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The Australian national office of the Catholic religious order of De La Salle Brothers has apologised for the behaviour of Brother Wilfred de Cruz, who used to sexually abuse boys at a De La Salle college (now called Southern Cross Catholic College) in Scarborough, north of Brisbane, in the 1970s and 1980s. Wilfred de Cruz was of Asian background. His surname is a Eurasian one which can be found in India, Burma and Malaysia. One former student, "John", told Broken Rites in 2006: "Brother Wilfred De Cruz sexually abused me dozens of times during a three-year period between 1980 and 1983, when I was aged 13 to 15. It happened in a shed near a duck pond at the school. "The pond had a fence around it, topped with barbed wire. The shed could be locked and he kept a pile of mattresses in one corner. John said Brother Wilfred D'Cruz would mawl the boy's genitals and would make John do the same to Brother Wilfred and he made John take part in oral sex. (In all these acts, Brother was committing a crime — indecent assault of a child.) John said that sometimes Brother Wilfred would give him five dollars or sometimes cigarettes. John said: "He was a friend of my family and he often came to our house for dinner during the three years that he was abusing me. I could not tell my family what he was doing to me because of the family's friendship." After lengthy negotiations, De La Salle's headquarters in Sydney gave John a written apology, signed by the order's Australian head, plus a financial settlement. Another former student, "Roger", had similar encounters with Brother Wilfred D'Cruz ten years earlier — in the early 1970s. Roger told Broken Rites in 2008: "I had Brother Wilfred De Cruz at De La Salle, Scarborough, during three consecutive years from 1970 to 1972, when I was aged from 12 to 14. I used to help him to look after the ducks in the pond. I used to see him around his shed at lunch time and sometimes I would stay back after school to help him. "He shoved his hands into my pants and tried to masturbate me. He also made he touch his genitals under the clerical frock that he wore." "Millie", of Scarborough, told Broken Rites in 1994: "About 1980, my son Andy (then aged 12) was attending a State school but he and his friends played in the De La Salle grounds at Scarborough after hours. I assumed that a church schoolyard was a safe environment. "Brother Wilfred befriended Andy and started phoning our house to speak to Andy. Later, I learned that Wilfred enticed Andy and his friends into secluded areas at the school and touched them sexually. On another occasion, Wilfred dropped his own trousers in the boys' presence. "I complained to the parish priest. He said he would attend to it and urged me not to tell anybody else. I now realise that this was a corrupt request because parents have a right to know when children are at risk. The church's cover-up only increases the danger. "Now, I regret that I did not make more fuss about the incidents and that I merely told the church, not the police." "Brian", of Scarborough, told Broken Rites in 1996: "Two of my friends were sexually abused by Brother Wilfred at Scarborough in the 1980s. They also knew about another sex-abuser at Scarborough, Brother Ibar Keating." An abusive headmasterBrother Ibar Keating, referred to by "Brian" in the previous paragraph, was appointed to De La Salle at Scarborough in 1981 and became the deputy principal and principal. Brother Ibar, too, committed indecent assaults on pupils at Scarborough (and elsewhere). Keating's superiors had known for years that he was a danger to pupils. See our story about Brother Ibar Keating here. |
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