By Broken Rites researchers

A religious Brother in court in Sydney

The girl was aged 12 at the time of the first alleged incident. The charges included offences that allegedly occurred at the girl's home in St Ives.

The religious Brother has been living in recent years with his religious order at Templestowe in suburban Melbourne.

During 2009, the religious Brother (aged 77) has already appeared in Hornsby Local Court for the case's preliminary proceedings. He pleaded not guilty.

The Hornsby magistrate arranged for the prosecution to complete some paper work. The case is scheduled to come up for mention again in Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court.

The charged man has been granted conditional bail pending his court proceedings.

The police officer who handled the investigation is Senior Constable Rebecca Dummett, of the Hornsby Detectives Office, Kuring Gai Local Area Command, phone 02 9476 9707.

The religious order of the charged man comprises a number of priests and a smaller number of religious brothers. The charged man is listed in his religious order as "Brother".

Priest in court regarding a girl, aged 12

The priest appeared in court on 28 July 2009 for the case's preliminary mention.

The case is scheduled to come up again for a procedural mention in Ipswich Magistrates Court later in 2009.

The abuse allegedly took place from 1977 to 1981 when the priest, then aged in his 30s, was ministering in a parish to the west of Brisbane.

The girl was 12 years old when the alleged abuse started.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane said on 22 June 2009 that the priest has now stood down from his current parish and is on leave from any pastoral duties as a result of the allegations. He is still a priest of the archdiocese.

Priest pleads guilty on child-sex and child-porn charges

Christian Brother jailed

Priest jailed again

Other cases currently before the courts

1. Fr Charlie Barnett
   
   A member of the Catholic Vincentian religious order, Father Charles Alfred Barnett ministered in South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland. He has been extradited from Indonesia to South Australia, where he is charged with committing sexual offences against boys, aged between 12 and 17, between 1977 and 1994. He has indicated that he intends to plead guilty to some of the less serious charges. However, in the South AUstralian District Court on 12 October 2009 he pleaded not guilty some of the other (more serious) charges and, for this purpose, his case is re-scheduled for mention in the District Court on a later date, when the court will consider procedures for the hearing on the more serious charges. See more from Broken Rites here.
   
   
2. Br Robert Best
   
   Brother Robert Charles Best, a member of the Victoria-Tasmania province of Christian Brothers, taught at Catholic boys' schools in Ballarat East, Box Hill and Geelong in the 1970s and 1980s. He is scheduled to face court proceedings regarding alleged child-sex offences. The prosecution file has been compiled by Detective Sergeant Kevin Carson, of the Ballarat Criminal Investigation Unit of the Victoria Police. Best was convicted in 1996 for sexual child-abuse, committed in the 1970s at Ballarat East. See some background here.
   
   
3. Fr Peter Brock
   
   Father Peter Julian Brock, of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, appeared in court on 19-21 August 2009, charged with sex offences involving two boys. The court arranged to hear further evidence in a few months' time. See more from Broken Rites here.
   
   
4. Fr John Denham
   
   On 8 July 2009, Father John Sidney Denham, of the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic diocese, pleaded guilty in Newcastle Local Court to multiple offences against boys. He is in jail, awaiting sentence. See a Broken Rites report here and see some background from Broken Rites here.
   
   
5. Fr Peter Dwyer
   
   In Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court in October 2009, Magistrate Judith Fleming ordered Father Peter William Dwyer to stand trial on 12 charges, including committing an indecent act, relating to incidents that allegedly occurred at St Stanislaus College in Bathurst, New South Wales, during the 1980s. The matter is scheduled for mention before a judge in the Downing Centre District Court soon, so that the court can consider arrangements for a future hearing. See more here.
   
   
6. Fr Robert Fuller, Sydney
   
   Father Robert Macgregor Fuller, 54, a priest at All Saints Catholic Church in Liverpool, in Sydney's southwest, has appeared in court, charged with grooming and procuring a child under the age of 16 via internet chat sites. The matter is scheduled for mention in court again soon, so that the court can consider arrangements for the hearing. Meanwhile, Fuller was released on bail after a $25,000 surety was paid from church sources. See more from Broken Rites here.
   
   
7. Br John Gaven
   
   Brother John Gaven, 66, a member of the Vincentian religious order, living at Marsfield (Sydney), has appeared in court regarding sexual offences, allegedly committed when he worked at St Stanislaus College, Bathurst. He is on bail, awaiting further court proceedings during 2009. See more here.
   
   
8. Fr John Houston, visting New South Wales
   
   A Catholic priest, John Charles Houston, 54, appeared in Belmont Local Court (near Newcastle in New South Wales) in April 2009, accused of filming boys showering during a surf lifesaving carnival. He was ordered to reappear in court on a later date. See more here.
   
   
9. Fr Hugh Murray
   
   On 25 June 2009, a Sydney court was given details of charges against Fr Hugh Edward Murray, 79, of Marsfield, Sydney, involving offences allegedly committed against three boys from St Stanislaus College, Bathurst NSW (a school operated by the Vincentian Fathers), in the 1960s and 1970s. See more here.
   
   
10. Br Ross Murrin
    
    Marist Brother Ross Francis Murrin is awaiting sentence in Sydney after pleading guilty to sexually abusing a boy at St Gregory's College, Campbelltown, western Sydney. Ross Murrin is already in jail after being convicted of sexual offences against boys at an earlier school at Daceyville in Sydney's east. He is also the subject of complaints to police in Cairns, Queensland. See a comprehensive article from Broken Rites here.
    
    
11. Fr David O'Hearn
    
    Father David O'Hearn, 48, of the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic diocese in New South Wales, who is currently before the courts on multiple child-sex charges, was charged in court on 15 July 2009 with additional sexual offences against a fourth boy. The matters are scheduled for court again soon. See more from Broken Rites here.
    
    
12. Fr Kevin Phillips
    
    Father Kevin Francis Phillips, 58, appeared in court in Sydney on 5 May 2009, charged with offences against a student at St Stanislaus' College in Bathurst, New South Wales. Father Phillips' current address was given as a parish in Mackay in central Queensland. The case came up for a brief mention in court again on 23 June 2009, when a magistrate adjourned the matter so lawyers can analyse a computer hard-drive seized by detectives during his arrest in May 2009. The case is listed for another mention in court later in 2009. See more here.
    
    
13. Fr Phil Robson
    
    Father Philip Robson, a priest of the Vincentian religious order, appeared in Sydney's Downing Centre local court on 19 February 2009, charged with child-sex offences allegedly committed at St Stanislaus College, Bathurst. Robson is facing five charges of aggravated sexual assault and indecent assault. Fr Philip Robson, aged 60, is a board member, former teacher and former director of discipline at St Stanislaus College, Bathurst NSW. He is currently on bail, awaiting further court proceedings. See more here.
    
    
14. Fr Kel Sharkey
    
    In the New South Wales District Court at Wollongong on 16 November 2009, Father Kelvin Gerald Sharkey (aged 82) pleaded guilty to one incident of buggery and two incidents of indecent assault (that is, indecent touching) involving an altar boy in Wollongong, beginning in 1969 when the boy was aged aged ten. Sentence proceedings will begin on a later date. Sharkey, now retired from parish appointments, is still listed as a "supplementary priest" of the Wollongong Catholic Diocese. See more from Broken Rites here.
    
    
15. Fr Brian Spillane
    
    In the 1970s and 1980s Father Brian Joseph Spillane was a priest in the Vincentian Fathers religious order, working at St Stanislaus College, a boys' boarding school at Bathurst, NSW. He is currently listed for proceedings at Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court, charged with multiple sexual offences against 24 young boys. He has also been charged with offences against three young girls in Sydney. He is on bail during the court proceedings. See more from Broken Rites here.
    
    
16. A Toowoomba Catholic school teacher
    
    Queensland police have charged one of the Catholic Church's nominated "child protection officers" — a primary teacher in a Toowoomba Catholic school — with committing sexual offences against young girls in his school. The case is scheduled for court hearings during 2009. See more from Broken Rites here.
    
    

Recent court cases

1. Father Roger Michael Bellemore


In 2008, this Marist priest was sentenced in Tasmania to four years' jail for offences against school boys. See more from Broken Rites here.


2. Fr Tom Brennan
   
   In Newcastle Local Court in New South Wales on 9 March 2009, Father Thomas Brennan (aged 71) was convicted of making a false written statement in 1998. In the 1998 statement, Brennan said that he could not remember receiving a series of child sex-abuse complaints (about another priest) while Brennan was the headmaster of a Catholic boys' secondary school in the 1970s. See more from Broken Rites here.
   
   
3. Father Adelrick D'Cruz
   
   This priest, aged 78, was convicted in the Victorian County Court at Shepparton in 2008 after pleading guilty to indecently assaulting a teenage girl in a north-eastern Victoria parish 24 years previously. D'Cruz had ministered in the Sandhurst diocese in northern Victoria and later did freelance ministry in the Anglo-Indian community in Melbourne. See more from Broken Rites here.
   
   
4. Br "David" Down


Christian Brother Graeme James Down indecently touched young Catholic school boys in Western Australia in the 1980s. In 2008 he received a second jail sentence after more victims contacted the police. See more from Broken Rites here.


5. Fr Paul Evans, Boys' Town, NSW
   
   On 3 October 2008 Father Paul Raymond Evans was sentenced to 15 years' jail (with parole possible after nine and a half years) after a Sydney jury found him guilty of multiple sex offences against boys in the 1970s and 1980s, while he was a dormitory master at Boys' Town (a Catholic institution for troubled teenagers) in Engadine, south of Sydney. After 1988, Evans worked in parishes in the Broken Bay diocese in Sydney's north. See a comprehensive Broken Rites article here.
   
   
6. Fr John Haines
   
   In the Victorian County Court on 4 November 2008, Father Edmund John Haines (of the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese, based in the Geelong district) was sentenced to four years and three months jail (with a non-parole period of two years six months) after he pleaded guilty to six counts of an indecent act with a boy under 16, procurement of a minor for child pornography and possessing child pornography. Haines was previously a priest in Papua New Guinea. See more from Broken Rites here.
   
   
7. Marist Brother Kostka
   
   In the Australian Capital Territory Supreme Court in 2008, Marist Brother John William Chute, 75, whose religious name is "Brother Kostka" (in honour of a 16th Century saint), was jailed after pleading guilty to sexually molesting four students when they were aged 13 and 14 at Canberra's Marist College in the 1980s. See more from Broken Rites here.
   
   
8. Br Rodger Moloney
   
   This member of the St John of God Brothers has worked in Australia and New Zealand. In 2008 in New Zealand, Rodger William Moloney, 73, was sentenced to two years nine months jail for sexually abusing educationally-disadvantaged boys in Christchurch, N.Z., in the 1970s. The court was told that, after completing his sentence, he would be deported to Australia. Any Australian victims of Moloney should have a chat with the police sexual offences units in Australia. See the Broken Rites report on Moloney here. And see a Broken Rites background story about the St John of God Brothers in Australia here.
   
   
9. Br Ross Murrin


In 2008, Marist Brother Ross Francis Murrin was sentenced to 39 months' jail, with a non-parole period of 18 months, after pleading guilty to indecently assaulting Catholic primary school boys in the 1970s. In a further court hearing on 13 February 2009, Murrin also pleaded guilty to sexually abusing another boy at a later school. See more from Broken Rites here.


10. Fr Michael Reis, MSC religious order
    
    Father Michael Francis Reis (known as Mick Reis), who has taught at Monivae College in Victoria and Downlands College in Queensland, was sentenced in Brisbane on 6 November 2008 to 18 months jail (with a minimum of six months) for offences against two young girls in the 1980s and 1990s. See more from Broken Rites here.
    
    
11. Br Lambert Wise, Adelaide
    
    A South Australian court ruled in 2008 that an elderly former Christian Brother, Francis Lambert Wise, was medically unfit to stand trial on alleged incidents of child-sexual abuse, dating back to 1964 and 1965. However, in 2009 a judge held special hearings, enabling two of Wise's former pupils to have their allegations aired in court. Thus, the South Australian public was able to learn of the allegations. See more from Broken Rites here.
    
    

Previous court cases

• Broken Rites Australia was formed in 1992. Since then, 115 Catholic priests and brothers have been sentenced in Australian court cases in which Broken Rites has had an involvement. These 115 court cases are on the top half of our Black Collar Crime page. In addition, on the bottom half of the page, there are a number of out-of-court cases in which Broken Rites has had an involvement. See the Broken Rites "Black Collar Crime" page here.