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Marist brother Alexis Turton told royal commission ...
Courier-Mail
Marist brother Alexis Turton told royal commission he wasn’t sure if touching children was a crime A MARIST brother who held high positions in the order up to 2012 has said he would have had to get expert advice about whether intimately touching a child was a crime. Alexis Turton who has been vice-provincial, then provincial and was until 2012 head of the orders’ professional standards office has told the Royal Commission into Institutional Handling of Child Sexual abuse, he knew sexual intercourse with a child was a crime in the 80s. He was giving evidence in the case of former brother Gregory Sutton who was jailed in 1996 for 67 counts of sexual abuse against boys and girls in NSW, Queensland and the ACT. Br Turton became involved in 1985, when as vice-provincial he visited St Carthage’s school in Lismore where the principal had raised concerns about Sutton’s behaviour with primary school girls. He told the commission he was not aware in 1985 that Sutton had a history of abuse at other schools, specifically at a primary school in far North Queensland where the principal had told the order Sutton was interfering with boys. As far as he knew, there were no files the order had that would record his history. He told Simeon Beckett, counsel for the commission, that in 1985 he would have considered an adult having sexual intercourse with a child to be a crime but while he knew touching was wrong he would have to check if it was criminal. Mr Beckett: “Are you seriously saying that if an adult touched a child on the vagina, for example, that that was to your knowledge, not a crime in 1985 and 1987?” Br Turton: “No, I couldn’t say that to my knowledge that it wasn’t a crime. I certainly couldn’t say that. I would know it would be very wrong and probably criminal, but I would want to go to an expert if it came to a definition.” Mr Beckett: “What if a child was made to touch an adult, a man for example on the penis. Did you consider in 1985 to 1987, whether that was a crime?” Br Turton said: “I would consider it definitely to be wrong”. He also told the commission he did not interpret “inappropriate behaviour” as specifically relating to sexual assault. When Sister Julia, the principal at St Carthage’s informed the order she had sent letters to Sutton about his behaviour, Br Turton saw them as warning in the industrial relations sense and did not act to remove Sutton. He was finally moved in 1987 but Br Turton said he was not responsible for that because it was in the hands of the then provincial Br Alman Dwyer
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