It Is Never Too Late to Contact the Police

Broken Rites
July 4, 2014

http://brokenrites.org.au/drupal/node/298

Police have charged a 77-year-old man with child-sex offences, allegedly committed while he was working as a Christian Brother in Western Australia more than 40 years ago.

In a statement released on 3 July 2014, West Australian Police said that the alleged victim, who was aged seven to eight at the time, attended social events at the Christian Brothers Agricultural School near Tardun, Western Australia, between 1970 and 1971.

“It is alleged that during these events the boy was indecently assaulted by a Brother at the school,” the police statement said.

The 77-year-old man has been charged with two counts of indecent dealing with a boy under 14 years.

The man now lives in Broome (2,100 kilometres north of Perth), and he is scheduled to appear soon in the Broome Magistrates Court, where the charges will be officially laid.

Tardun agricultural school

Tardun is a township 360 kilometres north of Perth. There the Christian Brothers operated an orphanage-type institution called St Mary's Agricultural School, which closed in 2009. This institution has been mentioned in several public inquiries that have investigated church-related sexual abuse, the most recent being Australia's national Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in 2014. To see more from Broken Rites about the Tardun institution and the Royal Commission.