Clergyman Denies Lying to Abuse Victim

Sky News
January 23, 2014

http://www.skynews.com.au/topstories/article.aspx?id=944260


The former principal of a Marist boarding school has denied he lied to an abuse victim by telling him he did not know a brother was abusing boys.

Br Gerald Burns is in the witness stand for the second day of a royal commission hearing into the Catholic Church's internal process for dealing with abuse complaints.

He was principal at St Augustine's College, Cairns, in the 1980s when a man named DK was abused by three brothers, one of whom, Ross Murrin, was later jailed for molesting children in Sydney.

Br Burns has denied to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that he said at a Towards Healing mediation hearing with DK in 2010 that he knew nothing of Murrin's abuse of other boys in 1981.

He said he was not asked by DK at that meeting what he knew and said that a record of the meeting by mediation facilitator Michael Salmon was not accurate.

Mr Salmon, who is the Catholic Church's director of Professional Standards in NSW/ACT, noted after the first meeting the two brothers, one of who was Burns, 'essentially said they had no knowledge of Murrin's unacceptable behaviour and nor did they accept that they should have known'.

Br Burns, who is now retired, said 'I think that's quite inaccurate. Quite inaccurate.

'If I had said it, it would not have been true,' he told Justice Peter McClellan, who is chairing the hearing in Sydney.

Br Burns said at the time of the mediation meeting he was aware that DK knew of his knowledge about other complaints against Murrin but never raised it.

His memory of the mediation meeting was that DK was just asking about the abuse against himself and why Br Burns had not taken action when DK's grades dropped dramatically.

Justice McClellan asked: 'So the fact of the matter is if Mr Salmon has got it right, you did not tell the truth at the meeting; is that where we end up?'

Br Burns replied: 'I see that as creating one condition under which I might say that, no, I wasn't telling the truth.'

DK told the hearing, which opened in December, that he wanted Br Burns and other brothers at the mediation because he felt 'they were aware of the abuse at the school and covered it up'.

At Wednesday's hearing Br Burns said he had talked to Murrin about inappropriate behaviour and had accepted his assurances that it would not happen again.

He repeated at Thursday's hearing that he would have considered the touching of genitals as a moral lapse not a criminal act at the time.

He was asked whether now he would be ashamed that as a senior member of the Marist Order he did not take stronger action against Murrin.

Br Burns said that from today's perspective 'I have a big regret that our understanding of the whole issue of abuse is not what it is now'.

The hearing continues.