Former head of St Gregory’s College Campbelltown Brother ...

By Ian Walker
Daily Telegraph
August 11, 2014

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/former-head-of-st-gregorys-college-campbelltown-brother-peter-pemble-charged-with-child-indecent-assault/story-fni0cx12-1227020807471

Detectives began investigations last year after they received information about an assault on a child.

Former head of St Gregory’s College Campbelltown Brother Peter Pemble charged with child indecent assault

A FORMER Western Sydney catholic school headmaster is to face court next week over an alleged decades-old child indecent assault.

The former head of St Gregory’s College Campbelltown, 66-year-old Brother Peter Pemble, allegedly indecently assaulted a boy at Maitland between 1971 and 1972.

Detectives began investigations last year after they received information about an assault on a child.

At the time Br Pemble was studying at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium after he stepped down at St Gregory’s due to ill-health in 2008.

He returned to Australia and was questioned by detectives in Surry Hills on July 22 about the alleged Maitland assault.

Police charged him with three counts of indecent assault of a male and he was granted strict conditional bail to appear at Newcastle Local Court next Thursday.

Prior to working at St Gregory’s he had been the principal of Trinity Catholic College Lismore between 2001 and 2007.

Marist Brothers Professional Standards spokesman Brother Peter Carroll issued a statement regarding Br Pemble.

“Brother Peter Pemble was principal of Trinity Catholic College Lismore from January 2001 to December 2007,” he wrote.

“In July 2014 he was charged with an alleged indecent assault at Maitland in the early 1970s. This matter is now being dealt with by the appropriate legal processes.

“Br Peter Pemble and the Marist Brothers are co-operating fully with the authorities. This is a difficult and stressful time for all involved. We hope and pray for a speedy and just resolution to the issue.”

Marist Brothers have been embroiled in controversy since the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse commenced.

Former Marist Brother and convicted paedophile Gregory Joseph Sutton was sent overseas and told to stay there and live a new life when a warrant was issued for his arrest in 1989.

Br Sutton had confessed to a boy’s father about his abuse of the child at a school in Lismore between 1985 and 1987. Weeks later the brotherhood bought him a one-way ticket to the USA.

He was extradited to Australia in 1996 where he pleaded guilty to 67 charges relating to offences against 15 children. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Provincial head Brother Jeffrey Crowe in a letter to members of the Catholic order last month blamed failings of the order’s leadership for the crimes of pedophiles in its ranks in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

“On behalf of all Marist Brothers I acknowledge and apologise to their victims for the abuse and very real damage done to young people by their criminal actions,” he wrote.

Br Crowe said some were victims of the men because of “ineffective responses” and “inaction” by leaders.

“This is unacceptable and we deeply regret this failing.”