Lawyer Lauds Canberra's Role in Exposing Catholic Sex Abuse Scandals

By David Ellery
The Age
June 6, 2014

http://www.theage.com.au/act-news/lawyer-lauds-canberras-role-in-exposing-catholic-sex-abuse-scandals-20140606-zrzjc.html

The prosecution of Canberra Marist Brother John William Chute (aka Brother Kostka) in 2008 and subsequent six-figure civil compensation payouts were crucial in exposing the Catholic Church's sex abuse scandal nationwide, ACT lawyer Jason Parkinson says.

"The Marist Brothers cases [in the ACT] were pivotal in Australian history [in relation to abuse within the Catholic system]," he said.

"Because they were dealt with in open court, it exposed how the Catholic Church acted in private and people did not like what they saw. This led to the groundswell of disgust that contributed to the decision to establish the royal commission.”

Mr Parkinson, of Porters Lawyers, represented more than 20 alleged victims whose claims were settled between 2008 and December 2009.

Many of the claims had actually been lodged before Chute's conviction on 19 counts of indecently touching six boys aged between 12 and 16 between 1985 and 1989.

Cases relating to abuse at Marist College Canberra and Daramalan College were still being settled as recently as last year when the ACT Supreme Court awarded a payment of $135,000 to one victim after a very lengthy mediation process.

Chute's sexual predation was not limited to four years in the 1980s, however, with claims he used his privileged position as a Marist Brother, teacher and counsellor to assault dozens of boys over many decades. Seven charges dating from before 1985 had to be dropped due to issues with the statute of limitations.

Broken Rites Australia, a website dedicated to documenting sex abuse by clergy, claims his offending dates back to at least 1969.

Chute, who will turn 82 on June 13, took his vows in 1949 and was teaching at the age of 18. He had been sexually abused at the Marist Brothers Juniorate in Mittagong as a teenager. During his trial, the court was told Chute had made numerous requests to his superiors for treatment for a "psychosexual disorder".

"He asked for help and he received none until very late in the piece," Dr Chris Canaris said. "These factors, sadly, contributed substantially to his history of offending behaviour."

Chute went on to teach in at least 12 different Marist Brothers schools between 1952 and 1993, with Broken Rites listing Lismore, Marcellin College in Randwick, at least one school in Brisbane, Marist Primary in Queanbeyan and Marist College Canberra as places where he served.

Chute taught at Marist College Canberra from 1976 until 1993, when, after further complaints of abuse, his superiors transferred him to Sydney. Aged 61 at the time, he never taught again and later moved to a Marist Brothers retirement farm in the southern highlands.

Lay teacher Paul John Lyons taught at Marist College Canberra from 1975 to 1987 before being appointed to the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart's Daramalan College, also in Canberra. He was the sports teacher at Daramalan, which is a coeducational college, from 1989 to 2000. That was when he took his own life after being charged with sexually abusing a 15-year-old student.

That scandal was kept under wraps until 2007, when a national newspaper threatened to expose claims of widespread paedophilia involving Lyons. Daramalan College responded by issuing a call for students who may have been abused to come forward. It has been reported that, in a taped record of interview with police, Lyons confessed to taking students to his home, showing them pornographic movies and, in one case in 1989, massaging a boy and then masturbating him. He committed suicide shortly after making that confession and the matters never proceeded to trial.

Victor Violante, the Canberra Times journalist whose investigative work played a vital role in bringing the abuses at Marist College Canberra and Daramalan College to light, reported in 2009 that five known child molesters, four of whom were eventually convicted, had taught at Marist College between 1976 and 1982.

Brother Gregory Sutton was jailed for 12 years in 1996, Brother Gregory Carter was jailed for 18 months in Queensland in 1997 and Brother Peter Spratt was fined $2000 in 1979.

Spratt, Lyons and Chute were all teaching at Marist College Canberra in 1979.

In 1986, Chute taught year 7 at Marist College and Lyons, a former student and close friend of Kostka's, taught year 8.

The Marist Brothers responded with a strong denial of any suggestion there had been a paedophile ring in operation in Canberra.

"The brothers' own independent investigations have shown 'there was never any collusion between the abusers'," Catholic Voice quoted Marist provincial Brother Jeffery Crowe as saying.