- By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 12 December 2019
In 1960 at the age of 17, Joseph Weygood began training in Victoria to become a Marist Brother. In those years, the Marists gave each new recruit a religious name, so Joseph Weygood became known to pupils as "Brother Cyril", although he later changed his name to "Brother Joseph". He taught during the 1960s (as a Brother) at Catholic schools in Victoria and South Australia. In the 1970s, he ceased being a Marist Brother and later worked as a lay teacher (Mister Weygood) in schools elsewhere in Australia and overseas. In 2019, aged 77, Joseph Weygood is involved in a court case in Adelaide, charged with child-sexual abuse relating to his time in South Australia in the 1960s. He is contesting the charges.
In 2018, South Australian Police began investigating complaints they had received about Weygood concerning his time as a Marist Brother in Adelaide schools. The investigating officer is Detective Acting Sergeant Katie Dalton (at the Special Crime Investigation Branch, Wakefield Street, Adelaide).
After a hearing in a magistrates court, Weygood's case proceeded to the South Australian Supreme Court, where he entered a plea of Not Guilty.
On 12 December 2019, Joseph Weygood began undergoing a trial by a judge alone (that is, no jury).