By Broken Rites researchers

This page was last updated on 9 February 2012.

1. Fr Neil Byrne, Brisbane
   
   The Very Rev Dr Neil Joseph Byrne has appeared in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on charges relating to child-exploitation material. He was bailed to be re-scheduled in court on a later date. See more here.
   
   
2. Fr Dennis Corrigan
   
   Father Dennis John Corrigan, 68, who is listed in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, north of Sydney, is currently listed for trial in New South Wales, charged with sexual offences against boys. See more from Broken Rites here.
   
   
3. Br John Gaven
   
   Brother John Gaven, of the Vincentian religious order, is awaiting further court proceedings in Sydney regarding sexual offences that were allegedly committed when he worked at St Stanislaus College, Bathurst, NSW. See more here.
   
   
4. Br Bill Houston, Victoria
   
   In the 1960s, Christian Brother William Stuart Houston worked at St Augustine's orphanage, Geelong, Victoria. In 2010, he appeared in the Geelong Magistrates Court and was ordered to stand trial at the Victorian County Court regarding incidents of buggery and indecent assault, allegedly committed while he was at St Augustine's in the 1960s. The County Court process (indictment number Y.03305021) has not yet been completed. See more from Broken Rites here.
   
   
5. Fr James Jennings
   
   In the Bendigo Magistrates Court, Victoria, a magistrate has listed James Patrick Jennings for committal proceedings, to be held during 2012. The court was told that the defendant is facing child-sex charges, relating to incidents which were alleged to have occurred in Victoria in the 1960s. The case was filed by Senior Sergeant Grant Morris, of Bendigo Police. The court’s case number is B12600412.
   
   
6. Ex-Brother Edward Mamo
   
   A former religious Brother in the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart religious order, Edward Mamo (aged 67), appeared in a Sydney court on 6 February 2012, charged with having indecently assaulted boys at Monivae College, a Catholic secondary school, at Hamilton, Victoria, in the late 1970s. The charges were laid by detectives from the Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Unit in Warrnambool, Victoria. The court proceedings will continue in Victoria. See more from Broken Rites here.
   
   
7. Fr David O'Hearn
   
   After lengthy legal argument, courts have cleared the way for jury trials to be scheduled for Father David Anthony O'Hearn, of the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic diocese in New South Wales, who is charged with sexual offences against six boys. See more from Broken Rites here.
   
   
8. Fr Brian Spillane
   
   In the 1970s and 1980s Father Brian Joseph Spillane was a priest in the Vincentian Fathers religious order im New South Wales and Queensland. In Sydney in November 2010, a New South Wales District Court jury found Spillane (aged 67) guilty of indecently assaulting three girls aged between six and seventeen. He is also facing court proceedings soon regarding alleged offences against boys. See more here.
   
   

The most recent court cases

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 for 20 years until the mid-1990s. He was sentenced in South Australia in August 2010 to at least four years for sexual offences against boys in that state. He is also facing complaints in other Australian states. See more from Broken Rites here.
   
   
2. Br Robert Best


Christian Brother Robert Charles Best (also known as Brother Bob Best) was convicted on 8 August 2011 for multiple offences against schoolboys. He was sentenced (at the age of 70) to 14 years and nine months (eligible for parole after serving 11 years and three months). See the Broken Rites story here.


3. Fr Tom Brennan
   
   In Newcastle Local Court in New South Wales, Father Thomas Brennan (then aged 71) has been 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.
   
   
4. Gerard Vincent Byrnes
   
   Gerard Byrnes (born in 1948) originally trained as a Christian Brother before becoming a lay teacher in Catholic schools in Queensland and New South Wales. On 4 October 2010, he was jailed for 8-10 years after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting girls at a Catholic primary school in Toowoomba, Queensland. He was the school's designated "child protection officer". See more from Broken Rites here.
   
   
5. Br John Coswello


Christian Brother John Francis Coswello, then 70, was sentenced to jail after a jury found him guilty of committing sexual offences against a 12-year-old boy in a Melbourne orphanage. Later, the Victorian Court of Appeal granted him a re-trial, at which another jury (in October 2010) found him not guilty. See more here.


6. Fr John Denham
   
   Father John Sidney Denham, of the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic diocese (north of Sydney), has been jailed after pleading guilty to multiple offences against boys. See more from Broken Rites here.
   
   
7. Fr Michael Endicott
   
   In Brisbane, Father Michael Ambrose Endicott, 65, has been given a one-year jail sentence (which was wholly suspended) after pleading guilty to two counts of indecent treatment of a schoolboy in the late 1970s. See more from Broken Rites here.
   
   
8. Fr Rob Fuller
   
   Father Robert Macgregor Fuller, 54, a priest at All Saints Catholic Church in Liverpool, in Sydney's southwest, has been jailed for seeking to procure a child under the age of 16 via internet chat sites. See more from Broken Rites here.
   
   
9. Fr Des Gannon
   
   Father Desmond Gannon, who has been jailed previously for sexually abusing boys in the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese, was jailed again in 2009 after another of his many victims contacted the police. See a comprehensive Broken Rites article about Gannon's many court appearances here.
   
   
10. Fr John Houston, visiting New South Wales
    
    A Catholic priest, John Charles Houston (born 3 March 1955) has appeared in a court near Newcastle in New South Wales, accused of filming boys showering during a surf lifesaving carnival. The magistrate ordered that Houston be supervised by mental health workers, continue to take his medication and not loiter near public pools or beaches. See more here.
    
    
11. Fr Bill Irwin
    
    William Stanley Irwin was originally a Brother (and then a priest) in the Catholic Vincentian order. A Sydney court heard how the church authorities protected Irwin, concealing his criminal behaviour in a church file marked "Strictly Confidential". In 2011 a jury found Irwin guilty of two incidents of gross indecency against a youth whom he was "counselling". The judge imposed two six-months jail sentences, which were suspended upon Irwin undertaking a six-months good-behaviour bond. See more here.
    
    
12. Fr Jim Jennings
    
    James Patrick Jennings was once a Catholic priest in the Vincentian order. In the Sydney District Court, in July 2010, he was charged with indecent assault on four boys (aged about 12) at St Stanislaus College, Bathurst NSW, during 1961. On 5 August 2010 the jury returned a verdict of "not guilty" on all charges See more here.
    
    
13. Rick McPhillamy, Cathedral acolyte
    
    Richard John McPhillamy (who has been an acolyte at the Bathurst Catholic Cathedral and who is a former assistant dormitory master at St Stanislaus College, Bathurst) was sentenced to a minimum of 12 months jail after he was found guilty of sexual offences against two boys while he was working as an assistant housemaster at St Stanislaus College, Bathurst in the mid-1980s. See more here.
    
    
14. Fr Murray Moffat
    
    Father Murray Alexander Moffat, of Brisbane, has been sentenced to 18 months jail, with the first three months to be spent behind bars and the remainder suspended for three years. He pleaded guilty to indecent treatment of a 12-year-old girl at Ipswich, Queensland, between 1977 and 1981. See the Broken Rites story here.
    
    
15. Fr Hugh Edward Murray
    
    This Catholic priest (from the Vincentian order) appeared in court in Sydney in 2010, charged with indecently assaulting boys in the 1960s and '70s. In July 2011, a judge granted Murray a permanent stay because of his advanced age (81 years) and health problems. See more here.
    
    
16. Br Ross Murrin
    
    Marist Brother Ross Francis Murrin has received additional jail time after pleading guilty to more child-sex offences at a second school in New South Wales. He is also the subject of complaints to police about a third school, in Queensland. See a comprehensive article from Broken Rites here.
    
    
17. Fr Paul Pavlou
    
    Father Paul Pavlou, of the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese, has been convicted in the Melbourne Magistrates Court after pleading guilty to committing an indecent act against a 14-year-old boy and possessing child pornography. See more here.
    
    
18. Fr Kevin Phillips
    
    In the Sydney District Court, Father Kevin Francis Phillips has been sentenced to jail for committing acts of gross indecency involving a 16-year-old boy at St Stanislaus boys' boarding school, Bathurst, New South Wales. See more here.
    
    
19. Fr Kelvin Sharkey

Father Kelvin Gerald Sharkey (a priest of the Wollongong Catholic Diocese in New South Wales) has been sentenced to a minimum 15 months in jail after pleading guilty to buggery and indecent assault of an altar boy. See the Broken Rites story here here.


20. Paul Van Ruth, a former Brother


On 4 March 2011 Peter Paul VAN RUTH, of Adelaide, was jailed after he pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting two boys in 1969 while he was a religious Brother at Salesian College, "Rupertswood", Sunbury, Victoria. See the Broken Rites story here.


21. Br Lambert Wise, Adelaide
    
    A South Australian court ruled 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, 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, Broken Rites has researched more than 120 Catholic priests and brothers who have been sentenced in Australian court cases in which Broken Rites has had an involvement. These 120 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.