The Cathnews
December 6, 2011
http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=29328
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The Age reports that a Catholic religious brother has escaped justice for more than three decades over his alleged serial abuse of Victorian children and teenagers in the 1970s and 1980s, due partly to the failure of the church to notify police of complaints about his conduct.
More alleged victims have contacted the newspaper after a news report on Saturday about the fight of one alleged victim to have the brother charged by police for his alleged sexual abuse of her in the 1970s.
The emergence of several alleged victims greatly increases the ability of Victoria Police to extradite the religious brother from the United States to face sexual abuse charges, the newspaper adds.
It said the church failed to tell the victim (from Saturday's news report) or the police that she was not the only complainant.
The Melbourne Catholic archdiocese reportedly said it had no record of any complaints made against the brother.
The wooman reported the brother to the Church in 1999 and also received a written apology from him, who in the 1990s left Australia for the US, the paper reports.
The Age has learned that another female victim, who asked for her identity to be protected, claims she told several Melbourne Catholic church officials in about 1993 that she had been sexually abused by the brother, and claims she was told by church officials that Brother Hartman would be "monitored" by the church in the US.
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