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	$30,000 after Abuse by Catholic Brother By Kate Dennehy Sydney Morning Herald July 26, 2009 http://www.smh.com.au/national/30000-after-abuse-by-catholic-brother-20090725-dwvw.html THE Catholic Church has paid more than $30,000 to a man for sexual abuse he suffered as a child in Queensland and New Zealand 30 years ago. Darryl Smith, who is mildly intellectually handicapped, said he was abused by brothers of the Hospitaller Order of St John of God (SJOG) in both countries. In 2003, the Queensland Police Sexual Crimes Investigation Unit received a complaint from Mr Smith saying he had been sexually assaulted by Brother Bede Donnellan, whose real name was John Joseph Donnellan. Mr Smith, 46, of Mataura in New Zealand said Donnellan had abused him at the Granada Hostel at Ashgrove in Brisbane's west in 1979 when he was aged 15. Donnellan died before facing possible charges but the Catholic Church's Professional Standards Office in Sydney, in its investigation last year, found that "on the balance of probabilities" Donnellan did sexually assault Mr Smith. This month Mr Smith received a cheque for $NZ30,000 ($23,150) and had his legal costs covered. He said last week he had hoped for double that amount but was happy to have the matter settled. "I had bills to pay and was really sick of it dragging on so I accepted their offer," he said. He received counselling for two years for post traumatic stress disorder he suffered because of the abuse. "I consider myself a survivor of abuse now, not a victim," he said. He was a ward of the state staying at the Queensland Government's Wilson Youth Hospital (later called the Sir Leslie Wilson Youth Detention Centre) at Windsor from 1979, aged from 15 to 19. Donnellan met Mr Smith at the hospital to access his "suitability" for possible work at the Granada Hostel and he agreed to give him a four-day trial. Mr Smith said Donnellan sexually abused him in his bedroom on the second night of his stay. He ran away from the hostel and was found by police at the Gold Coast. Donnellan died in 1995, and the hostel closed in 1985. Mr Smith was born in New Zealand but his family moved to Beenleigh, south of Brisbane in 1977. He joined them briefly in 1978 but he spent many years in and out of mental institutions, foster care, special needs boarding schools and prison. He said he was sexually abused by brothers at the SJOG Marylands Special School at Christchurch in New Zealand in 1971 when he was aged seven. The school housed intellectually disabled boys as well as state wards and orphans. In 2003, he received compensation for that abuse, although his alleged perpetrators were never charged, he said. Brother Peter Burke of SJOG's Australasian Province apologised to Mr Smith in 2002 when he was in New Zealand's Invercargill Prison serving a nine-year sentence for burglaries, theft and fraud. The letter said: "On behalf of the Order of St John of God and on my own behalf I offer you a deep and profound apology." The website of Australian victims' rights group Broken Rites says the SJOG specialised in accommodating boys with educational, behavioural or intellectual disorders. Since 1993 the group had discovered "numerous cases of vulnerable boys and young men who have been … abused in SJOG institutions". Investigations often were hampered because of the boys' disabilities. "The order has spent huge sums on legal teams to defend particular brothers against prosecution," the site says. "SJOG has been shamed into paying millions of dollars in civil settlements to many victims in Australia and New Zealand … but there are others who are still entitled to a settlement." SJOG brothers Bernard Kevin McGrath and Rodger Moloney have been convicted in both countries of child sex crimes. Mr Smith said he was writing a book about the abuse entitled A Shattered Life.
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