Demands Grow for Paedophile Priest's Altona Meadows Street Name to Be Scrapped

By Goya Dmytryshchak
Hobsons Bay Weekly
December 5, 2012

www.hobsonsbayweekly.com.au/story/1164267/demands-grow-for-paedophile-priests-altona-meadows-street-name-to-be-scrapped/?cs=1455

Haunting: A drawing by Marie, as part of her recovery from childhood clergy abuse.

VICTIM of paedophile Catholic priest Victor Rubeo has come forward to praise moves to change the Altona Meadows street name that honours the man she labels a ‘‘psychopathic monster’’.

Marie, who asked that only her first name be used, said she had written to Hobsons Bay Council in a bid to find out if Rubeo Avenue was named after the priest, who she says first abused her when she was five.

In October 1996, Rubeo pleaded guilty in the Ringwood Magistrates Court to two counts of indecent assault against Tony Hersbach and his twin brother Will, committed at Laverton in 1967 when the boys were 14. Rubeo, 78, died last December 16, the day he was meant to front a committal hearing in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on 30 new child sex abuse charges committed against the Hersbach twins.

As reported in the previous Weekly, Point Cook woman Christine Dunsmore and her mother Jen Austin have petitioned the council to change the name of Rubeo Avenue.

Following our report, Marie from Gippsland contacted the Weekly, saying the street name had been ‘‘eating away’’ at her for years.

‘‘It filled me with horror to think that a street had been named after this heinous, barbaric, evil man.’’

Marie said she wrote to the council five years ago and again on March 26, 2010, unsuccessfully seeking confirmation that Rubeo Avenue was named after the priest.

Marie said she received a letter from Altona Laverton Historical Society on July 16, 2010, confirming that the street was named after the first Laverton parish priest.

The letter’s author, society member Ann Cassar, told the Weekly that she had no idea at the time why Marie was inquiring, but in her subsequent research she uncovered Rubeo’s paedophile activities.

Rubeo operated in the Altona-Laverton district from 1962-1973, starting as assistant at St Mary’s in Altona in 1962, becoming administrator of Queen of Peace in 1964 and acting as parish priest of St Martin dePorres from 1969-1972.

In 1999, Marie reported her abuse by Rubeo to the Melbourne Archdiocese, which continues to pay for her counselling.

‘‘Abuse with Rubeo started for me when I was about five,’’ Marie said. ‘‘It continued until 1972 when I was about nine.’’ She will be making a submission to the Victorian inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious organisations, and to the parallel investigation by Victoria Police.

In the introduction of her submission to the inquiry, Marie states: ‘‘I am a survivor of abuse perpetrated by an organised systemic ring of Catholic priests, brothers and nuns in the state of Victoria during the 1960s to 1974.

‘‘As a survivor of clergy abuse within the Catholic Church, I’ve struggled all my life with the overwhelming, enduring and pervasive impacts and consequences of the abuse, some of which was quite sadistic in nature.

‘‘The impact of the abuse I suffered, the aberrant evil I witnessed, and the sense of betrayal, was so great, that my belief and trust in God as a child was completely annihilated.

‘‘Nothing will ever erase the deep feelings of shame I carry and the horrifying memories I have of being taken as a child, with other children, to the Corpus Christi seminary and being systematically abused by seminarian priests.Marie said: ‘‘As a child I was told that the seminary was a place where priests learned to be priests.’’

Marie said three of her abusers were dead but some were still alive.

A petition to the council has 29 signatories supporting the street’s name change — 13 from one house.

One house supplied 13 signatures.

‘‘Some residents felt very strongly about the street name being changed,’’ Ms Dunsmore said.

‘One resident was a victim of a child sex offender, so for her, the name of the street being changed meant so much. She was adamant that the street name be changed.’’

Of the respondents to the petition, 41per cent wanted the street name changed. Nineteen per cent did not.

Wetlands ward councillor Luba Grigorovitch said the request was ‘‘very sound and very justified’’ and she was confident there would be no resistance.