Former Marist School Headmaster Admits "Failure" over Child Sex Abuse

The Guardian
June 13, 2014

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/13/former-marist-headmaster-admits-failure-child-sex-abuse

John Chute, also known as Brother Kostka, was convicted in 2008 of 19 child sex charges and jailed. Photograph: Alan Porritt/AAP

The former headmaster of Marist College Canberra told the child abuse royal commission he believed one of his teachers when he brushed aside an allegation of sexual assault because Marist brothers are meant to tell the truth.

Terence Heinrich said he approached John Chute, also known as Brother Kostka, after the father of a student complained Chute had "interfered" with his son.

When Chute said the allegation was just a misunderstanding, Heinrich said he believed him.

"That's the way we should be, that's the way we are – to be true and honest," Heinrich told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse on Friday.

It has emerged that during Chute's time at the school from 1976 to 1993 he allegedly abused 39 boys, at least nine of them during Heinrich's five years as principal from 1983.

The headmaster admitted he was "ill-equipped" to respond to the parent's complaint.

"The failure in all of this began with me," Heinrich said.

He felt uncomfortable hearing the complaint and did not ask for more details.

It later emerged the boy was abused repeatedly in 1986 during film nights at the school when Chute put his hands down the student's underwear and fondled him.

Despite Chute's denial, Heinrich took the matter to the Sydney-based provincial, Alexis Turton, after which he heard nothing more.

"It wasn't the done thing to question a superior."

A subsequent headmaster was told nothing of concerns surrounding Chute or the reason for his removal from the school in 1993.

The royal commission, currently sitting in Canberra, is looking at whether institutions responded adequately to reports of child sexual abuse.

In 2008 Chute was convicted of 19 child sex charges and jailed.

He has since been released.

The hearing is also considering the case of former brother Gregory Sutton.

The pair worked at schools in NSW, the ACT and Queensland during their careers which spanned a period from the 1950s to the 1990s.

In 1996 Sutton pleaded guilty to 67 charges of child sexual abuse and was jailed until 2008.

The hearing continues on Monday.