Article by Broken Rites, updated on 19 December 2017
A 79-year-old former Marist Brother, Kevin Joseph Jewell, has been charged in court in late 2017 with indecent assaults allegedly committed against boys 50 years ago during one of his earliest Sydney teaching posts (now known as Marist College Eastwood). In those years, each new Marist Brother would adopt a "religious" first-name. Court documents don't mention Kevin Jewell's "religious" first-name but another Sydney Marist school (Marcellin College in Randwick) says (in its official history) that a Brother "Dacian" Jewell spent some time teaching at the Randwick school.
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 of Jewell at the Eastwood school was a boy (then aged nine, now aged 60) who was a pupil at this Marist Brothers 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.