A former senior teacher at Marist College Canberra said he cannot recall being told in 1986 that Brother Kostka Chute was a child molester but he stopped short of denying the conversation ever took place.
John Doyle gave testimony by phone from London on the same day a witness told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse in Canberra that the Marist Brothers had long had a culture of condoning the unacceptable and that going to confession (about acts of abuse) was regarded as "washing dirty water off their chests".
Witness AAJ, who says he was abused at Marcellin College in Randwick by Chute in 1960, said on Wednesday that while women were out of bounds, boys were considered acceptable.
Earlier in the day, former Marist College Canberra student Damian De Marco, who says he has a vivid recollection of speaking to Mr Doyle about Chute in 1986, told the commission he was not surprised that the lawyer representing Marist Brothers had used Mr De Marco's past drug use to question his testimony.
"Given their [the Marist Brothers'] sociopathic disregard of the welfare of the victims, I wouldn't have expected much less," Mr De Marco said.
Justice Jennifer Coate told the hearing the psychologist's report on which Marist Brothers advocate Peter Gray was basing his statements of drug use by Mr De Marco indicated he had sustained no cognitive impairment.
Mr De Marco said his experiences at Marist College Canberra had been a factor in his marijuana use.
When he returned to the stand on Wednesday morning he was closely questioned by Mr Gray over statements his complaints about Chute in 1986 and 1993, which centred on an assault on himself in 1981, had effectively been ignored by the Marist Brothers.
Mr De Marco said he had spoken to Mr Doyle in 1986 and Marist Brothers Provincial Brother Alexis Turton in 1993.
Mr Gray put it to Mr De Marco that he may not have spoken to Mr Doyle but another teacher. Mr De Marco denied this.
Mr Gray also put it to Mr De Marco that when he told Brother Turton of an assault on him by Chute in 1981, he (De Marco) had said it had not been significant.
"I would not have gone to the provincial to tell him I had been hugged," Mr De Marco replied. "I regarded it [Chute's action] as a sexual assault on me."
Mr Doyle said he had become aware of Mr De Marco's statements regarding their alleged conversation about Chute about six years ago and, despite having thought long and hard, he had no recollection if it.
Counsel assisting the royal commission, Simeon Beckett, read out a statement by Mr Doyle's then principal, Brother Terrence Heinrich, in which he told an insurance adjuster: "I have the vaguest of memories of a meeting in my office in which he [Mr Doyle] made some reference to Kostka. There were no specifics if I remember correctly but a concern about Kostka. My reaction, I think, was that, 'I've raised this with the provincial and I will do it again.' I think that is what happened."
Mr Doyle described Chute as "a gregarious teacher with a big personality". He said he had admired him for his ability to control students and have a well-ordered classroom, skills at that stage he himself did not have.
"He [Chute] provided me with support at this time and I was very grateful for his assistance."
The Marist Brothers, through their insurers, have paid out $6.84 million to 38 of Chute's victims since 2008, when he pleaded guilty to 19 counts of sexual abuse against six former students.
At 65, witness AAJ, who has yet to receive compensation, is Chute's oldest known victim. He told the royal commission he had been made to dress as a woman and kiss Kostka in the presence of other students in 1960. "I was 12 years old and in year 6; Brother Kostka at that time was about 26 years of age," he said.
AAJ said after a period of grooming, Chute's attentions had escalated to putting his fingers inside AAJ's shorts and underwear.
