Don Mayo - a Sexual Abuse Victim's Battle to Be Believed

By Janet Fife-Yeomans
The Australian
April 25, 2013

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/don-mayo-a-sexual-abuse-victims-battle-to-be-believed/story-e6frg6n6-1226628974053

Don Mayo will give evidence at the Royal Commission into sex abuse

ALL child sex abuse victim Don Mayo wants is justice - but his story is so confronting, the Victims Compensation Tribunal at first said it could never have happened.

Now a well-known radio announcer, Mr Mayo was repeatedly raped as a boy by four brothers and a lay teacher at Christian Brothers College, Burwood.

Like most victims of childhood abuse, it took him decades before he could talk about it and, by then, his life "had fallen apart".

Now he is one of the thousands pinning their hopes on the royal commission into institutionalised child sex abuse to provide answers.

He went to the police, the Catholic Church's Christian Brothers and then to the VCT where assessor Shaun Keays-Byrne dismissed his claim.

"I have read (the) police statement and, in my opinion, it lacks credibility," Mr Keays-Byrne said in his 2008 judgment.

"I find it difficult to accept that the Brothers would repeatedly sexually abuse a child in such a blatant and open manner where there was clearly a high risk of being found out. I also find it difficult to accept that there would be four paedophiles located in the one school without similar complaints coming to light before now."

Assessor Keays-Byrne's decision has since been overturned by magistrate Geoff Cleary who was satisfied there was sufficient evidence to establish Mr Mayo had been raped while at the school and awarded him $40,000 compensation.

Mr Mayo, 50, who has had spots on 2UE, 2DAYFM and Coast Rock among other stations, said he would be giving evidence to the royal commission and he hoped that his willingness to talk about what happened would give others the confidence to come forward.

"I don't give a rat's backside about compensation. I would rather have those men behind bars but if that is not possible, then compensation is a recognition of what happened," he said.

His solicitor Peter Kelso called on survivors of child sex abuse to do "whatever they can to assist the royal commission to refer perpetrators to the police for further investigation with a view to criminal charges being laid".

Mr Keays-Byrne said he had retired from the tribunal, could not remember the case and would not be making a comment.

The Christian Brothers Oceania executive officer for professional standards, Brother Brian Brandon, said yesterday: "The events you are talking about happened a long time ago."