By a Broken Rites researcher, article posted 19 December 2018
Two former schoolboys (both now aged in their sixties) have finally brought a Catholic priest to justice in Australia for crimes that he committed on them more than 50 years ago. On 18 December 2018, Father Thomas Fulcher (now aged 84) was jailed for a minimum of two years after pleading guilty to these crimes. Father Fulcher, who is "still a priest" (in reitrement"), is a member of a Catholic religious order (the Society of Mary) which has branches around Australia.
In the 1960s, Father Fulcher was based at Marist College (a boarding school) in Burnie, northern Tasmania.
Thomas Fulcher pleaded guilty in the Tasmanian Supreme Court to three counts of indecent assault.
He was charged regarding two victims, who were students at the school between 1960 and 1967.
The two victims, now aged in their 60s, came forward and reported the abuse during Australia's national Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which was held between 2013 and 2016. The Royal Commission advised the victims to have an interview with child-protection detectives from the state police service.
Fulcher, now aged 84, admitted he had made one boy perform a sex act in front of him and had also touched him on the genitals. The priest then put on his Confessional robes and took the boy's Confession about what had just happened.
Fulcher told the second boy to drop his pants so he could check that he was "normal", then performed a sex act on him. The victim told police that at the time he was abused, he had been taught you could not refuse do to what a priest told you to do.
Fulcher was ordained as a Catholic priest on 18 July 1959 and the Catholic Church still lists him as a practising priest.
Fulcher was sentenced to four years in prison. He will serve a minimum non-parole period of two years.
In a statement, Adrian Drane, the current principal of Marist College in Burnie, said the Fulcher case is "a reminder of the mislaid trust placed in some individuals, and is a dark part of Marist Regional College's history".
"One can only imagine the hurt, betrayal and absolute devastation of the survivors of abuse and their families," he said.