Retired Brother Likely to Face New Charges

Newcastle Herald
December 19, 2012

www.theherald.com.au/story/1193753/retired-brother-likely-to-face-new-charges/?cs=12


INVESTIGATORS expect to lay further charges against a retired brother who allegedly indecently assaulted two students at a Hunter Marist Brothers college during the 1960s and 1970s.

Strike Force Georgiana detectives, tasked with investigating historical sexual and indecent assault allegations levelled at several Hunter priests, travelled to Cook, about 10kilometres north west of Canberra, this month to interview the 80-year-old man.

He was later charged with three counts of indecent assault allegedly committed against two victims while they were at school in the 1960s and 1970s. 

The retired brother was granted bail to appear in Newcastle Local Court on January 29, 2013.

Police said the arrest stemmed from information received from two former students who spoke with investigators on November 21 and December 3 this year. 

Detectives refused to divulge  the school at which  the alleged offending occurred   when contacted by the Newcastle Herald yesterday. 

The investigation is ongoing and police expect to lay further charges. 

Police have urged anyone who has been the victim of indecent or sexual assault, no matter how long ago, to come forward. 

Last month Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced a Royal Commission to probe decades of child abuse in churches, schools and foster homes. 

The announcement was made about four months after the suicide of John Pirona, a victim of a notorious Hunter paedophile priest, triggered the Herald’s Shine the Light campaign.