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

Impact of the crimes

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

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

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

Pre-sentence submissions

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

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

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

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

Media coverage

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

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

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

McNamara's background

From statements made in court (during the pre-sentence proceedings), Broken Rites has compiled the following details about McNamara's background. McNamara (born 9 March 1938) became a trainee Marist Brother, straight from school, at age 18 in 1956. He belonged to the Melbourne-based province of the Marist Brothers, where he was originally known as "Brother Camillus" (not to be confused with another, older "Brother Camillus" in the Sydney province). McNamara taught in Marist schools at:

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

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

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

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

McNamara's barrister told the court that McNamara was currently (in 2005) receiving counselling from Catholic Church Melbourne psychologist Shane Wall. [The church has also hired Wall to supervise the counselling of church-abuse victims. These multiple roles are an obvious conflict of interest.]

Sentenced and disgraced

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

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

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

Radio interview

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

Thus, Gerard Joseph McNamara is totally disgraced and humiliated. And the public image of the Marist Brothers order is tarnished.

More Marist victims

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

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

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

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

Further complaints

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

It is also possible for church victims to find specialist police (dealing with sexual offences) in other Australian states.

More articles

Here are articles by Broken Rites about two more Marist Brothers:

• Br John Desmond Dyson at Assumption College (Kilmore, Victoria).
• Br Aubrey Tobin at St Paul's College (in Traralgon VIC) and Assumption College (in Kilmore VIC).

By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 14 July 2016

A Catholic priest in northern New South Wales, John Patrick Casey, 68, who is charged with child-sex offences allegedly committed against three young boys in the 1980s, has completed his preliminary hearings (with a Local Court magistrate) and has begun facing a jury trial (with a District Court judge) in mid-2016.

John Patrick Casey is a priest of the Lismore diocese, which takes in the NSW north coast from the Queensland border to Camden Haven, south of Port Macquarie. The city of Lismore is where the diocese has its headquarters.

As well as working in parishes, John Patrick Casey has also worked as a part-time police chaplain, with duties such as conducting funerals and other religious services for police officers.

Until 2015 (when he was charged by police), John Patrick Casey was a priest for the "Mary Help of Christians" parish at Sawtell, near Coffs Harbour. (After he was charged, the diocese announced that Father Casey is standing down from this position.)

The police investigation was conducted by detectives from the NSW Police's Richmond Local Area Command, which has headquarters in Lismore. The detectives were investigating information which had been received by Australia's national child-abuse Royal Commission.

The charges

In the Lismore District Court, Casey has been charged with 27 counts of sexual assault, indecent assault and rape of three boys who were under the age of 16 when the offences are said to have occurred in the 1980s. The incidents allegedly occurred at the priest's house in the Mallanganee parish, west of Casino and Lismore.

Casey has pleaded not guilty to all 27 charges relating to 18 individual alleged events.

The charges include sexual assault, act of indecency on a person under 16 years of age and homosexual intercourse with a male under 10.

Preliminary proceedings in 2015

At 9.00am on 9 July 2015, John Patrick Casey was arrested by detectives and was taken to Kempsey Police Station where he was charged with nine offences, allegedly committed against several boys. He was refused police bail and was placed behind bars.

The arrest of Father Casey on 9 July 2015 meant that he was absent from an event for which he had been scheduled for later that day — a commemorative service to mark the 20th anniversary of two police officers who were murdered while stationed at Kempsey in 1995. At the time of these murders, Father John Patrick Casey was a part-time chaplain for the NSW Police Mid-North Coast Local Area Command and he conducted the funeral for one of the officers.

On 10 July 2015, the day after his arrest, Casey was taken in custody to appear before a magistrate in Port Macquarie Local Court. This was an administrative procedure, for the case to be officially filed.

A lawyer for the priest told the court that Casey should be granted bail because he had no prior convictions and was not a flight risk.

But magistrate Thomas Hodgson refused bail. He said the accusations relate to "serious offences" and it was a "reasonably strong" prosecution case. He said a custodial sentence was likely if Casey is convicted.

The case came up for another mention in the Lismore Local Court on 6 October 2015. Bail was again refused but Casey succeeded in obtaining release on bail two days later (see below).

Bail application in the Supreme Court

On 8 October 2015, Casey's bail application was heard in the New South Wales Supreme Court. Casey appeared via video link from Cessnock Correctional Centre. In applying for bail for Casey, barrister Philip Bolton SC told the court that his client had been subjected to "real and actual threats" during his time in custody and this was having an impact on his mental health. He said Casey was being targeted because of the nature of the alleged offences and because he is a priest and his work has included being a part-time chaplain for the police force.

Mr Bolton told the court: "There is some risk he will get to a point where he won't be able to focus efficiently on the issues at trial and where he'll get to a point where he won't be able to stand trial."

Because of a backlog of cases awaiting trial in the court system, Mr Bolton said, it would take Casey's trial a while to reach the District Court.

"There are risks that he will go off the rails before then psychologically," Mr Bolton said.

Solicitor Sophia Mascia, representing the Director of Public Prosecutions, opposed the bail application, stating that that Casey's alleged offences were serious. She told the court that all inmates have a hard time in prison and that Casey should not be treated differently.

"A fear of custody is common to all people in custody," Ms Mascia said. "The fact that he's a priest doesn't mean his fear is any more grounded than anybody else's."

She also said there was potential for more complaints to be made against the accused priest.

Justice Peter Hidden granted bail for Casey. The judge said said he was satisfied the risks of granting the priest bail could be managed.

Casey was then released from Cessnock Correctional Centre. According to the bail conditions, he was effectively under house arrest at a relative's remote 40-acre property and could only leave the address if accompanied by one of three family members.

Casey was not allowed to have any contact with children under the age of 16, must surrender his passport, had to report daily to police and must not contact anyone connected with the crown case.

Casey's family offered up a $400,000 surety as part of his bail application to the New South Wales Supreme Court.

Court hearings

In the first steps, at the Lismore Local Court, the prosecutors submitted a brief of evidence, which was then made available to the defence lawyer.

In 2016 the Casey matter has moved from the Local Court magistrates to a judge in the Lismore District Court. Casey has pleaded not guilty. A trial began in the Lismore District Court in July 2016 (case number 2015/00201591). The hearing is expected to continue for several weeks. Casey remains on bail.

Some background

A church website says that Fr John Casey, of the Lismore diocese, was ordained on 2 February 1974.

Fr John Patrick Casey has ministered in a number of parishes in the Lismore diocese.

He has also spent time away from this diocese. A website of the Townsville diocese in north Queensland says that in 1978 Fr John Casey (on loan from the Lismore diocese) was appointed for one year to the parish of Ingham in the Townsville diocese. He returned to the Lismore diocese at the end of 1979.

In the late 1980s, the annual edition of the Australian Catholic Directory listed Fr John Casey as the Parish Priest in charge of the parish of "Our Lady of Perpetual Succour" in Mallanganee (situated to the west of the city of Lismore). Some sculptures by Father John Patrick Casey are still on display at this parish.

In the 1990s Fr John Patrick Casey was the parish priest at Camden Haven (Laurieton) in the south of the diocese. In the late 1990s, he had a senior role in the diocese, as one of the diocese's four Regional Vicars — he was the Regional Vicar for the diocese's south (the Macleay Region).

After being at Camden Haven (Laurieton) until 2004, Fr John Patrick Casey was appointed to his most recent parish at Sawtell, near Coffs Harbour.

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 1 July 2016)

A former Catholic priest, Robert Claffey, 72, is currently awaiting trial for allegedly assaulting nine children (eight boys and a girl) while he was a priest in western Victoria. The charges include 15 counts of indecent assault and one count of buggery. The Victorian County Court has been told that the number of charges could be increased because more alleged victims have contacted the Victoria Police. Later in 2016 the County Court will arrange a date for the next step in the judicial process.

From 1970 to 1992,  Father Robert Claffey worked in the Ballarat Diocese (which covers all of western Victoria) under the supervision of Bishop Ronald Mulkearns. Bishop Mulkearns (born in 1930) was the bishop of Ballarat from 1971 to 1997. Ballarat is the town where western Victoria's bishop is located.

Claffey's charges relate to various locations in western Victoria, including Ballarat, Warrnambool, Apollo Bay and Portland, between 1970 and 1992. He has pleaded not guilty. The most recent incident involved a child in Portland between 1991 and 1992.

How the court case began

During a preliminary procedure in the Geelong Magistrates Court on 12 December 2014, the court was told that one of the alleged assaults involved Father Claffey going to a boy’s house and indecently assaulting him during the 1980s. Police told the court that the boy allegedly reported the assault to his father, who then allegedly reported it to Bishop Mulkearns. Claffey was then moved from his parish at Wendouree (a suburb of Ballarat) and was later apppointed to another parish [in a different part of the diocese], police said.

The December 2014 hearing was told that ex-Bishop Mulkearns had initially agreed to give a statement to police in the investigation against ex-priest Claffey, but church lawyers later told police that Mulkearns did not wish to give evidence, because of ill-health. Ex-Bishop Mulkearns then failed to attend a medical assessment that was organised to determine whether he was indeed too ill to take the witness stand, the court was told.

The magistrate told the December 2014 hearing he was satisfied that ex-bishop Mulkearns had refused to provide a statement. He granted the prosecution’s application to have him undergo compulsory questioning in court. After the December 2014 hearing, the case was adjourned until 2015.

The bishop in court, July 2015

Claffey's preliminary proceedings resumed in mid-2015 when ex-Bishop Mulkearns (now living near Victoria's Great Ocean Road) was forced to give evidence in court. The church authorities hired a Queen's Counsel to advise Mulkearns about how to handle his appearance in court.

In the witness box on 29 July 2015, Bishop Mulkearns was questioned by the crown prosecutor. Mulkearns agreed that Claffey had been one of his priests.

But on other questions, Mulkearns was blank. For question after question, his answer was "I cannot recall".

Prosecutor Peter Rose QC asked Bishop Mulkearns whether a parishioner from Wendouree (a suburb of the city of Ballarat), came to him to complain about Mr Claffey.

“I don’t recall that,” Bishop Mulkearns said.

Mr Rose produced a note on stationery from the Bishop’s House in Ballarat and signed by Bishop Mulkearns. The note stated that a parishioner went to see the bishop on July 7, 1989, and complained that Father Claffey had made sexual advances to his son and fondled him. The note stated that Bishop Mulkearns asked Father Claffey to see him that afternoon and “he [Claffey] admitted that there had been some improper behaviour”. Bishop Mulkearns wrote that Father Claffey agreed to his suggestion that he receive counselling and that would leave this parish.

Mr Rose asked Bishop Mulkearns what recollection he had of Father Claffey outside of the note. “I remember he had been misbehaving … in a sexual way,” Bishop Mulkearns said.

After the examination of Bishop Mulkearns, Claffey's lawyer asked that the case be sent straight to the Victorian County Court [where a trial could be heard by a judge]. The magistrate then scheduled the case for the Victorian County Court, where a judge would begin by holding a preliminary procedure (called a directions hearing). If Claffey confirms his "Not Guilty" plea at the County Court, a jury trial would be scheduled for a later date. Meanwhile, Robert Claffey was granted bail.

Next steps in the court process

On 28 September 2015, the Claffey case had a mention in the Victorian County Court. The court agreed to postpone the case until 2016 because of concerns that publicity about Australia's national Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse could adversely affect a jury. The Royal Commission is investigating the alleged concealing of clergy sexual abuse in the Ballarat Catholic diocese.

During 2016, the County Court will hold a brief "directions hearing" to enable the prosecutor and the defence to make submissions about procedures. Robert Claffey would be required then to confirm his plea of not guilty, as this kind of plea would necessitate a jury trial.

Police investigation continues

While the Claffey case is awaiting its hearing in the County Court, the police will continue their inquiries.

The police investigator in the Claffey case has been Sergeant Tim Kennedy, who is based now at Melbourne's Footscray police station.

Some background about Father Robert Claffey

Father Bob Claffey ministered in the 1970s at Terang (St Thomas's parish), Warrnambool (St Joseph's) and Apollo Bay (Our Lady Star of the Sea parish). During the 1980s, he was in charge of the Wendouree parish (Our Lady Help of Christians), situated in the city of Ballarat, with a junior priest as his assistant. However, Father Claffey was listed in the 1990 Australian Catholic directory as being "on leave" (this directory is a listing of all the current priests in Australia, at the time of publication).

In 1991 (according to the annual directory) Father Claffey was sent as an assistant priest to Portland (All Saints parish). About August 1992, when he was aged about 49, Claffey was no longer at the Portland parish. He was listed in the annual Australian directory in 1994 as being "on leave". Eventually he ceased being included in the list of Australian priests in the annual directory.

For a previous court case involving Father Robert Claffey (in 1998), click HERE.

Some background about Bishop Ronald Mulkearns

Bishop Ronald Mulkeams, originally from Melbourne, was appointed as co-adjutor Bishop of Ballarat on 5 September 1968 (with right of succession) and acted as the parish priest of St Alipius's in East Ballarat, living in the presbytery adjoining the St Alipius church and the parish primary school. When Ballarat's Bishop James O'Collins retired on 1 May 1971, Mulkeams moved to the Cathedral parish and to the Bishop's residence.

From 1 May 1971, Bishop Mulkeams was fully responsible for all clergy appointments and transfers in the Ballarat diocese, including the paedophile Monsignor John Day and Father Gerald Ridsdale and various other paedophile priests.

Bishop Mulkearns has previously admitted mishandling cases of sexual abuse while in charge at Ballarat. It has been alleged, at Australia's national the child-abuse Royal Commission, that he routinely shuffled priests around the diocese after complaints were made about them. It has also been alleged that Bishop Mulkearns destroyed documents relating to sex-abuse matters.

• By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 19 September 2017)

Broken Rites research has discovered how an Australian Catholic leader (Bishop William Brennan) covered up allegations of clergy sex-abuse in his diocese. Police charged one of Brennan's priests (Father Bernard Connell) with allegedly abusing two boys in different parishes but Bishop Brennan hired an expert legal team to defeat the charges. One of these victims then asked Bishop Brennan for help but the bishop shunned him. The bishop's main aim was protecting the church's holy image, instead of protecting children.

The accused priest, Father Bernard M. Connell, belonged to the Wagga Wagga diocese in southern New South Wales. This diocese extends southward to Albury on the Victorian border. This is one of the eleven dioceses into which the state of New South Wales is divided. Bishop Brennan was in charge of the Wagga Wagga diocese from 1983 to 2002.

Bernie Connell, born in 1938, came from a large family in Cootamundra, southern NSW. He attended school at De La Salle Brothers in Cootamundra until 1951 and then completed his schooling at St Patrick’s College in Goulburn. He began training for the priesthood in 1957. He was ordained as a priest in 1983.

Bishop Brennan, too, was born in 1938. He started studying for the priesthood in Sydney but did some of his studies in Rome. Father Connell always belonged to the Wagga Wagga diocese, whereas Brennan started in another diocese and moved to Wagga Wagga to become its bishop.

Broken Rites has searched the annual editions of the printed Australian Catholic Directory to compile a table of Father Bernie Connell's parishes. From early 1964 to late 1991, his parish postings included:

• parishes at Junee and Albury in the 1960s;
• South Wagga Wagga parish in the early 1970s;
• working as a chaplain at army bases in Puckapunyal (Victoria) and Holdsworthy (NSW) in the 1970s;
• Lockhart parish in 1978;
• Albury and Tocumwal parishes in the 1980s; and
• Leeton parish in 1990-91.

The 1985 edition of the printed Australian Catholic Directory listed Fr Bernard Connell as the secretary of the Diocesan Council of Priests in the Wagga Wagga diocese.

In 1992, Bishop Brennan arranged for Father Connell to take leave from the Wagga Wagga diocese, so that he could work as a priest in the tiny Pacific nation of Kiribati (situated between Nauru and the Gilbert Islands). For legal reasons, it suited Bishop Brennan to have Connell absent from Australia. Father Connell then began playing a significant role in the Kiribati diocese. However, officially, he still belonged to the Wagga Wagga diocese. In 1992, the Australian Catholic Directory listed him, in the Wagga Wagga section, as "on leave/overseas", with his mailing address given as "care of" the Wagga Wagga diocese office.

In November 1993, Broken Rites victim support group was contacted by a former altar boy (let us refer to him as "Trevor", born in 1954), who says he encountered Father Connell in 1964, aged ten.

In 1993, Trevor gave certain information to detectives in the NSW Police. An investigation was conducted by the Child Protection Investigation Team in Sydney. Two years later, in October 1995, detectives arrested Connell when he was re-visiting Australia on holidays. The detectives charged Connell with three offences against "Trevor", comprising one  incident of sodomy and two incidents of indecent touching of the child. These charges, together with Father Connell's name, were reported in the Wagga Wagga Daily Advertiser newspaper on 19 October 1995.

Court proceedings

In November 1995, Connell appeared before a magistrate in a NSW Local Court, where the charges were officially filed. The magistrate committed Connell to stand trial in the NSW District Court.  The charges were reported in media outlets in southern NSW on 19 November 1995, including the Wagga Wagga Daily Advertiser, ABC Radio Wagga Wagga and Radio 2AY Albury. These news reports named the defendant as Fr Bernard Connell.

Following this news coverage, the detectives received information from another alleged victim (Broken Rites will refer to him as "Kraig"), who encountered Connell in a different parish.

On 15 May 1997, Connell (then aged 59) appeared in Albury District Court, charged with sexual offences against "Trevor" and "Kraig". These two complainants did not know each other. The District Court decided to hear these two cases separately, with a different jury for each. Neither jury would know about that there were two complainants, and therefore each jury would presume that Connell had allegedly abused only one boy.

Both cases were heard by Judge Dent. This judge happened to be a Catholic — a  fact  which suited the church authorities.

Father Connell came to court dressed in a way which identified him as a priest. 

In both cases, he pleaded Not Guilty.

The church's well-resourced legal team, representing Connell, seemed to be much better prepared than the public prosecutor who appeared for each of two alleged victims.

Court case no. 1

Kraig's case was heard first. Connell pleaded not guilty to indecent assault of Kraig, aged in his mid-teens, when Connell visited this boy's house in a rural district north of Wagga Wagga

A jury was empanelled but, because the two cases were being heard separately, the jury was not told about the other alleged victim ("Trevor" in Case no.2).

Kraig's police statement, typed by police and signed by Kraig, stated that Connell's home-visit home-visit was in 1967 but Connell's defence disputed this date, saying that the visit was in 1965.

The complainant said that, about a week after the alleged offence, he told his girlfriend (who later became his wife) and also his mother. He said he also told the Reverend Francis Patrick Carroll, who had long been a senior official the Wagga Wagga diocese, eventually becoming the bishop.

Kraig said that his alleged conversation with Carroll took place at a family barbeque, and that Kraig's future wife overheard the conversation. Kraig’s wife would have confirmed this in court but the prosecutor neglected to call her to give evidence. Police believe that the prosecutor (a Catholic) fumbled the prosecution case.

The jury was not told that in 1992 the Wagga Wagga diocese arranged for Connell to work overseas after there had been complaints about abuse of others boys in his parishes.

Bishop Francis Carroll, who was the Archbishop of Canberra-Goulburn in 1997, gave evidence in court, denying that "Kraig" had told him about the Connell incident. Carroll claimed that, "if" he had known about the offence, he "would have" done something about it. The defence lawyer, in his closing address, referred to Carroll’s denial several (implying that a bishop would speak truthfully).

On the second day of the trial, while the defence was into its closing address, Judge Dent called for a short break to allow the jury to freshen up. During this break, the jury indicated that it wished to terminate the two-day trial. The jury gave Father Connell the benefit of the doubt and returned a “not guilty” verdict.

Court case no. 2

In Trevor's case, Connell was charged with sexually assaulting 10-year-old Trevor in a different parish in 1964. Trevor’s signed statement alleged one incident of sodomy and two of indecent assault. 

However, early in the proceedings, Judge Dent granted Father Connell a permanent stay in Trevor's case (that is, the judge stopped Trevor's case permanently).

Further complaints from the past

After his court cases, Bernard Connell re-settled in New South Wales, living at a private address.

In the printed edition of the Australian Catholic Directory in 2002, the Wagga Wagga diocese included "Rev. Bernard Connell, retired" in a list of Wagga Wagga diocese's "supplementary priests" (that is, priests who are not working full-time in a parish). Normally, supplementary or retired priests are available to conduct weddings or funerals or to do Mass (or other locum work) for another priest who is ill or on leave, perhaps in another diocese. The 2002 edition gave Father Connell's residential address as being in Lagoon Street, Ettalong (on the coast, just north of Sydney).

When searching the internet in 2001 and 2002, Broken Rites found that Connell was still referring to himself as "Father Bernie". In an internet posting on 17 November 2001, he gave his name as "Rev. Fr. Bernard. M Connell", of Ettalong Beach. He wrote:

"It is six AM Sunday morning and as I am not saying Mass till evening I am just surfing the net, the sea is a wee bit too cold for a swim..."

In another post on 12 September 2001, Connell wrote: "Now I am retired, I have time to look at how other priests are expressing the Gospel..."

Meanwhile, Kraig and Trevor were not the only young persons who made allegations against Father Connell concerning his earlier career. But some of the other complaints merely went to the church authorities, and the church did not arrange for these complainants to contact the police. After Judge Dent's court hearings, the Catholic Church’s statewide complaints authority for New South Wales [not just the Wagga Wagga diocese] considered some of these complaints against Connell and the possible legal consequences if any of these complainants ever took action against the church. As a result, Bishop Brennan of Wagga Wagga was forced (reluctantly) by the church's statewide authority to officially remove Connell from working as a priest in the Wagga Wagga diocese.

The impact on a victim

Trevor has told Broken Rites that he feels hurt not only by the alleged abuse but also by the church's cover-up. He said:

"When the abuse first occurred, I had to remain silent about it. Priests were on a pedestal of holiness, and I knew that my parents would not believe me if I told them about the abuse. I expected that people would be angry with me for saying negative things (or 'telling lies') about the clergy. Therefore, there was nobody for me to tell. I was forced to remain silent.

"The church's cover-up, as much as the original incidents, had a negative impact on my life. It undermined my relationship with my family, including the wider family of the church and the community. I became less trusting and less conformist. I eventually got into addictions. This development messed up my adult life.

"Eventually, in the early 1990s, I went to counselling for the addictions and, during this counsellng, I revealed for the first time about how I had suffered sexual abuse when I was a ten-year-old altar-boy. The counsellor was horrified and realised that I had been forced to keep this secret for too long. I was later interviewed at a rape crisis centre and I heard about Broken Rites. So in late 1993, I decided to ring Broken Rites as part of my therapy."

The bishop shuns the victim

Trevor said that, after the failure of his court case in 1997, he phoned Bishop Brennan, seeking help. Trevor says:

"All I wanted to know from the bishop was what I could do about Connell and maybe get me some help dealing with the problems that had been caused to my life.

"But all I could get out of Bishop Brennan was, "Well what the heck do you think I can do"? This was said with real sarcasm.

"And that was about the end of my experience with the Catholic church."

Trevor still wants the Catholic Church authorities to apologise to him for the way he was re-victimised by Bishop William Brennan.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 19 September 2017

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. In 2017, Klep (now in jail and aged 74) is facing additional charges in a fourth court case in the Melbourne Magistrates Court — case number H11032459. The new charges have been laid by detectives from the Sano Taskforce in the Victoria Police.

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 statements at what is now called the police Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (SOCA) 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

On 25 August 2017, Frank Gerard Klep (aged 74) appeared in Melbourne Magistrates' Court (via video-link from jail), charged with committing indecent assaults against four male students at Melbourne's Salesian College "Rupertswood" during the 1970s and 1980s. The case number in the Magistrates Court is H11032459.The new charges have been laid by detectives from the Sano Taskforce in the Victoria Police. The magistrate ordered Klep to appear again on a future date for a committal hearing, at which the magistrate will decide whether Klep should undergo a trial by a judge in a higher court, the Victorian County Court. If there is to be a trial, it could be held in 2018.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 17 September 2017

This Broken Rites article reveals how Catholic Church authorities covered up the child-sex crimes of an Australian priest, Father Paul David Ryan, during his career in the state of Victoria (and also during seven visits by Ryan to the United States). This enabled Ryan to endanger more children in more parishes in TWO countries. Eventually, helped by Broken Rites, some victims began reporting Ryan to the Victoria Police, resulting in a jail sentence for Ryan in 2006. Now, in 2017, Victoria Police are ready to file additional charges against Paul David Ryan in the Melbourne Magistrates Court (case number H12143748), relating to more boys during his priestly career in Victoria.

The remainder of this Broken Rites article gives some background about Paul David Ryan's career. In one of Ryan's court appearances in Victoria (in 2006), Broken Rites examined the large prosecution file. This article is based on that research, plus numerous other sources.

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

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

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

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

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

What the priest did

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

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

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

The inside story of this priest

When Broken Rites began researching church-related sexual abuse in 1993, it soon began hearing mentions of Father Paul David Ryan in the Diocese of Ballarat. This diocese covers the western half of the state of Victoria.

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

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

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

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

Trainee priest, Melbourne 1972-6

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

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

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

Sex in the seminary, 1972-6

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

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

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

The American solution, 1977

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Offences in the U.S., 1979

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Sex education” classes, 1980-5

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

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

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

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

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

Promoted, 1989

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overseas again, 1991

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

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

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

Another parish, 1992

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

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

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

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

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

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

More travels, 1993

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Counselling for U.S. victims, 1995

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

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

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

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

More victims

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

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

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

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

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

A suicidal victim

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

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

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

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

This priest is brought to justice

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One victim's story

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The victim who ended up dying by suicide

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

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

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

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

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

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

A lonely death

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Two families meet

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

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

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

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

Final words from a grieving mother

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

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

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

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

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

Mrs Watson later posted this statement to Ryan in prison.

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

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

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

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 16 September 2017

According to Broken Rites research, the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese has been forced to admit that Father Anthony (Tony) Bongiorno committed sexual crimes against children during his 30 years working in Melbourne parishes. Anthony Bongiorno began training for the priesthood about 1960, aged 25, in the same trainee group as George Pell and Denis Hart, both of whom eventually became archbishops of Melbourne. In 1994, Pell (then an auxiliary bishop in Melbourne) officiated at a requiem mass for Bongiorno's brother Salvatore ("Sam"). Anthony Bongiorno's child-sex crimes were covered up until some were exposed in the mid-1990s. The total number of Father Bongiorno's victims is unknown. For example, in 1980, a woman (named Maria James) learned that her son (aged 11) was a Bongiorno victim but this woman was murdered before she could expose Bongiorno about her son's abuse.

The child-sex crimes

A Melbourne man, "Rex", has been awarded compensation from the Victorian Government's Crimes Compensation Tribunal for sexual crimes committed upon him by Father Bongiorno. The tribunal, in 1997, accepted evidence that Father Bongiorno had indecently assaulted the boy repeatedly at St Ambrose's parish in Sydney Road, Brunswick beginning in 1981-82. The compensation was for the damage that this church-related abuse caused to the victim's adolescent development.

Bongiorno has also been investigated by the commissioner on sexual abuse for on the Melbourne Catholic Archdiocese, Peter O'Callaghan QC. Mr O'Callaghan accepted that Bongiorno had committed child-sex abuse while at Brunswick.

Rex's story

Acccording to legal depositions, Rex testified that in 1981 Father Tony Bongiorno invited him to stay overnight at the Brunswick presbytery, where he shared the priest's bed. Bongiorno touched the boy's genitals in the bedroom and again later while showering with the boy. This genital touching continued regularly for years.

In 1985, Rex told a social worker about Bongiorno's sexual abuse.

When the Catholic diocesan office heard the complaint, it asked another priest (who was a close friend of Bongiorno from seminary days) to "investigate". Bongiorno denied the allegation and the "investigator" reported this orally to the archdiocese, which dropped the matter.

The Children's Court made an order banning Rex from Bongiorno's presbytery but Bongiorno continued to have Rex living at the presbytery, on and off, often sleeping in the priest's bed.

Bongiorno provided Rex with food, presents (clothes and watches) and money (amounting to about $3,000).

Three complainants

In 1995, aged 25, Rex realised that his adolescent development had been damaged. He contacted police who soon found two more alleged victims of Bongiorno.

At the Melbourne Magistrates Court in February 1996, police charged Bongiorno (then aged 61) with multiple counts of indecent assault (genital touching) involving three boys, "Rex" (when aged 11 onwards), "Fred" (when aged 8) and "Adam" (when aged 12) between 1981 and 1987. There was also one charge of sexual penetration (oral sex) involving Fred. Bongiorno pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Magistrate Cotterell committed him for trial, commenting that the witnesses appeared to be credible and that there was indeed enough evidence for a jury to convict him. As people left the courtroom, the vicar-general of the Melbourne archdiocese (Monsignor Gerald Cudmore) was at the rear of the courtroom, handing out a statement inviting victims of church sexual-abuse to contact the archdiocese.

In August 1996, at the Melbourne County Court, the prosecution presented Bongiorno for trial regarding Rex and Fred. Rex and Fred are not connected but they gave similar evidence.

A Broken Rites researcher was present in court, taking notes about the proceedings.

Two other priests lived at Bongiorno's presbytery. Father Gordon Gebbie, who lived at the presbytery in 1981-2, testified in court that he saw Rex in Bongiorno's bedroom and bathroom. [However, Gebbie neglected to report this matter to the child-protection authorities.]

From time to time, various laypersons also lived in the presbytery, paying rent. Three laypersons testified that they saw Rex, or at other times Fred, in Bongiorno's bed. Witnesses also said they knew that Bongiorno was showering with Rex and later with Fred. One witness, Anne, said she and others complained to the diocesan headquarters about this in 1993.

Fred's story

Fred, an altar boy, said that one Sunday in 1983, he soiled his pants. After Mass, Bongiorno took him to the presbytery and showered him. He said Bongiorno then touched the boy's genitals on the bed and performed oral sex on the boy. Fred said he was upset and struggling; he tried to phone his mother to get her to collect him but Bongiorno hung up the phone. Fred did not tell his mother about the assault because he was too ashamed. Fred said Bongiorno repeated the assault on later occasions in 1983-7 and tried to get Fred to perform oral sex on the priest. Fred said Bongiorno used to give him money.

The court was told that both Rex and Fred had immigrant parents and both were having trouble with the parents. This made the boys vulnerable to Bongiorno.

An old Spanish custom

Three witnesses (Andrew, Anne and Greg) said they had heard Bongiorno referring (approvingly), on several occasions, to "the old Spanish custom where the altar boy sleeps with the parish priest".

On one of these occasions, Bongiorno was sitting in a chair with Fred on his knee.

While Bongiorno was in the witness box, the prosecution asked him: "Well, is it really an old Spanish custom?"

Bongiorno replied "Yes".

In response to Judge Crossley, Bongiorno said: "The Catholic Church in Spain, Italy and the Philippines is quite different from in Australia. As students for the priesthood we were often amazed at these differences and we often used to refer to this or that old Spanish custom."

Separate trials

The prosecution wanted the cases of Rex and Fred heard by one jury, so that the jury would know that there was more than one complainant. However, the church's lawyer sought to have a separate jury for each boy. Judge Crossley granted this request. Therefore, each jury was told about only one boy. And each jury thought that there was only one complainant and that his evidence was "uncorroborated". (In such cases, a jury will assume that "he can’t be guilty or he would have done it to more than one victim".)

Because these alleged assaults were "historical" (that is, they occurred in the past), the judge warned each jury to be cautious about returning a guilty verdict. The Bongiorno juries followed the judge's advice.

Therefore, the first jury (regarding Rex) acquitted Bongiorno and so did the second jury (regarding Fred). The second jury was shocked when it learned, after leaving the courtroom, that there had been a previous victim. To save expense, the Director of Public Prosecutions cancelled the third trial (regarding Adam).

Justice at last

However, Bongiorno's victims were able to seek justice through the Victorian Government's Crimes Compensation Tribunal. The Tribunal's decision, accepting that Bongiorno had committed child-sex crimes, was reported in the Melbourne Age, 8 November 1997. (About a year after this, this system of taxpayer-funded compensation was curtailed by Victoria's Liberal state government; but Victorian victims can still claim compensation from the church.)

The Bongiorno victims also were able to obtain justice through the Melbourne archdiocesan sex-abuse commissioner, Peter O'Callaghan QC.

After all this adverse publicity, the Melbourne archdiocese kept Bongiorno "on leave", instead of having him return to his parish.

Bongiorno died on 15 February 2002. A funeral service was held at the church of St Peter and St Paul, South Melbourne, attended by a number of priests. The congregation was told that Father Graham Redfern had a leading role in arranging the funeral service.

Bongiorno's parishes

By combing through the annual Australian Catholic Directories, Broken Rites has compiled a list of Bongiorno's parish appointments in Melbourne:

• Maidstone (Our Lady of Perpetual Help parish, Footscray West), late 1960s;
• Brunswick West (St Joseph's parish), early 1970s;
• Fawkner (St Mark's parish), mid 1970s;
• Thornbury (St Mary's parish), late 1970s to 1980;
• Reservoir North parish, 1981;
• Brunswick (St Ambrose's parish, 287 Sydney Road), May 1981 to 1995.

Murder investigation

In 1980, a woman named Maria James (aged 38) was murdered (by stabbing) in Father Bongiorno's Thornbury parish. The Victoria Police homicide squad investigated but was unable to solve the murder.

In 2012 (32 years after Maria's murder), Senior Sergeant Ron Iddles obtained some new evidence from Maria's youngest son Adam, who was 11 when his mother was murdered. Adam James told Sgt Iddles that when he was a young boy in the Thornbury parish, he was sexually abused by Father Bongiorno. In his sworn statement, Adam James, who is intellectually impaired, said he told his mother about the sexual abuse just days before his mother was murdered and that his mother intended confronting Father Bongiorno about the sexual abuse.

Sergeant Iddles decided to obtain the DNA of the late Father Bongiorno, so that this could be compared with DNA which the killer of Maria James left at the murder scene in 1980. However, Bongirono's sister refused to help police to obtain the Bongiorno DNA. If she had agreed, her DNA might have helped to clear or implicate her brother, according to Sgt Iddles.

Sgt Iddles considered the abuse of Adam James, along with other information (from a new witness who claimed he saw Father Bongiorno with blood on him on the day of the murder), was enough to warrant exhuming the priest’s body to get his DNA. Therefore, in 2012, Sergeant Iddles asked Victoria's coroner for permission to dig up the body of Father Anthony Bongiorno to obtain his DNA. The coroner, however, refused because (he said) there was not sufficient evidence for making such an order.

Sgt Iddles left the Homicide Squad in 2014 to become secretary of Victoria's police union.

Cold-case squad detectives issued a press release in 2015 to say they were no longer investigating Father Anthony Bongiorno regarding the Maria James murder.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 19 September 2017

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

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

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

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

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

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

The priest and the prostitute

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

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

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

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

Complaints to the police

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

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

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

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

Church insiders launch a cover-up

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The monsignor escapes

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

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

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

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

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

The detective is punished

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

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

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

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

The monsignor is rewarded

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

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

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

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

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

The bishop still evasive in 1993

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

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

Mildura parish admits that Broken Rites is right

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

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

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

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

Further allegations arise

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

Callers also gave us evidence of other corrupt practices involving Monsignor Day, Sergeant Barrett and a prominent layman who was active in Day's parish. John Howden describes Day, Barritt and this layman as "the great triumvirate" in Mildura’s Catholic community.

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

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

A new bishop admits that Broken Rites is right

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

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

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

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

Footnote

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

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

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

Australia's Catholic Church hierarchy received a complaint in 2002 that a trainee priest (George Pell) had sexually abused a twelve-year-old altar boy (named Phil) in 1961-1962 at a holiday camp for boys on Phillip Island, south-east of Melbourne. According to a church document, Phil has alleged that, on several occasions, the trainee priest George (then about 20) thrust his hand down the inside of Phil's pants and got "a good handful" of the boy's penis and testicles; and, on other occasions, George allegedly tried to guide the boy's hand into the front of George Pell's pants. By the year 2000, when Phil was aged 50, he realised (from television news footage) that the trainee priest George had risen to become an Archbishop. Phil was shocked — "he did not think it right that someone who had behaved indecently towards children should lead the church," the church document says. So, beginning in 2000, Phil tried to alert the church authorities. Phil emphasised that he was not seeking compensation. And he was not reporting this matter to the police (therefore there is no police investigation into Phil's complaint). Rather, Phil was concerned about the safety of children in the church's care; and he merely wanted the church authorities to be aware of the offences that were allegedly committed upon him (Phil) at the altar boys' camp. In 2002, the hierarchy paid a senior barrister, Mr Alex Southwell QC, to examine (and report on) Phil's complaint. Archbishop George Pell (who was indeed at the altar boys' camp) denied committing any abuse. Mr Southwell's report concluded that the former altar boy "appeared to speak honestly from an actual recollection". Mr Southwell said he was not persuaded that the former altar boy was a liar as alleged by Pell.

The following information is taken from Mr Southwell's report, which appeared for a while (in 2002) on the church's official website.

Mr Southwell's report says that, each January in the early 1960s, this camp on Phillip Island was attended by more than 40 boys from Melbourne's Braybrook parish. [This parish, nowadays known as the Maidstone-Braybrook parish, was in a low socio-economic area in Melbourne's west.] In the early 1960s, George Pell (then aged about 20) was among a group of trainee priests from the church's Melbourne seminary who attended the camp each year to spend time with the boys.

Here is Mr Southwell's summary of the allegations by the former altar boy:

'At the camp, during some form of activity in a tent (such as pillow fighting or wrestling), the respondent [George Pell], while facing the complainant, put his hand down the inside of the complainant's pants and got "a good handful" of his penis and testicles. There were other altar boys in the tent at the time, who were participating in the other playful activities. The complainant was shocked, since before that incident he had regarded the respondent as "a fun person, a gentle person, a kind person, he was a terrific bloke". On each of the few occasions this occurred, the complainant pulled the respondent's hand away.

'On two occasions, in a tent, the respondent [George Pell] took the complainant's hand, and guided it down the front of and inside the respondent's pants; the complainant pulled his hand away without having touched the respondent's genitals.

'In another incident, which "is not as clear as the other episodes", they were in the water, jumping the waves, when from one side the respondent [George Pell] put his hand down and inside the complainant's bathers and touched his genitals.

'On another occasion, during a walk away from the camp at night, they were walking in Indian file when the respondent [George Pell] grabbed the complainant from behind and put his hand down and inside of the complainant's pants.'

The complainant [who is referred to as "C" in Mr Southwell's report] alleged that he was not the only boy at the camp who was abused by George Pell. C alleged that he witnessed a friend of his (referred to as "A") being molested by "big George". C told George to "fuck off". A and C later protested by lighting a glass fire near the camp. A died in 1985, and therefore he could not be questioned by the Southwell inquiry.

Another former altar boy (labelled as "H") told Mr Southwell that, at the Phillip Island camp, he was warned by both C and A to stay away from Big George.

Beginning in his teens, C's life was disrupted. He developed a problem with alcohol and gambling. In his early twenties he got into trouble with the law, serving time in jail for alcohol-related offences. He eventually overcame those problems and became a respectable citizen, acting as a volunteer in community groups to help vulnerable people who are in need.

In about 1975 (aged about 25), C told his then wife about having been molested by the trainee priest George. Mrs C gave evidence to the Southwell inquiry confirming this. Eventually C also told his children about the abuse.

In 2000, when C recognised Archbishop George Pell as the former trainee priest, C decided that the church should be informed about this. So, in 2000 he told his local parish priest [a prominent figure in Melbourne] about the alleged sexual abuse. Two years later, C decided to submit his complaint to the church's National Committee for Professional Standards. At first, the NCPS procrastinated in handling this complaint but eventually, fearing adverse publicity, the NCPS took the precaution of paying Mr Alec Southwell QC to examine, and report on, the allegation. The church designed its proposed process to require a very high standard of proof (much higher than the church usually requires when assessing a complaint about clergy sex abuse).

It is not known how much the Catholic Church authorities paid Mr Southwell, in total, for doing this job for them but members of the legal profession know how much a QC would be paid per day.

In his final report, Mr Southwell noted that "I must bear in mind that serious allegations are involved, and that an adverse finding [against Archbishop Pell] would in all probability have grave, indeed devastating, consequences for the respondent [Archbishop Pell]."

Mr Southwell said that criticisms of the complainant by Archbishop Pell's lawyer "do not persuade me that he [the complainant] is a liar."

"I did not form a positively adverse view of him [the complainant] as a witness."

Mr Southwell returned a balanced finding. Evidently, it was one man's word against another man's word. The Southwell report contains no mention of George Pell being exonerated.

Mr Southwell's report did not reveal the name of the former altar boy but a book by Australian author David Marr (entitled The Prince: Faith, Abuse and George Pell) gives the altar boy's name as Phil.

Southwell Report: Main points

On 30 September 2002, Mr Alex Southwell Q.C. began holding an inquiry, on behalf of the Catholic Church authorities, behind closed doors, in a conference room in Melbourne. Members of the public and the media were excluded.

Here are main points of the Southwell report, taken from the church website in October 2002 while the document was (temporarily) on that website:-

REPORT OF AN INQUIRY INTO AN ALLEGATION OF SEXUAL ABUSE AGAINST ARCHBISHOP GEORGE PELL

Commissioner: The Honourable A.J. Southwell Q.C.

INTRODUCTION

The National Committee for Professional Standards (N.C.P.S.) is a body set up by the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference to receive inter alia, complaints of sexual abuse by Catholic priests. I have been appointed as Commissioner by Archbishop Phillip Wilson and Brother Michael Hill (Chairpersons of N.C.P.S. - "the appointors") to inquire into an allegation by "C" ("the complainant") that at Phillip Island, in 1961, he was on several occasions sexually abused by George Pell, now the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney ("the respondent").

It is as well to set out part of para 2 of the Terms of Reference which requires me to "enquire into and report upon the Complaint in accordance with the following Terms of Reference: The Commissioner shall make such enquiries and hold such hearings as he considers are necessary and appropriate in order for him to be satisfied as to whether or not the complaint has been established ...

In the event a hearing was conducted on 30 September, 1, 2, 3 and 4 October 2002. . .

Mr. Sher Q.C. appeared for the respondent ... and Mr. M. Tovey Q.C. for the complainant...

Early in the hearing it became apparent that there was considerable doubt whether the alleged molestation of the complainant took place at a camp in 1961 or 1962. As will be seen, the complainant, who stated his belief that he went to only one camp (and that belief was much in issue) fixed the date by reason of the fact that a fire occurred nearby during the camp in question, and enquiries of the Country Fire Authority ("C.F.A.") showed that they had attended a fire in the vicinity on 13th January 1961 (during the 1961 camp); accordingly, the complainant fixed that as the date of the relevant camp. However, extraordinarily enough, there was also a fire nearby at the camp of 1962; this information was gleaned from Christus Rex, the monthly newsletter of Braybrook parish; included in the article is the information that both the complainant and the respondent were at that camp. To ensure that the merits of the complaint could be properly investigated, I sought, and in due course obtained, an amendment to the Terms of Reference so that after the expression "in 1961" was added "or 1962".

BACKGROUND OF THE COMPLAINT

The complainant was born on *** 1949. His second primary school was Christ the King in Braybrook. His mother was a strict and devout Catholic and was keen for the complainant to follow that path. He became an altar boy at the church.

At that time an agency of the Catholic Church conducted a holiday camp during the summer at Phillip Island. In January 1961 and 1962, altar boys from the Braybrook church attended, probably 42 of them in 1961, and somewhat more in 1962. The camps were supervised by Father Donovan, assisted in 1961 by 4 seminarians from Corpus Christi College, Werribee, and about 6 in 1962. The respondent was present on each occasion, although probably not for the whole of the week in 1961. There was a bunkhouse in which some of the younger boys and some seminarians slept, the remainder sleeping in army style tents, which are depicted in photographs…

The complainant went to Grade 6 at the primary school, and then went to *** Technical School, he thinks in 1961…

THE COMPLAINT

The details of the complaint are as follows: at the camp, during some form of activity in a tent (such as pillow fighting or wrestling), the respondent, while facing the complainant, put his hand down the inside of the complainant's pants and got "a good handful" of his penis and testicles. There were other altar boys in the tent at the time, who were participating in the other playful activities. The complainant was shocked, since before that incident he had regarded the respondent as "a fun person, a gentle person, a kind person, he was a terrific bloke". On each of the few occasions this occurred, the complainant pulled the respondent's hand away. On two occasions, in a tent, the respondent took the complainant's hand, and guided it down the front of and inside the respondent's pants; the complainant pulled his hand away without having touched the respondent's genitals. In another incident, which "is not as clear as the other episodes", they were in the water, jumping the waves, when from one side the respondent put his hand down and inside the complainant's bathers and touched his genitals.

On another occasion, during a walk away from the camp at night, they were walking in Indian file when the respondent grabbed the complainant from behind and put his hand down and inside of the complainant's pants.

The complainant said that on each occasion in the tent, other boys were present, but the respondent so positioned himself that they may well have not been in a position to have seen it.

I should interpolate that other evidence showed that it would occasion no surprise that a seminarian would be in a tent occupied by the boys - it could be in fun, or perhaps to restore order or otherwise settle the boys down.

The complainant agreed that he then made no complaint to any person other than his friend "A" (who died in 1985).

The complainant said that on one occasion he saw the respondent similarly molest "A", who turned away and told the respondent to "fuck off".

The complainant said that apart from the physical opposition, he did not remonstrate with the respondent; indeed he said that the only conversation with the respondent that he could actually recall was of the respondent telling him (and, I gather, possibly others) that he had played football in the ruck with Richmond reserves. The respondent denied having said that; he had indeed signed to play with Richmond in his final school year, but had not in fact trained or played with Richmond. V.F.L. (now A.F.L.) records have no trace of the respondent having so played.

The complainant (and other witnesses, including adults) said that among the boys the respondent was known as "big George", understandably enough. The respondent was not so addressed to his face, and said he was unaware of the nickname.

The respondent was born on 8 June 1941; he ended schooling as captain of St. Patrick's College in 1959; he studied for the priesthood and was ordained in 1966; after various positions, he was in 1987, at the age of about 46, appointed Auxiliary Bishop of the Melbourne Archdiocese; among other posts he was a member of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 1990 to 2000; in 1996 he was appointed Archbishop of Melbourne; on 26 March 2001 his appointment as Archbishop of Sydney was announced and he was installed as Archbishop on 10 May 2001…

The respondent wholly denied every allegation of having touched the complainant or "A”…

The complainant said that he used to discuss the molestation with "A"; that one day "A" ran away from the camp; the complainant found him, and "A" said he could not stand any further molestation; "A" had a box of matches, and said he was "going to burn the place down"; they lit a fire which became a grass fire out of control but which was brought under control by the C.F.A. At the hearing it was proven that in fact the C.F.A. extinguished a grass fire in that area on 13th January 1961.

The complainant said that in about 1975 he had told his then wife (from whom he has been separated for some years) and much later his children, of the molestation; and that one night in about May 2000 he was watching television, when news came on concerning the respondent; that he immediately recognised his molester - "the same face and the same loping walk"; he was shocked - he did not think it right that someone who had acted as the respondent had should lead the Church…

In about 2000, after attending with a friend, "D", a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous, at which sexual abuse was discussed, he told "D" of the molestation, and was advised by him to consult his parish priest.

In May this year [2002] he decided to make a formal complaint; he discussed it with his friend, Father "F", the parish priest at *** and he thereafter was referred to the N.C.P.S., where he was interviewed by "G", the executive director…

THE NATURE OF THE PROCEEDINGS

In his final address, although not specifically abandoning his earlier concession that the inquiry was "not bound by the rules of evidence," Mr. Sher submitted that the question of admissibility should be considered as if the inquiry was a proceeding "analogous to a criminal trial". He underlined the obvious fact that "an adverse finding would be nothing short of disastrous for (the respondent) and the Church". . .

THE STANDARD OF PROOF

Although this is not a criminal proceeding requiring proof beyond reasonable doubt, I must bear in mind that serious allegations are involved, and that an adverse finding would in all probability have grave, indeed devastating, consequences for the respondent. . .

EVIDENCE PUT IN SUPPORT OF COMPLAINT

. . ."H", a patently honest witness, said that he left Christ the King school at the end of 1960, and the 1961 camp was the last he attended. "A", the complainant and the respondent were among those present. He remembers various frolicking activities, and a night walk where the boys were spread out.

However, no-one at the inquiry suggested that the references in the Christus Rex parish newsletter of February 1962 were other than accurate, and the lengthy note of the 1962 camp included "H"'s name among the altar boys present. It follows that his honest recollection as to the date of his last camp is in all probability mistaken, a fact which underlines the great difficulty of fact finding in relation to incidents occurring 40 years ago.

He said he had a clear recollection of "A", who, although about seven months younger, "always tended to look after me a bit and he came up to me and he said to me one day, "just watch out for Big George", and thereafter "I didn't get too close to him". . .

DELAY IN COMPLAINING

As has been stated, the complainant first complained to anybody in the Church when he spoke to Father "F"; the latter arranged the meeting with "G", which took place on 11 June 2002. Accordingly the first formal complaint was made more than 40 years after the event, and it follows that the respondent thereafter first heard of it.

Common sense and high legal authority tell us of the unfairness which may arise from long delay, because of the difficulty in defending such a stale complaint. . .

Accordingly I accept as correct (as do the other counsel in this inquiry) the submission of Mr. Sher that I should give myself a warning along the lines of what would be required in a criminal trial. To say that is not to change my view that the strict rules of a criminal trial do not apply, but to acknowledge that common fairness demands that to keep such a warning in mind.

THE EVIDENCE OF COMPLAINT

The first complaint was said to have been made to Mrs. "C", the wife of the complainant, in about 1975, that is, some 14 years after the incident. She separated from the complainant about 10 years ago; they see each other occasionally (she has lived in *** for some time) in relation principally to visits by or matters concerning their off-spring.

Mrs. "C" said that in about 1975 or 1976 the complainant told her that when he was an altar boy at a camp at Phillip Island he had been interfered with by a "big bastard called George". He said that "A" was involved in it".

She had a clear recollection of the conversation; she was shocked by it; she could not recall how the subject first arose, or the conversation immediately preceding the statement. After that, the matter was "swept under the carpet" and was not further discussed until much more recent times.

Although Mr. Sher offered a number of criticisms of her evidence as to interest and recollection ("how could she remember a common name like "George" after all those years"), as I indicated during the final address of Mr. Sher, I regarded her as impressive witness, who had a clear recollection of a startling statement.

As stated, Mr. Sher objected to the evidence; the principal thrust of the submission was that upon the authorities, evidence of a complaint could not be admitted unless it was made at the first opportunity - R. v. Freeman [1980] V.R.I.

It is perhaps a moot point whether the evidence would have been admissible upon a criminal trial to rebut a suggestion of recent invention. It was the complainant's version that, although he always knew his molester as "big George", it was not until he saw the respondent on television in the year 2000 that he identified the respondent as "big George". (There can be no doubt that "big George" was the respondent). . .

As to motive, it should be noted that extensive enquiries made on behalf of the respondent have unearthed no evidence of any other matter or incident which might have aroused spite or malice on the part of the complainant towards either the respondent or the Church. On the other hand, the respondent has had a strong motive to push memory (if there ever was memory) of these fleeting incidents by a 19 year old into the recesses of the mind, from which there could be no recall.

CREDIBILITY OF THE COMPLAINANT

The complainant's credibility was subjected to a forceful attack. By the age of about 20 years, the complainant had an alcohol problem; at some later stage, he had become an alcoholic; in 1984 his wife took him to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, but he had not been drinking then for about 18 months. He has attended such meetings intermittently ever since; it appears that he has not had any problem with alcohol since 1979.

The complainant has been before the court on many occasions, resulting in 39 convictions from about 20 court appearances. Most of the convictions involved drink-driving or assaults, between 1969 (when he was aged 20 years) and 1975…

Mrs. "C" said that in about July 2000 the complainant rang her expressing astonishment that he had just recognised his molester as "George Pell". She did not know who that was so she asked, and was told by the complainant that "he is an Archbishop".

She fixed the date, first, by believing it was more than two years ago and secondly, by the fact that she had then just started a new job, and that was in July 2000, a job about which she was "bit agitated". I have earlier said that I accept Mrs. "C" as an honest witness, and I believe that she is probably correct in fixing the date of the relevant conversation.

"D" has been a friend of the complainant for over 20 years; they met at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting; they meet every few months, perhaps at a meeting, perhaps for dinner or coffee. In June or July 2000, after an A.A. meeting, they went to Williamstown cafe for coffee, where the complainant told him that at a camp years ago George Pell had molested him (he described the act complained of); "D" suggested the complainant should seek counselling from his parish priest...

The other criticisms of the complainant's credit made by Mr. Sher do not persuade me that he is a liar…

I did not form a positively adverse view of him as a witness

I accept as correct the submission of Mr. Tovey that the complainant, when giving evidence of molesting, gave the impression that he was speaking honestly from an actual recollection.

However, the respondent, also, gave me the impression that he was speaking the truth.

CONCLUSION

In the end, and notwithstanding that impression of the complainant, bearing in mind the forensic difficulties of the defence occasioned by the very long delay, some valid criticism of the complainant's credibility, the lack of corroborative evidence and the sworn denial of the respondent, I find I am not "satisfied that the complaint has been established", to quote the words of the principal term of reference.

I so advise the appointors.

Hon. A.J. Southwell Q.C.

The above main points from Mr Southwell’s report were downloaded in October 2002 from the website of the Catholic Church at:http://www.catholic.org.au/statements/pell_judgement.htm

Later comments

• Following is a transcript from the ABC Radio National, “Religion Report”, 18 December 2002, presented by Stephen Crittenden, summarising some of the events of 2002:-

Stephen Crittenden:…As this is the last episode in the Religion Report for 2002, we’re looking back over what has been a very busy year in the world of religious current affairs – tying up some loose ends, returning to some major stories, and even following up on a few stories that we haven’t previously had time for …

Stephen Crittenden: It was also an annus horribilis for Sydney’s Archbishop George Pell. First, ambushed by 60 Minutes over allegations that he attempted to bribe a victim of clerical sexual abuse to keep quiet; then the subject of a complaint of a sexual advance at an altar boy camp forty years ago. Those allegations led to Dr Pell standing aside while an inquiry was conducted by a retired Victorian Supreme Court judge, Alex Southwell QC. Well as we know, following the release of Mr Southwell’s report, Archbishop Pell returned to office, but he declined to be interviewed on this program. As a result, we were unable to ask how he could claim to have been exonerated, when the leading newspaper in the city where he’s the Archbishop says he has not been. Here’s the conclusion of the Sydney Morning Herald editorial of Wednesday, October 16.

Reader:Mr Southwell’s conclusion is exquisitely balanced. He accepts “that the complainant, when giving evidence of molesting, gave the impression that he was speaking honestly from an actual recollection”. However, he says Dr Pell “also gave me the impression he was speaking the truth”. A significant part of Mr Southwell’s report concerns the standard of proof; because he considered what was alleged against Dr Pell as serious, he was inclined to apply a strict burden, akin to the “beyond reasonable doubt” of criminal proceedings. That helped Dr Pell. It also made Mr Southwell’s careful conclusion – that he could not be “satisfied that the complaint has been established” – rather less than a complete exoneration.

Stephen Crittenden: In other words, Mr Southwell’s verdict seems to have an affinity with the Scottish verdict of “case not proven”…

• The Southwell inquiry is also discussed in a book by David Marr (The Prince: Faith, Abuse and George Pell), published by Black Inc (an imprint of Schwarz Publishing Pty Ltd), Melbourne, in 2013 and in an enlarged second edition in 2014. This discussion is on pages 11-12 and 70-72 in the 2013 edition and on pages 23-24 and 125-130 in the 2014 edition.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 17 September 2017

When he was a Marist Brother in the late 1980s (then aged in his mid-twenties), Brother Brett O'Connor worked at two boys' schools in Sydney — St Joseph's College in Hunters Hill and St Gregory's College in Campbelltown. Then he left the Marist Order and began a new career elsewhere. In late 2017, O'Connor (now aged 54) is scheduled to face a trial in Sydney's Downing Centre District Court, charged with child-sex offences allegedly committed in the late 1980s when he was a Marist Brother at those two Sydney schools. The court's case number for Brett O'Connor is 2015/00084871.

In 2015, police officially charged O'Connor in NSW Local Courts. In early 2016, a magistrate decided that the case should proceed to a judge in Sydney's Downing Centre District Court. In late 2016, the District Court began proceedings regarding O'Connor but postponed the case, which is scheduled now for late 2017.

O'Connor has pleaded Not Guilty to the charges.

Brett Anthony O'Connor (date of birth 22 February 1963) was known as "Brother Brett" when he worked at the two schools, where some of his students were newcomers aged about 12. O'Connor later ceased being a member of the Marist Brothers Order.

The police investigation was conducted by detectives from Sydney's Campbelltown Local Area Command (under Detective Sergeant Bob Brisby).

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated on 24 September 2017

A Queensland Catholic priest, Fr Michael McKeaten, has had some preliminary procedures in a Brisbane magistrates court during 2017 about an alleged sexual offence believed to have occurred in the 1990s.  McKeaten has been charged by police with one count of procuring a sexual act by false pretence, allegedly involving a male victim. The court process will continue on a later date.

According to daily listings on the Brisbane Magistrates Court's website, the McKeaten case has been listed for procedural mentions in court in 2017 on May 31, July 3, August 25 and September 25. These mentions are for the magistrate to schedule the next step in the judicial process.

According to Brisbane's Catholic Leader newspaper, Father Michael McKeaten has ministered at several parishes in the Brisbane diocese, including at Annerley, Bulimba, St Stephen's Cathedral, Surfers Paradise, Sunnybank, Stafford, Indooroopilly, Booval and most recently Beaudesert. He was about to move from Beaudesert to take charge of four parishes in Ipswich but on 23 May 2017 the Brisbane Catholic Archdiocese announced that "a priest" had withdrawn from active ministry after notifying the archdiocese about the police charges. The May 23 statement did not give the name of the priest.

The police charge relates to Father McKeaten's time at the Stafford parish in Brisbane's north, between July 1991 and December 1992.

McKeaten has not yet been required to indicate how he will plead (this happens later in the court process).

When Father McKeaten was leaving the Beaudesert parish recently to transfer to Ipswich, Catholic school children farewelled him with a cake at his final mass.

The principal of a parish school said that students had filled a book with heartfelt messages to give to the outgoing priest.

"The children have written messages for you and said they were going to miss Father Michael's presence among us, his smile and their conversations about footy," the principal said. "We wish him all the best and we are a part of your story as much as you are ours."

On 31 May 2017, after the case's mention in court, the Brisbane Catholic archdiocese issued a statement, saying:

"Michael McKeaten – a priest in the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane – today appeared in Brisbane Magistrate’s Court charged with a sexual offence alleged to have occurred more than two decades ago... The charge does not relate to his work in a Catholic school. Michael McKeaten withdrew from ministry when he was charged earlier this month. The Archdiocese issued a public statement at the time to confirm the charge and the priest’s removal from ministry."

The archdiocese's May 31 statement gives the phone number of the church's professional standards office which could "assist" any complainant in going to police concerning any church-related abuse matter. However, the archdiocese's statement does not publish any phone number for the police.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 25 September 2017

Broken Rites Australia is doing research about adults who have suffered a premature death while still feeling damaged by church child-abuse (and by the church's cover-up). For example, Broken Rites has discovered that two former pupils, from a prestigious Marist Brothers school, have died by suicide. Before dying, both men revealed that they had been sexually abused during their childhood by a long-serving teacher, Brother Aubrey Tobin.

The Marist Brothers leadership in Australia has confirmed these two suicides in a letter to another former Marist pupil. Broken Rites has inspected a copy of this letter.

In this article, to protect the identity of these two suicide victims, Broken Rites will refer to them as "Denzil" and "Rufus" (not their real names).

These two pupils encountered Brother Aubrey Tobin in the mid-1980s at Assumption College (a boarding school at Kilmore, 60 kilometres north of Melbourne), which catered for secondary-school boys from Year 7 to Year 12. As well as day pupils, this school accommodated boarders from distant regional areas. Brother Aubrey then was nearing the end of his teaching career.

As with most other church victims, the prevailing church culture discouraged "Denzil" and "Rufus" from revealing the abuse at the time. But this silence (plus the hypocrisy and the cover-up) disrupted their personal development in their late teens and in their twenties.

In 1996, when "Denzil" and "Rufus" were in their twenties, Brother Aubrey Tobin died and the Marists honoured him with the usual dignified funeral. For a further four years, "Denzil" continued his silence but in the year 2000 he finally contacted Marist headquarters in Melbourne, complaining how his life had been disrupted by Brother Aubrey Tobin's sexual abuse and by the church’s cover-up.

Within a few months of making this complaint, "Denzil" committed suicide.

Meanwhile, also around the year 2000, the other ex-pupil from Assumption College, "Rufus", committed suicide too.

As explained below, "Denzil" and "Rufus" were not the only pupils who were harmed by Brother Aubrey during his long career in Marist schools.

Not a saint

Research by Broken Rites has ascertained that Brother Aubrey's real name was Michael Benedict Tobin, born on 9 April 1913. He became "professed" as a Marist Brother in 1932, when he was aged 19. He was then turned loose on boys in Marist schools.

On joining the Marist order, it used to be normal for Marist Brothers to adopt a different first name, often the name of a saint. Brother "Aubrey" Tobin might have borrowed his saintly name from Saint Aubrey (sometimes spelt Albéric), who died in the year 1108.

But, judging from his abused students, Marist Brother Aubrey Tobin of Australia was certainly no saint.

Br Michael Benedict "Aubrey" Tobin died on 31 December 1996. Broken Rites has located his death notices, which appeared two days later in the Melbourne Herald Sun. He was aged 83.

One death notice referred to him an an "esteemed and respected member of the Marist Brothers".

An attempted suicide

Until the early 1980s, just before ending his career at Assumption College in Kilmore, Br Aubrey Tobin worked at St Paul's College, which was then a secondary school for boys at Traralgon, 150 km east of Melbourne. (St Paul's has since merged with a girls' school to become a part of the enlarged co-educational Lavalla Catholic College).

A former student from St Paul's College ("Jeremiah"— not his real name) has told Broken Rites that he, too, attempted suicide after his life was damaged by Brother Aubrey. When "Jeremiah" was aged 12 to 13, his class was taught mathematics by Brother Aubrey.

Jeremiah told Broken Rites: "Brother Aubrey sexually abused me over several months. It caused me to go downwards in a spiral of depression, and academically my schooling ended in failure. This disrupted my adolescence. My life since then has been one of mediocrity — ordinary jobs, with trouble hanging on to them. And I have had periods of unemployment.

"I attempted suicide around the time of my 21st birthday, and I had a long problem with addictions to sleeping pills and alcohol.

"Later, in early January 1997, while I was still struggling with adulthood, I learned that Brother Aubrey had recently died. There was an obituary in the Melbourne Herald Sun. It came as quite a shock when I read it. I felt — and still do — that he had escaped justice.

"After reading the obituary, I contacted the Marist headquarters and Melbourne and complained that Brother Aubrey had sexually abused me. The Marist leadership was evasive and defensive at first. I think they were frightened that I was going to sue them — but they eventually said 'Sorry' to me for the harm that I had suffered at their school. I wish now that I had extracted a more explicit apology from them."

"Two more suicides"

Jeremiah told Broken Rites: "It was widely known throughout St Paul's College that Brother Aubrey was a danger to boys.

"I know of two other students from St Paul's College who took their own lives several years after encountering Brother Aubrey.

"One of these young men was a year younger than me, and he was aged about 20 when he died. A few months later, the other student (who was younger) died while still doing doing Year 12.

"I do not know exactly what was troubling these two young men from St Paul's College at the time of their death but the Marists and Brother Aubrey Tobin have much to answer for."

More about Denzil’s suicide

It was Jeremiah who alerted Broken Rites about the suicides of "Denzil" and "Rufus" at Assumption College. 1n 2001, four years after receiving the Marists' verbal apology, "Jeremiah" received a letter that was sent to him by the Marist leadership in Melbourne.

The letter, dated 28 January 2001, is signed by Brother Jim Jolley, who was then the provincial superior of the Marist Brothers, Melbourne Province. Addressing Jeremiah by his real name (not "Jeremiah"), the letter says.

• "I hope you don't mind my writing to you about the following matter. Last year [2000] a man by the name of ***** contacted me by email to let me know that he had been abused by Br Aubrey when he was a student at Assumption College in the mid-80s. I informed him that Br Aubrey had died in 1996 and offered to meet with him and to also offer him some counselling support if he wanted this. He said that he might contact me if he was down in Melbourne.

  "At Christmas time [2000] his wife emailed me to let me know that she had found his communications with me on his email. She passed on the very disturbing news that he had suicided a few months earlier…

  "This man's wife has asked if she could get in touch with you to find out how you have coped with the pain of what happened..."

[Brother Jolley's letter then requested permission to give Jeremiah’s postal address to the widow. Jeremiah granted the permission and he did indeed offer his condolences to the widow.]

The suicide of Rufus

This letter from Brother Jim Jolley also confirmed the other suicide, by "Rufus". The letter said:

"For me, this [the email from the widow of Denzil] was particularly disturbing since a similar thing had happened about a year ago with someone else who had contacted me about Br Aubrey.

"By the way, both of these people came to my attention only over the past twelve months — a few years after your initial contact with me."

[This other victim is the one who Broken Rites is referring to as "Rufus". After receiving this letter, Jeremiah made further contact with the Marist leadership, during which the leadership confirmed to Jeremiah that the death of"Rufus" was indeed a suicide and that "Rufus" was an ex-pupil of Assumption College.]

Br Jim Jolley's letter to Jeremiah of 21 January 2001 concluded:

• "I hope this letter is not too disturbing for you. I hope things are going well for you these days.
  Yours sincerely,
  Br Jim Jolley,
  Provincial"

Jeremiah did indeed find the letter disturbing. It was no consolation for him to receive confirmation that other ex-pupils of Brother Aubrey had taken their own lives, something that Jeremiah himself had attempted.

Jeremiah was also puzzled by Brother Jolley’s hope "that things are going well for you these days."

In fact, things were not going well for Jeremiah at all and he is still feeling hurt by what happened to him when he was a child in the custody of the Marist Brothers.

The 'Marist way of life'

In 1982, aged 69, Brother Aubrey celebrated his 50th years as a Marist Brother. A magazine from St Paul's College, Traralgon (Victoria), in 1982, says that in August that year "Br Aubrey spoke to the boys at an assembly, speaking simply and sincerely of his Marist way of life and expressing the hope that some of them would consider a similar vocation."

Well, in view of the suicides of Brother Aubrey Tobin's ex-pupils, Broken Rites hopes that no more boys from any Marist school will become a member of the Marist Brothers. By harbouring Br Aubrey Tobin for all those years (and by giving him and other Brothers an aura of trust), the Marist Brothers were negligently putting children in danger.

Marist Brothers schools

Brother Aubrey Tobin belonged to the Marists' Melbourne Province (which conducts schools in the state of Victoria, plus some in South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory and a Marist school at Forbes in New South Wales). The Marists have a separate Sydney Province (which conducts schools in Sydney, Canberra and Queensland).

Broken Rites has ascertained that, during his long career, Brother Aubrey Tobin worked at the following Marist schools in Victoria:

• Assumption College, Kilmore;
  Marist Brothers Bendigo;
  Marist Brothers Brunswick East;
  Marcellin College, Bulleen and Camberwell;
  Marist Brothers Preston;
  St Patrick's College, Sale;
  St Paul's College, Traralgon.

Furthermore

Brother Aubrey Tobin was no Robinson Crusoe — he was not the only sexually-abusive Brother who was harboured and protected by the cover-up within the Marist Order. Here are articles by Broken Rites about two more Marist Brothers from the Marists' Melbourne-based province:

• Br John Desmond Dyson at Assumption College, Kilmore, Victoria.
• Br Gerard Joseph McNamara at St Paul's College (now Lavalla Catholic College”), Traralgon, Victoria.

Another suicide

Broken Rites has researched the story of Daniel William Powell, who was an altar boy in western Sydney. Daniel complained that his life had been damaged after sexual abuse by a local priest. In 2005, the Catholic Church was forced to pay reparation to Daniel. In 2007, still feeling hurt by the church's behaviour, Daniel took his own life, by hanging himself. See the story of Daniel HERE.

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated on 18 October 2017

In 2005, Christian Brother Peter Toomey was jailed for sexually abusing young boys at Catholic schools in Victoria earlier in his career. In 2017, Australia's child-abuse Royal Commission has received further information about other former pupils who encountered Christian Brother Peter Toomey in their schooldays. This Broken Rites article gives some background about Toomey's court case in 2005.

Peter John Toomey joined the Victoria-Tasmania province of the Christian Brothers order about 1967, when he was aged 18. In 1972, aged 23, he was teaching a variety of subjects in Years 7 and 8 at Trinity Regional College in Brunswick, in Melbourne's inner north.

In 1998, an ex-student of this school ("Boris", born in 1960) was having a personal crisis at the age of 38. In discussions with his parents, he revealed how he had been sexually abused by Brother Toomey at the Brunswick school in 1972-3, when he was aged 12. Boris's father then phoned Broken Rites, asking how to obtain justice. Broken Rites advised this victim to have a chat with Victoria Police detectives.

Boris told the detectives unit that he was not Toomey’s only victim. Police managed to locate ten of Toomey’s former students, who provided written statements. These were not necessarily Toomey’s only victims — they were merely those who were interviewed by police. The case was investigated by Detective Tony Mousa of the Brunswick Criminal Investigation Unit, Melbourne.

In November 2005, Brother Peter John Toomey, then aged 56, appeared in the Melbourne County Court, charged with indecently assaulting ten pupils, aged 11 and 12, at the Brunswick school in 1972 and 1973. Toomey pleaded guilty to ten incidents — one incident per student.

What Toomey did in 1972-73

The court was told that Toomey's tactic in 1972-73 was to order each victim to sit on his knee while he touched the boy's body indecently. [This constitutes the crime of "indecent assault" of a child.]

Crown prosecutor Marc Sargent said Toomey said Toomey used the strap to punish students, and one victim described how he was made to read a book while his genitals were fondled through his trousers, and then (he said) he received the strap on both hands for not concentrating.

A statement from one victim described Toomey as "a cruel figure" who would strap the boys "for almost anything".

A statement from another victim, who was ordered to sit on Toomey's lap on seven occasions, described the boy's years at the school as "four years of hell".

The court was told that Brother Toomey would also watch his pupils change for swimming and sports classes. Two victims recalled his students being made to line up naked and they were then inspected on the basis their bodies were "being checked for mud".

Mr Sargent said Toomey was a trained teacher entrusted to teach boys of very tender years. He said that Toomey's offending was a "gross breach of trust".

Sentencing of Toomey

On 6 December 2005, Toomey appeared in court again for sentencing.

Judge Meryl Sexton said the offences happened during an era (1972-73) when the boys feared corporal punishment if they reported the abuse.

"Each of the victims knew what was happening to the others as they were called up to your desk and were simply grateful that this time it wasn't them," Judge Sexton said.

"These are serious offences committed against the most vulnerable sector of our society — our children."

Judge Sexton told the court that Toomey continued the sex assaults, even after one of boys reported the abuse.

The judge said the abuse had had a devastating impact on Toomey's victims.

Toomey jailed

Judge Sexton sentenced Toomey to 27 months' jail, with 21 months suspended for three years. However, the Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions successfully appealed, on behalf of the victims, against the leniency of this sentence. The Court of Appeal increased the sentence to 4 years 3 months jail, with parole after 2 years 6 months.

In accordance with an order made by Judge Sexton, Toomey's name has been placed on the sex offenders' registry. Judge Sexton also ordered Toomey to provide a saliva sample to police for the DNA registry.

Toomey's schools

Trinity Regional College, the subject of the 2005 court case, was located at 33 Saxon Street, Brunswick. In the 1970s it was a boys-only school for Years 7 to 10. This campus later became the Trinity Maronite Catholic College (now a co-educational school).

After being at Trinity Regional College, Brother Peter Toomey moved on to other Christian Brothers schools. It is believed that, in the late 1970s, he was at Cathedral College in East Melbourne.

In the 1980s he was at St Patrick's College, Ballarat, where, he was one of the boarding-house supervisors, having access to boys outside regular school hours

In the early 1990s, a Christian Brothers mailing list said that a Brother Toomey (from the Victoria-Tasmania province) was currently located in a Christian Brothers agricultural school (then called Keaney College, but later re-named the Catholic Agricultural College) at Bindoon in Western Australia. The Bindoon school had boarding facilities.

When Peter Toomey appeared in the Melbourne County Court in November 2005, his lawyer told the court that Toomey recently had been working at a Christian Brothers-run aged-care facility. At the time of his court appearance, Toomey was living at a Christian Brothers address in Brunswick, Melbourne.

Toomey was released from the Ararat Jail (in western Victoria) in 2008. He then went to live at a Christian Brothers address in Melbourne.

Further complaints

By 2017, Australia's national Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse had received further information about the alleged activities of Brother Peter John Toomey when he was on the staff at St Patrick's College Ballarat in the 1980s. This information could become of interest to the Victoria Police child-abuse detectives, who are now located in the Sano Taskforce in central Melbourne.

• Peter Toomey was not the only Christian Brother, trained in Victoria in the late 1960s, who ended up with a conviction for child-sex crimes. Another was Brother Edward Vernon Dowlan (known as Brother Ted Dowlan) who was jailed in 1996 for multiple child-sex offences committed in Catholic schools in the 1970s. The Dowlan story is told in an article on this website entitled "The church hid the crimes of Brother Ted Dowlan".

• Article updated on 1 November 2017

Father Peter Waters was a priest in parishes of the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese until he took early retirement in 1999, when he was aged in his fifties. In 2017, aged 72, he was charged by police with child-sexual offences relating to his time in the Melbourne archdiocese. In late 2017, the charges were tabled in the Melbourne Magistrates Court, and a contested committal hearing is scheduled to be held there in 2018. The magistrate will then decide whether the case should go to a trial in a higher court, the Victorian County Court.

The charges have been laid by detectives from the Sano Taskforce of the Victoria Police, located in Spencer Street, Docklands, Melbourne.

The incidents allegedly occurred between 1973 and 1986.

The charges include indecent assault on males aged 12 to 19 and carnal knowledge of a girl aged 10 to 16 years old.

Peter Waters is listed at the court as being located now at a private address in south-eastern Victoria.

By a Broken Rites researcher

Broken Rites is pleased that Australia's national Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse isinvestigating the Catholic Church's so-called "Towards Healing" process, which claims to "help" the church's abuse-victims. Broken Rites has been researching "Towards Healing" since 1996, and this article sums up some of our main findings so far. This Broken Rites article demonstrates how "Towards Healing" is really a business strategy, designed to protect the church's assets and its corporate image.

The Catholic Church in Australia operates its "Towards Healing" scheme to receive (and respond to) complaints from the church's sex-abuse victims. Broken Rites found that Towards Healing was designed in conjunction with the church's lawyers, its accountants and its insurance company. The name "Towards Healing" is the kind of brand-name that could be inspired by any public-relations consultant or advertising firm.

In some cases, Towards Healing might help a victim to "heal" but this help is incidental to the primary object - the church's business strategy.

The Towards Healing scheme is conducted in association with the Catholic Church's own insurance company, Catholic Church Insurances Limited (CCI). CCI has stated that this company "carries the burden of salary and support staff" for Towards Healing and, furthermore, that CCI will "provide practical support" for any future fine-tuning of the Towards Healing system

Many of the church's victims have had an unsatisfactory experience with Towards Healing, finding the process too defensive and evasive. After going to Towards Healing, many victims feel re-victimised.

Origins of Towards Healing

The Catholic Church introduced the Towards Healing scheme in Australia in 1996, after Broken Rites Australia had spent three years making the Australian public aware of the problem of church sexual abuse. Many church victims were contacting Broken Rites to report instances of clergy sexual abuse. Some of these victims then reported these crimes to the police, while other victims instructed solicitors to take civil action against the church. Therefore the church established (and publicised) its Towards Healing process, so that victims would contact Towards Healing rather than contacting Broken Rites.

Towards Healing is administered by a Professional Standards Office (PSO), located in each Australian state. The church invites its victims to report details of the abuse, and the PSO then forwards the complaint to the relevant diocese or religious order, which is required to "respond". Too often, the response is evasive.

Despite its charitable-sounding name, Towards Healing is really a business procedure, designed to protect the church from the legal liability of compensating some victims or, at least, to limit any liability.

If a victim's life has been damaged by church-abuse, the church is not prepared to pay the full and reasonable compensation that would be payable by any other business corporation. Through the Towards Healing system, the church seeks to evade compensation completely, although sometimes the church offers a small discounted settlement if the victim agrees not to pursue litigation for the full amount to which he/she would normally be entitled.

To cover any of these modest payouts, the Catholic Church operates its own insurance company, Catholic Church Insurances Limited. Many Catholic dioceses and religious orders in Australia pay an annual premium to CCI to cover any settlements which the church is unable to evade.

Catholic Church Insurances Limited (CCI) is therefore closely associated with the Towards Healing process.

The insurance policy

The Catholic Church in Australia revealed in 1993 that any diocese or religious order may choose to take out an insurance policy to cover its liability for the damage suffered by the church's sexual abuse victims. The existence of the insurance policy was revealed by Bishop Peter Connors on ABC TV's "Compass" program on Sunday 27 June 1993. Connors was then the chairman of the church's "special issues" sub-committee, attached to the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference. An article about the insurance policy appeared in that day's edition of the Sydney Sunday Telegraph.

In 1993, the expression "special issues" was code for "church sexual abuse". The "special issues" sub-committee had the responsibility of considering damage-control for the church's sex-abuse problem which was becoming a major public issue.

Broken Rites possesses a photocopy of a CCI Limited insurance policy from the early 1990s. The document says that the policy is for "Special Issues Liability" and it relates to the Special Issues Committee of the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference.

By late 1996, the "Special Issues" Committee was evolving into the church's National Committee for Professional Standards(NCPS), which published a booklet entitled Towards Healing— a cosmetic name that had been coined with a eye to the church's public image as a "helping" institution.

The booklet involved input from the church's insurers, as well as its lawyers. In the early years of the NCPS and Towards Healing, the executive director of the NCPS (Sister Angela Ryan) was also a director of Catholic Church Insurances Limited— which many victims might regard as a conflict of interest.

The insurance company's role

The following information was downloaded in 2007 from the website of Catholic Church Insurances Limited (CCI). This material demonstrates that the insurance company is behind Towards Healing and that the company will be involved in any future fine-tuning of Towards Healing.

Here is the quote, word for word, from the  CCI website:-

• "Catholic Church Insurances has been represented on 2 joint committees — the Special Issues Committee and subsequently the National Committee for Professional Standards— with the burden of salary and support staff carried by this company.

  "We have developed the knowledge to guide the Church through the processes established under the 'Towards Healing' protocol. Our representative is often the first call for advice.

  "We also provide advice to Diocesan Finance Managers and Bursars on our own policy protection, recoveries from other insurers, assistance with likely quantum of claims and financial reserves.

  "Catholic Church Insurances has provided practical support for:

  * The "Towards Healing" document

  *The "Integrity in Ministry" document

  * The "Formation for Ministry" Conference

  * Membership of the Board and provision of secretarial services to "Encompass Australasia". [This was a "counselling" service for clergy and religious personnel who have sexual-abuse problems but in 2008 the church downgraded this service.]

  * In the future, the review of "Towards Healing"

[End of quote from the Catholic Church Insurances Limited website, July 2007.]

When Broken Rites checked again in November 2008, the CCI website included another interesting statement: "We [Catholic Church Insurances Limited] exist to protect the Church."

Many church-abuse victims have found that Towards Healing, too, exists to protect the church.

Tax-free perks

Catholic Church Insurances Limited is a profit-making business, which seeks to enjoy some of the perquisites of the tax-exempt status that is given to religious organisations and charities. This is demonstrated in a newspaper item in 2006:-

Church faces tax bill
by Karen Collier
Herald Sun, Melbourne, July 15, 2006

• The Catholic Church's prayers have been ignored in a fight with the tax man over a $1.15 million Melbourne property.

  An insurance company owned by the church hoped to escape $63,250 stamp duty on the Spring St apartment bought two years ago.

  Catholic Church Insurances swore it was exempt because it was a corporation set up for a religious or charitable purpose.

  But the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal yesterday ruled in favour of the Commissioner of State Revenue.

  The tribunal heard that although the insurer was at first established for religious and charitable reasons, its business had broadened.

  No one from Catholic Church Insurances was available for comment yesterday.

  The CCI website describes a range of insurance cover available for parishes, schools, hospitals and other church institutions, and the broader Catholic community.

  It also offers international travel insurance for bishops and personal accident insurance for clergy.

Comment by Broken Rites: Although Catholic Church Insurances Limited doesn't like paying taxes, it gladly spends money on the Professional Standards Office in each state to run the Towards Healing system, and it apparently regards this expenditure as a wise investment.

Broken Rites has made some more comments about Towards Healing in a previous article about how victims can obtain justice. Below is what we wrote:-

A warning about the "Towards Healing" system

Unfortunately, instead of first consulting the detectives in the state police force, many Catholic Church victims report the crime not to the police but to the criminals' friends and colleagues in the church through the church's in-house complaints system (the Professional Standards Office, or PSO, also known as "Towards Healing"). This mistake enables the church to "tip off" the offender about the complaint (thus thwarting any later police investigation). And the church authorities (or their lawyers) are able to remove any incriminating documents from church files before the police arrive.

The Towards Healing system is financed by the church's own insurance office, Catholic Church Insurances Limited. If a victim asks whether Towards Healing has received any previous complaints about Father X or Brother Y, Towards Healing is tempted to say "No". By making no admissions, the Towards Healing is limiting the church's liability and protecting the church's assets.

Many victims have found the Towards Healing system evasive and abusive. For example, Towards Healing is legally obliged to tell the victim: "You have a legal right to go the police." But the victim is left with the impression that "going to the police" means going to the reception counter at a local "cop-shop". The victim is also left with the impression that the prosecution process is a troublesome one.

Broken Rites, on the other hand, tells the victim about the option of arranging to have a confidential (and non-binding) chat with a police detective.

Towards Healing also leaves the victim with the impression that, instead of telling the police, it is "better" to get a "confidential" financial settlement from the church, through Towards Healing. Victims are warned that, if they talk to the police, the church will halt the settlement process.

Many victims wrongly assume that a "confidential" settlement is a "gag order", preventing them from ever telling anybody else about the abuse. In fact, however, the "confidentiality" really refers to the actual payout — that is, the number of dollars.

Royal Commission

In December 2013, the Royal Commission held a ten-day public hearing, examining four cases in which the church authorities have mis-treated victims during the Towards Healing process. To read about one of those cases (concerning a female victim, Joan), click HERE.

In late 2013, the Royal Commission issued an invitation for stakeholders to make written submissions about "Towards Healing". Dr Wayne Chamley, an honorary advocate who helps victims, wrote a submission. To see Dr Chamley's paper, click HERE.

• Article updated 1 November 2017

In late 2017, New South Wales police have charged a retired Catholic priest (now aged 78) with child-sex offences allegedly committed in NSW earlier in his working career. The case is listed for court in 2018. The Catholic Diocese of Broken Bay (in Sydney's north) has announced that the retired priest is FatherCarl Stafford. And Broken Bay bishop Peter A Comensoli has stated publicly: "Originally a Marist Brother, Fr Stafford left this Order [the Marists] and took up a lay teaching position with St Gregory’s College Campbelltown before entering the seminary in 1989. Ordained as a priest for the Diocese of Broken Bay in 1994, Fr Stafford held appointments in Mona Vale, Gosford, Toukley/Lake Munmorah and Kincumber parishes. Fr Stafford was removed from public ministry [that is, parish work] in 2010." [However, according to church sources, Father Carl is still a priest and he is merely in retirement without any further parish appointments.]

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

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

The police charged him with sexual offences against three boys:

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

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

He was granted conditional bail until his court proceedings begin. The case was listed (on the NSW courts website) to have its first mention in a courtroom at Gosford Local Court on 30 October 2017 (for the matter to be officially filed in a brief administrative procedure) but this preliminary procedure has now been adjourned until January 2018, when the magistrate would usually fix a date (later in 2018) for the next step in the judicial process.

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

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

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 November 2017

Catholic priest Finian James Egan began committing sexual crimes against numerous Australian children in 1961 but the Catholic Church protected him for the next five decades until some of his victims succeeded in getting him convicted. A court sentenced Egan to a minimum of four years, and this sentence is due to expire on 19 December 2017, when Egan expects to be released, aged 82. This Broken Rites article describes how the church covered up for Egan during his life of crime.

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

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

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

Broken Rites research

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A visit from a paedophile priest

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

Active in retirement

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

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

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

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

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

Support for Father Finian Egan

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

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

Greg Smith added:

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

Greg Smith’s website has stated:

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

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

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

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

The church "investigates" itself

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

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

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

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

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

Court proceedings begin

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

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

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

Guilty verdict

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jailed

On 20 December 2013, Judge Robyn Tupman sentenced Finian James Egan to a maximum of eight years jail. He will become eligible to apply for release on parole after serving four years in custody. After serving his minimum four-year sentence, Egan would be would be 82 years old.

During the trial, the court was told that, although he is retired from full-time parish work, Father Finian Egan is still officially a priest of the Catholic Church.

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

• By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 13 November 2017

An Australian Catholic archbishop, Most Reverend Philip Wilson, is required to face a court in late 2017, charged with allegedly concealing a colleague's child-sex abuse 40 years ago. Police allege that Wilson knew about (but kept quiet about) offences committed by Father James Fletcher in New South Wales during the 1970s. Wilson's lawyers have been trying to stop the concealment charge but now the case is ready to proceed in court on Monday 27 November 2017. Meanwhile, another priest (Father Glen Walsh), who was scheduled to give evidence soon in Archbishop Wilson’s concealment trial, has suddenly died just a few weeks before the Wilson hearing begins. A coroner's inquest is to be held to investigate the circumstances of Father Walsh's death. Some more information about Fr Glen Walsh is given at the end of this Broken Rites article.

According to the NSW Courts website, Archbishop Wilson's concealment charge is listed for a mention in the Newcastle Local Court on Monday 27 November 2017. The court's case number is 2015/00080438. This hearing is being conducted by a magistrate, who will decide whether there is sufficient evidence for the case to go to a judge in a higher court, which would be a District Court.

Archbishop Wilson is understood to be the most senior Catholic leader worldwide to face court over a concealment allegation of this type.

In court in 2015, New South Wales police filed a charge against Archbishop Philip Edward Wilson for allegedly concealing information about the 1970s sex assault of a 10-year-old boy by pedophile priest James Fletcher in the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese, in New South Wales. In the 1970s, both Father Wilson and Father Fletcher were priests in the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese. This was not Father Fletcher's only victim; Father Fletcher is known to have had an extensive history of committing sexual crimes against boys, particularly altar boys.

Police allege that Father Philip Wilson became aware of Fletcher's abuse, concerning one of these boys, but Wilson allegedly kept quiet about it.

On 25 September 2015, the concealment charge had its first mention in Newcastle Local Court for a preliminary procedure. Since then, Wilson has been taking legal action (but unsuccessfully) to block the case.

Some background

After beginning his priestly career in the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese, Father Philip Wilson became the Bishop of Wollongong, south of Sydney. Since 2001, he has been Archbishop of Adelaide. In 2015, he took leave from the position of archbishop, because of the court proceedings but, by the end of that year, he decided to resume acting as the archbishop of Adelaide, although he has not yet been cleared by the courts. Now, in late 2017, he has taken leave again because of his court case beginning in November 2017.

Father James Fletcher was eventually jailed for some (but not all) of his child sexual-abuse. Fletcher died in jail.

In 2012, the New South Wales Government established a Special Commission of Inquiry to investigate the alleged cover-up of clergy sexual abuse in the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese. It was alleged that the church hierarchy relocated some abusive priests and turned a blind eye to abuse. The commission's report was submitted to the state government in 2014. The inquiry found that some senior church officials did have information that would have assisted a police investigation of child sexual abuse.

To read more about Father James Fletcher (and one of his many victims), click HERE.

Death of Fr Glen Walsh

Retired priest Father Glen Walsh, who was due to give evidence for the prosecution at Philip Wilson's "concealment" court case, died suddenly on 6 November 2017, just weeks before the Wilson case was due to begin.

Reporting the death, the Newcastle Herald stated (on 8 November 2017):

"There are no suspicious circumstances. Maitland-Newcastle diocese confirmed his death and the Coroner’s investigation but made no further comment. Father Walsh is believed to have taken his own life."

Former Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, who investigated the pedophile priest Fr James Fletcher, has praised Fr Glen Walsh's work in fighting clergy child-abuse.

After hearing of Fr Glen Walsh's death, Mr Fox said:

"He [Father Walsh] was instrumental in bringing a further victim of Father Fletcher to myself when I was investigating Fletcher - it made a huge difference [in Fletcher's trial]."

Mr Fox said:

"His [Fr Glen Walsh's] duty wasn't first to the church. His duty was first to the abuse victims and to his God. And he did what he believed to be ethically right - even if it did damage the church. He had a very strong sense of right and wrong, and followed that path."

Broken Rites has traced Father Glen Walsh's parish appointments by searching through the annual editions of the printed Australian Catholic Directory. Fr Walsh belonged to the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, which covers a group of parishes around the Hunter Valley and the adjacent NSW coast). He was first listed in the directory in early-1998 as an assistant priest at the Gateshead/Windale parish (south of the city of Newcastle). In early-1999, he was listed at Newcastle's Sacred Heart Cathedral.

In 2000 and 2001, he was listed as a chaplain at St Joseph's College, Hunters Hill, in Sydney. After this, he spent several years "on leave".

In 2007, he was listed as an assistant priest at Rockdale-Arncliffe parish (in the Sydney diocese). In 2009 and early-2010, he was an assistant priest at Sydney's Carringbah parish. After this, he was listed as "on leave" until the 2014 directory listed him as "retired".

• Article by Broken Rites, updated on 14 November 2017

A 79-year-old former Marist Brother, Kevin Joseph Jewell, has been charged in court with indecent assaults allegedly committed against boys 50 years ago. The boys were students at a Marist Brothers school (now known as Marist College Eastwood). The Jewell case had its first preliminary mention in Sydney's Burwood Local Court on 13 November 2017 — case number 2017/00324154. The next mention is listed for 17 January 2018.

According to police documents, one of the alleged victims was a boy (then aged nine, now aged 60) who was a pupil at this school (in Hillview Road, Eastwood), in the 1960s. In 2017, this former pupil spoke to NSW police. Later, detectives from Ryde Local Area Command commenced an investigation and located four other men who alleged that they, also, had been assaulted.

Police allege that these five boys were all assaulted within this school in Eastwood between 1967 and 1968.

On 26 October 2017, Kevin Jewell met police at Eastwood Police Station. He was conveyed to Ryde police station, where detectives charged him with fifteen incidents of indecent assault against these five boys.

Police granted conditional bail to Jewell until his court process begins (in court, a magistrate has power to extend bail). The court's first hearing on 13 November 2017 was a brief administrative procedure in which prosecutors officially filed the case.

Jewell's date of birth is given in court documents as 15 November 1938

At the case's second mention in court, on 17 January 2018, the prosecutors and the defence will discuss how the case will proceed. This will be followed by further steps in court on later dates.

Meanwhile, detectives from Ryde Local Area Command are continuing their investigation of Kevin Joseph Jewell.

FOOTNOTE: The Catholic order of Marist Brothers taught in Hillview Road, Eastwood, for many years, although nowadays the school (known now as Marist College Eastwood) is staffed by lay teachers. In the 1960s, each Marist Brother in Australia usually adopted a "religious" first-name, perhaps in honour of a saint, so that a new recruit (for example, Johnnie Bloggs) would become known as "Brother Ignatius" or "Brother Aloysius" (or whatever). Broken Rites does not know whether Kevin Joseph Jewell adopted a "religious" forename.