Marist Faces Dozens of Claims, by Victor Violante, Canberra Times, February 26, 2008

Marist Faces 'Dozens' of Claims

By Victor Violante
Canberra Times
February 26, 2008

http://canberra.yourguide.com.au/news/local/general/marist-faces-dozens-of-claims/1190148.html

Marist College was told as early as the 1970s that Brother Kostka Chute was molesting young students, but he was allowed to teach for a further 15 years, according to a civil claim seeking compensation for one of his alleged victims.

Also, dozens more claims will be lodged against the Marist Brothers organisation relating to alleged sexual offences by Kostka and two other former teachers at the Canberra school one, a former brother who taught in the 1970s, and the other Paul Lyons, who committed suicide in 2000 after he was charged with molesting a Daramalan College student in the 1990s.

Porters Lawyers partner Jason Parkinson, who is representing "dozens" of alleged victims in civil claims against the Marist Brothers organisation, told The Canberra Times yesterday that two further civil claims relating to alleged child molesting offences by Kostka will be lodged today.

The first of the claims against Kostka lodged in the ACT Supreme Court last week and alleging that at least three other former Marist teachers molested students between 1970 and 1986 comes on the back of a damning police investigation in which several victims told officers they had reported Kostka to school headmasters and teachers during the early 1980s and early 1990s.

Both in the criminal and civil proceedings, alleged and proven victims claim that several headmasters dating back to 1970 were aware of the sexual abuse of students at the hands of Kostka and other staff.

Kostka pleaded guilty in the ACT Magistrates Court last Thursday to molesting four students, some of them on an almost daily basis, in 1986 and 1987, while the boys were aged 13 and 14.

Charges relating to another two boys had to be dropped because they had occurred a few years earlier, when a statute of limitations applied.

Kostka is awaiting sentence for the admitted offences, amounting to 11 counts of committing acts of indecency on the four boys.

The admitted offences all occurred on the school's premises, including his office and the school theatrette, where he ran a movie club for students.

Mr Parkinson also confirmed that Marist College's insurer, Catholic Church Insurance, had offered to pay for psychiatric counselling for all of the plaintiffs.

The offer also extends to alleged victims of Paul Lyons during his time at Daramalan College, where he is also alleged to have offended.

"It's something we welcome, and we're pleased the Catholic Church Insurance is taking this step to assist the victims," Mr Parkinson said.

"Some of the victims will never be able to live independently and have been in and out of psychiatric facilities, so this is a real step forward towards healing."

In the first civil claim to be lodged, it is alleged Kostka molested the plaintiff, who cannot be named, in his office in 1990.

The former student alleges Kostka forced him on to his lap, where he touched his genitals and rubbed his own groin against the student's leg. The student managed to struggle free.

Following that, it's alleged Kostka made the student's life difficult, verbally harassing him and inappropriately touching him in class.

The plaintiff is seeking unspecified damages for harm arising from the alleged abuse, claiming the organisation breached its duty of care to him.

The statement of claim also sets out an alleged pattern of inaction by the school and the Marist Brothers organisation, in which they ignored complaints against Kostka and the other two alleged perpetrators spanning three decades.

The claim outlines an alleged incident in 1970.

The parents of an alleged victim informed the school headmaster that a brother at the school not Kostka, but not named at this stage had sexually assaulted their son by forcing him to sit on his lap and touching the child's genitals.

It is also alleged that the same brother sexually molested two students on a school rugby team's tour of New Zealand. When the incident was reported to a teacher on the tour, the teacher "considered it necessary to direct all of the children on the tour to ensure they locked their hotel room doors from the inside, and not allow any of the brothers from the school to enter the rooms under any circumstances."

It is further alleged that in about 1979, the mother of a child at the school complained to the headmaster that Kostka who taught at the school from 1976 to 1993 was showing pornography to students in class, taking children into his office and having them sit on his lap, and masturbating under his cassock in class.

The mother asked that Kostka be removed from the school, but was allegedly told by the headmaster at the time that "he was aware of Brother Kostka's behaviour as [she] described", and he had informed the provincial (the head of the Marist Brothers organisation in the region) of Brother Kostka's behaviour.

It is alleged the headmaster told the concerned mother that the provincial had refused to take any action against Kostka.

Also, it is alleged that a lay teacher, who regularly invited students back to his house for "extra tutoring", molested a student who spent the night in the lay teacher's bed after a tutoring session. When parents complained to the school's junior school and senior school principal and headmaster, the lay teacher was not removed, and he allegedly assaulted a further two students on a later occasion during a school camp.

The statement of claim also includes the allegations of one victim whom Kostka admitted last week in court to molesting. His allegation outlines that in 1986, after Kostka had molested him, his parents went to see the headmaster. It is alleged the then headmaster discouraged the parents from talking to police, instead "recommending very strongly" that they let him handle it internally. However, Kostka taught for a further seven years at the school, before he moved to a Marist Brothers retirement farm in Mittagong, NSW.

Kostka is due in the ACT Supreme Court next month for the start of sentencing proceedings, and he remains on bail on the condition he live with the order's current professional standards officer, Brother Alexis Turton.