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The Marist Brothers covered up sexual assaults by a Brother and thereby enabled him to later become one of Australia's top Catholic education officials, the Sydney District Court was told recently. Brian Robert Gordon, 56, was sentenced on 28 September 1998 to 12 months' jail (minimum) for eight sexual offences committed against four boys, aged about 11, while he was teaching at a Marist Brothers primary school in Dundas, Sydney, in 1969-71. Gordon pleaded guilty to four counts of indecent assault and two of indecency. A jury found him guilty of two further counts of indecent assault.. Further charges were dropped in a plea bargain. The court heard that several parents reported the assaults to the school authorities and Gordon admitted the allegations to his Marist superiors. The Marists pacified the parents by promising that Gordon would be removed. Therefore the information was kept from the police. Gordon told the court that his superiors advised him to change schools and "put it behind him". Gordon left the Marist order and moved to Queensland where he was given lay teaching positions in Catholic schools. The Marists kept quiet about Gordon's record and he eventually became the Brisbane diocese's deputy directory of Catholic Education. His secret was uncovered in 1996 after one of his victims reported him to Justice Wood's NSW royal commission on corruption and paedophilia. Gordon told the court he had never gone to Confession about the assaults. Judge Kenneth Horler said he was surprised that one of the boys had been taken to Confession and given a "penance" of three Hail Marys and an Our Father to be "forgiven" for his [the boy's] "sin". The judge said the whole trauma had affected this boy's personality and his attitude towards authority ever since. The judge criticised the Marist Brothers over its handling of the complaints and for not alerting the Brisbane diocese about Gordon's record. He said the order must "bear some responsibility" in the affair. See Syd. M. Herald, Daily Telegraph, Courier Mail, 10-9-98, 29-9-98. |
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