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	Christian Brother John Coswello Committed Child-Sex Offences at St Vincent's Boys' Orphanage in South Melbourne Broken Rites June 22, 2009 http://brokenrites.alphalink.com.au/nletter/page201-coswello.html In the Melbourne County Court on 15 May 2009, a jury found a Catholic religious brother guilty of committing sexual offences against a 12-year-old boy in a Melbourne orphanage. Brother John Francis Coswello (aged 70 at the time of the trial) has been a member of the Victoria-Tasmania province of the Christian Brothers for more than 50 years. On 22 June 2009 Judge Ross Howie sentenced Coswello to two years and ten months jail, with a minimum of 15 months to be spent behind bars before becoming eligible for parole. The charges related to St Vincent's Boys Home at 237 Cecil Street, South Melbourne, where Coswello worked durng the 1970s. The court was told that Coswello's duties included being in charge of a dormitory at night. The court was told that the boy was a ward of the state who was housed at St Vincent's between 1969 and 1976. He was not under the care of Brother Coswello, but he said he was sexually abused in the orphanage's Scout hall, which he attended for Scouts and which was directly below Brother Coswello's dormitory. The victim stated that the first event took place after a Scouts meeting when he was about 12 years old (1973-74). The incidents (he stated) then became a regular occurrence at night (Coswello would come and fetch him) over the next two years. The victim stated that he complained to the head Brother at St Vincent's but was told that he was lying and was strapped for it. The jury was shown a video taken of the St Vincent's Boys' Home, including the alleyway leading to the scout hall. The jury returned a verdict of GUILTY on two counts of indecent assault and three counts of gross indecency. The police investigation was conducted by Senior Detective Jason Crawford, of the South Melbourne Criminal Investigation Unit (C.I.U.). Background Brother John Francis Coswello was born on 10 January 1939 and (according to a church history book) he grew up in the St Alipius parish in Ballarat East, Victoria. He trained as a Christian Brother and spent the rest of his working life in the order. Throughout the 1970s, Br. John Coswello worked at St Vincent's Boys' Home, Cecil Street, South Melbourne. In the early 1980s, Bro. John Coswello taught at St Joseph's Technical School, South Melbourne. Beginning in the 1980s, he worked at Christian Brothers College (C.B.C.), St Kilda, Melbourne. He retired from teaching in 2006. He is still a member of the Christian Brothers. Edward's story "Edward" (not his real name), who was the victim in the Costello court case, was born in 1961. He was abandoned by his alcoholic parents and became a ward of the state. At the age of five, he was placed in an orphanage -- St Aidan's at Bendigo. At age eight, he was transferred to St Vincent's Boys Home, South Melbourne, where he spent the next seven years. He progressed through several dormitories there, one for the youngest boys, then one for slightly-older boys and so on. From the age of 11 or 12 onwards, he encountered Brother Coswello, and (the court was told) the sexual abuse continued for several years. But Edward had no parents to whom he could complain, and this left him vulnerable to the sexual abuse. Edward stated that boys at St Vincent's were given a minimal education, and this was a disastrous preparation for life. On leaving St Vincent's, Edward tried to cope as best he could with the adult world, but with great difficulty. He developed a drug problem and had trouble with the law. The lack of a family was a handicap for Edward. He has two older sisters but they regard him as the "black sheep" of the family. His two sisters shunned and abandoned him, just as his parents had done. He has one other sibling -- a younger brother -- but has lost contact with him. Eventually, in his early forties, someone arranged for Edward to see a counsellor, who identified the sexual abuse at St Vincent's as a big disruption in Edward's life. An appointment was made for Edward to have a chat with a police officer from Victoria's Sexual Offences and Child-Abuse (S.O.C.A.) unit. Detectives from the South Melbourne criminal investigation unit then made inquiries and laid charges against Brother Coswello. Other complaints Edward is not the only former boy from St Vincent's who has contacted the police about Coswello. But when Coswello's trial was held in May 2009 (on the charges relating to Edward), Edward did not know that other police units had complaints from two other alleged victims of Coswello -- and nor did the jury know this. For legal reasons, the County Court had ruled that the jury could be told only about Edward's complaint, not about any other victims. Therefore (again for legal reasons) the jury presumed that Coswello had offended against only one boy -- Edward.
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