By Shannon Deery
Herald Sun
March 9, 2011
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/catholic-school-predator-ruined-boys-lives-in-the-1960s/story-e6frf7kx-1226017968476
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| Peter Paul Van Ruth, of Adelaide, pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent assault. Source: Herald Sun |
A FORMER Catholic brother who molested two 12-year-old boys in his charge in the 1960s could be freed in just 16 months.
Peter Paul Van Ruth, 64, who has told police he is still interested in boys in a "sexual way", was yesterday jailed for two years and four months.
But a judge said he would be eligible for parole in 16 months. He will be on the sex offenders' register for life.
Van Ruth, of Adelaide, pleaded guilty in the County Court to three counts of indecent assault of the boys.
The abuse began just weeks into his appointment as a dormitory master and teacher at Sunbury's Salesian College in the late 1960s.
Judge Jane Campton said his abuse had a devastating impact on his victims.
One victim said Van Ruth, who was then 22, selected the most vulnerable victims. "He would walk up and down the dormitory and then the abuse would happen as soon as lights out," the victim said.
The first victim was upset about being separated from his family; the second was also upset after learning that his grandmother had died.
One said the abuse happened many times but he felt powerless to tell anyone. He said he believed staff and pupils knew of the abuse but nothing was done.
"The person I thought was supposed to help when I needed it became a predator," he said.
Van Ruth told police he had made "a misguided effort to initiate a sex education program".
Van Ruth, who also then coached the junior cricket and football teams, was transferred to a non-teaching position with Salesians in South Australia in late 1969.
He was refused entry to the priesthood but remained a teacher in state schools, married, and had three children.
He returned to the Catholic education system in 1978 and became a principal. He lost his job in 2006, when the abuse was revealed.
Contact: deerys@heraldsun.com.au
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