Child Sex Abuse Inquiry: Issue of Marist Brothers" Indemnity against Legal Action Is Raised at Inquiry
By Ewan Gilbert
Concern over the Catholic Marist Brothers' indemnity against legal action by victims of child sexual abuse was the subject of an email sent by a lawyer for Brothers being questioned at an inquiry. The email, produced on the last day of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse hearings in Canberra, was sent to the Catholic Marist Brothers in 2009, warning them about convicted paedophile Brother John Kostka Chute. In it, lawyer Howard Harrison warned Marist Brothers provincial Jeffrey Crowe and director of professional standards Brother Alexis Turton that the Brothers could be at risk from Brother Kostka's "honesty". "Just back from Canberra," Mr Harrison wrote in the email after visiting Brother Kostka in jail. "Regrettably quite upfront about various discussions with provincials over the years. I think we will have some problems with indemnity in due course. "CCI [Catholic Church Insurance] will probably argue that Provincial response was inadequate - should have followed up, taken him [Brother Kostka] out of school... "We would need to keep him well away from the legal arena upon release." It continued: "[The] trouble is fundamentally he has high honesty and integrity levels, and all of my 'suggestions' about not dumping on others excessively go out the window pretty quickly once there is a conversation under way." Brother Kostka taught at Catholic Schools across the country for more than 20 years and in 2008 was jailed for the sexual abuse of six children. A further 46 people have come forward to seek compensation for abuse by Brother Kostka. The Catholic Church and the Marist Brothers both claimed they had little to no prior knowledge of the abuse, and their insurance company was required to cover the compensation payouts. But Brother Kostka maintains that he did ask senior Marist Brothers several times over the years for help with his problems. Marist Brother denies cover-up over paedophile During the final minutes of the hearings in Canberra, the lawyer who produced the email, Peter O'Brien, put to Brother Turton that the email exposed a cover-up. "He [Mr Harrison] is saying to you in this email, 'We need to keep him [Brother Kostka] away from the legal arena because he is going to say that the provincials knew, that the Marist brothers knew, he was a sexual abuser of children'?" Mr O'Brien asked. "That 'When he gets out of jail, let's keep him away from the civil litigation that is going, because he may well say things that are honest?', correct?" But Brother Turton denied that was correct. The hearings in Canberra have run over time, meaning Brother Turton and Brother Jeffrey Crowe will be called to Sydney on June 30 to continue giving evidence and be cross-examined. Total compensation payouts for complaints against Brother Kostka have to date reached $6.84 million.
|
.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.