A Christian Brother changed his name after being in jail

Broken Rites
April 30, 2014

http://brokenrites.org.au/drupal/node/288

A Melbourne court has been told that a former Christian Brother, who spent five years in jail for child-sex offences, has changed his name to avoid publicity.

The former Brother, now known as "Ted Bales", appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on 29 April 2014.

This hearing was an administrative procedure. The court adjusted his bail conditions and released him until the next step in the prosecution process in July 2014.

Bales, aged 64, of Thomastown in Melbourne's north, faces 48 charges of indecent assault and gross indecency against 14 boys in the 1970s and 1980s.

Bales spent his working life as a member of the Christian Brothers' Victorian province, teaching in various schools including in Ballarat,  Warrnambool, Geelong and Melbourne. The court was told that Bales was convicted in the 1990s for sex-offences committed during his teaching career. He then spent five years in prison.

His defence lawyer told the Melbourne Magistrates Court that Bales had changed his identity to avoid publicity because his name came up whenever the media reported on crimes involving the Christian Brothers. Bales' previous name was not disclosed during this court hearing.

In the bail procedure, Magistrate Peter Reardon allowed Bales to report to police once a week, instead of twice. Mr Reardon said that Bales was not a high flight risk. He noted that Bales was not his original name, and that there was a stigma attached to people who committed crimes.

"That's just a reality," the magistrate said.

Detective Senior Constable Colleen Connolly (of the Sano Taskforce in the Victoria Police) said that police did not oppose changes to Bales' bail conditions as the police did not believe he would try to run. She said that Bales visited his elderly mother three times a week, had close family ties, and did not possess a passport.

Bales is alleged to have indecently assaulted males in Ballarat, and Warrnambool (in regional Victoria) and in Forest Hill (a Melbourne eastern suburb) between 1970 and 1975 and in Geelong, East Melbourne and Melbourne's Lower Templestowe between 1980 and 1984. Two of the males were aged under 16 when they were allegedly assaulted.
Bales is charged with indecent assault and an act of gross indecency against a male under 16 in East Melbourne between 1983 and 1984.

He is also charged with the sexual penetration of a person under the age of 16 in Lower Templestowe in 1983, as well as charges of indecent assault against that victim.

Bales was arrested by the Sano Taskforce, which was established by Victoria Police Sex Crime Squad to investigate historic and new allegations arising from the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child sex abuse.

Ted Bales is scheduled for another mention in court on in July 2014. The case is Number E.11272388 in the court listings.