By a Broken Rites researcher

A Catholic religious Brother, William Stanley Irwin, allegedly sexually abused a student in 1986 but the incident was deliberately covered up and Irwin was allowed to continue teaching for more than 20 years, an Australian court has been told.

After the alleged incident, the boys' parents were told that Brother Irwin would not work with youngsters again, but he subsequently became a teacher at two prestigious Catholic schools and was a dormitory master at one of these, the court heard. In the early 1990s, Brother Irwin was ordained as a priest, becoming Father Irwin.

William Stanley Irwin, 54, of Pyrmont in inner Sydney, appeared in Sydney's Downing Centre Local court on 1 December 2009, charged with two counts of gross indecency on a male under the age of 18 in 1986. This was a brief preliminary hearing to file the charges.

A Catholic Church defence lawyer told the court that Irwin emphatically denies the offences.

Some offences allegedly occurred at the prestigious boys' boarding school, St Stanislaus College in Bathurst in New South Wales, west of Sydney. This school was conducted by the Catholic order of Vincentian Fathers and Brothers.

According to a police submission (made in court), Irwin was a Vincentian religious Brother based at St Stanislaus College between 1980 and 1983 and between 1987 and 1989. (The school staff included a number of Vincentian priests and brothers.)

Police said that in between these two stints, Irwin worked in the mid-1980s in a Victorian parish and was a spiritual leader in the Catholic youth group, Antioch. His role included providing counselling to youths.

The abused boy's parents had been referred to Irwin for assistance with counselling for their son, the police submission said. The boy's parents, who trusted Irwin, told Irwin that their son had been previously sexually abused at the age of 15 by another man, who later pleaded guilty and was jailed.

When the youth was 17, Irwin allegedly took him on a trip from Victoria to Sydney, before allegedly staying with him overnight at St Stanislaus College, Bathurst. However no students were there as it was in the school holidays.

Irwin allegedly told the boy to lie on a bed with him and molested him.

When the boy's parents found out, they told the Vincentian order. The Vincentians' Australian head (known as "the Provincial") allegedly promised that Irwin would be removed from all positions involving contact with children or young people. But that did not happen, the police submission said, and he in fact became dormitory master and taught personal development and religion at St Stanislaus College

The police submission said that police had located the Vincentian order's file on the matter, which was headed "strictly confidential". In it, the Vincentian's Australian head allegedly recorded that Irwin had admitted "the bed incident" but said Irwin did not believe he had "a homosexual condition".

In the file, the order's Australian head allegedly wrote: "He must not go to Bathurst" [that is, to St Stanislaus College].

After the Vincentians' head was told about the incident, Irwin continued teaching unencumbered in Catholic education for 23 years.

Irwin was arrested on 25 November 2009 at St Aloysius College in Milsons Point, Sydney, a day school for boys run by the Jesuits, the court was told. After his arrest, he was stood down from his teaching role, pending the outcome of the case.

Magistrate Jane Culver continued Irwin's bail but ordered him not to be in the company of anyone under the age of 18 without supervision.

A further mention in court

Beth Walker, for the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), told the court that child pornography has been found on a computer and a disc at Irwin's home but further analysis of the items was required as he shared the home with his partner.

Ms Walker asked the magistrate to impose a new bail condition, banning Irwin from going to St Stanislaus. She did not suggest that he had been there, but said another man accused in relation to sexual assaults at the college had done so.

Magistrate Culver agreed that the new bail condition seemed appropriate.

The case will resume in the same court during 2010.

Irwin was charged by detectives from Bathurst. Investigations are continuing.

Footnote

The 1992 year book of St Stanislaus College, Bathurst, contains photographs of Father Bill Irwin, CM.

• One photo shows "The ordination of Father Bill Irwin, CM" at the St Stanislaus College chapel.
  
• A second photo shows him cutting a cake: "Br. Bill becomes Father Bill Irwin".
  
• A third photo shows Father Bill Irwin with six Old Boys of St Stanislaus at Bill Irwin's ordination.