Marist Brother in Court on Indecent Assault Charges

Broken Rites
February 6, 2014

http://brokenrites.org.au/drupal/node/274

In Newcastle Local Court (New South Wales) on 5 February 2014, a Marist Brother (Darcy John O’Sullivan, known as Brother "Dominic") was committed for trial on eight charges of indecently assaulting four schoolboys in the 1970s. In written police statements, the former students alleged that they were indecently handled by Brother Dominic while in class, and they allegedly saw him placing his hands into other students’ shorts.

Brother "Dominic", now elderly, is retired from teaching and resides at a Marist Brothers facility in Queensland. He was charged under his birth name, Darcy John O'Sullivan. "Dominic" is the religious name that he adoped when he joirned the Marist Brothers.

Police charged Brother Dominic with having indecently assaulted the four boys, aged 14 and 15, at the Marist Brothers Hamilton school in Newcastle. The offences allegedly occurred in 1971 and 1972.

The court received written statements, signed by each of the ex-students.

The statement from one student alleged that Brother Dominic put his hand up the boy’s shorts and squeezed the boy's penis. The boy stated that he yelled at Brother Dominic: ‘‘F--- off and leave me alone’’.

The student stated that he ran from the classroom and told the school principal. The principal allegedly told the boy that Brother Dominic was just being friendly and he was sure it was an accident, and instructed the boy to return to class, according to the police statement.

‘‘I was scared of telling my parents as I felt ashamed,’’ the ex-student told police. ‘‘I was scared if my father found out he would be put in jail as I’m certain my father would have killed him.’’

Another former student said that he first met Brother Dominic after Brother Dominic had played Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring [by J.S. Bach] on the organ at Sacred Heart Church.

‘‘I remember hearing it and I thought it was fantastic and I went up and asked him about it,’’ the former student told police. ‘‘He spoke to me about the piece and he was clearly happy I was asking about it.’’

He alleged that some time later Brother Dominic approached him at the back of a technical drawing class and put his hand up the student’s shorts.

‘‘He was just talking calmly and softly. There was no reason that I would have been concerned,’’ the student said in his statement.

One ex-student who alleged Brother Dominic indecently assaulted him for nearly two years told police that he remembered the technical drawing classroom as a ‘‘dark and foreboding place’’.

‘‘I never told my parents what was happening and I don’t think it ever occurred to me back then to tell them,’’ he said in his police statement. ‘‘It just didn’t seem to be an option back then.’’

Brother Dominic has not yet entered pleas to the charges. The matter will return to court soon for the next step in the prosecution process.

Detectives from Newcastle Police are continuing their inquiries.