Catholic church has 'sociopathic disregard for sex abuse victims'

By Helen Davidson
Guardian (UK)
June 11, 2014

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/11/catholic-church-has-sociopathic-disregard-for-sex-abuse-victims

Jennifer Coate found medical reports specifically said there was no evidence of cognitive impairment as a result of De Marco's marijuana use.

A man who was abused as a child by a former Marist Brothers teacher accused the Catholic church of having a “sociopathic disregard for the welfare of victims” after its senior counsel attempted to discredit him as a witness by airing past drug use.

Damian De Marco told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse in Canberra that he had repeatedly warned the Marist Brothers that one of their members, brother Kostka Chute, had abused him and was still abusing other young students, but he was ignored and given false promises that Chute would be kept away from children.

Chute eventually admitted to abusing six boys and was jailed for two years in 2009.

On Tuesday afternoon Peter Gray, who was representing the Marist Brothers but is also representing the Catholic church's Truth, Justice and Healing council throughout the royal commission, sought to paint De Marco as a heavy marijuana user who likely had an affected memory as a result.

When cross-examining De Marco about his testimony, Gray asked if there was “anything else” that might have affected his memory.

“Do you mean drug use?” replied De Marco.

De Marco's legal representative, Peter O’Brien, objected to the line of questioning, and accused Gray of using euphemisms instead of asking a direct question.

Gray eventually asked De Marco specifically about cannabis use, outlined in a medical report which had not been submitted to the commission.

“As far as I'm concerned my memory hasn't been affected. It was recreational use … which occasionally during difficulties in my life became heavier for some short periods,” said De Marco.

He disputed suggestions by Gray that his use was “very likely” to have negatively affected his memory, and offered to draw a diagram if Gray wished.

In year 12 De Marco saw Chute building a relationship with a young boy, and he took his concerns to his new form master, John Doyle.

“I have an extremely vivid memory of my conversation with John Doyle; I have an extremely vivid memory of my conversation with [Marist Brothers provincial] Alexis Turton.”

O’Brien objected to the continued questioning until he could see the medical document Gray was citing. The commissioner, Justice Jennifer Ann Coate, agreed.

On Wednesday morning Gray continued to question De Marco's recollection of a 1993 meeting with Turton at Canberra airport, held in response to De Marco's allegations against Chute. Turton's notes from the meeting, written some time after and submitted in evidence, describe the meeting very differently from De Marco's recollection.

“The accusation was that it took place for three or four months, certainly not extreme, and not anything inside clothes or even genital. Nevertheless the young man felt quite uncomfortable,” said Turton's notes.

“It was not the sort of difficulty that he come out of school. I gave the assurance that [Chute] would be carefully supervised, that he would not be in situations where he was alone with boys, that he would go into therapy.”

On Tuesday, De Marco had said, “I clearly told him what had happened to me, that it wasn't just hugs.

“He had trapped me at the back of the storeroom and had tried to get his hands down my pants and had prevented me from getting away when I was trying to get away.”

Turton promised Chute would not be allowed to work with children again, De Marco said.

On Wednesday, Gray suggested De Marco had misremembered the conversation and he had, in fact, not communicated to Turton that he had been sexually assaulted by Chute.

De Marco disagreed, and said he described the assault to Turton.

“I wouldn't have gone to the provincial to tell him that I was being hugged,” he replied.

O'Brien asked him how he felt being asked questions by “the lawyers representing the Truth, Justice and Healing council, whose task it is to coordinate the church's response to the royal commission, about your drug use and suggesting to you that your memory had been affected by it”.

De Marco responded: “Given my experiences of their lack of response to try and find any other victims of sexual assault, that pretty obviously were probably out there … and that sociopathic disregard for the welfare of victims, I wouldn't have expected much less.”

De Marco was brought to tears a few minutes later when he received an apology from his abuser, Chute, via Chute's legal representative, Greg Walsh.

“Whilst [Chute’s] memory is not good, he has specifically asked me to tell you … that he today accepts that you have always told the truth and that what you have alleged is true and that he would have done that to you,” Walsh told De Marco.

“He used this term: ‘Please Greg, would you tell the man ... that I unreservedly apologise to him for what I did and that I'm very, very sorry.’ “

Before De Marco's testimony ended, Coate told Gray she wanted to draw his attention to the fact that upon reading the medical reports Gray was citing, she found they specifically said there was no evidence of cognitive impairment in De Marco as a result of marijuana use.

“I accept that,” said Gray.

Gray has previously sparked controversy during the royal commission hearings. In December numerous victims of child abuse and their supporters cried out in shock and walked out of a Sydney hearing after Gray quoted a Bible passage which read: “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such of these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.”