A Christian Brother "will plead guilty" on assault charges

Broken Rites
September 17, 2014

http://brokenrites.org.au/drupal/node/303

A Christian Brother charged with the indecent assault of boys while he was a teacher in New South Wales, is likely to plead guilty, a court has been told.  Brother David Standen, 65, a senior member of the Catholic order of Christian Brothers, has been charged regarding his time as a teacher at St Patrick's College, Goulburn, in southern NSW, three decades ago.

Standen appeared in Goulburn Local Court on 17 September 2014 for a brief preliminary procedure  His lawyer (Greg Walsh) told the court that the defence expects the forthcoming court process to be a short one, involving negotiation with the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

“I can indicate they are likely to be pleas of guilty,” Mr Walsh told Magistrate Geraldine Beattie.

The matter will come up again soon in the Goullburn Local Court for the next step in the prosecution procedure.

Standen is charged with 11 counts of indecent assault on males. Police allege that the assaults were committed against eight boys aged 12 while Standen was teaching at St Patrick’s College in Goulburn between 1978 and 1980.  (This former boys' boarding school has since been replaced by Trinity Catholic College Goulburn, which is for girls and boys.)

According to documents tabled in court, Brother Standen was charged under his birth name, William Peter Standen. The documents gave his date of birth as 4 April 1949.

[In the Christian Brothers order, his religious name is Brother "David" Standen. Within the Christian Brothers, he has also been listed as Brother "W.D." Standen.]

Police arrested Standen at 7.15am on 19 August 2014 at Sydney Airport.

During his teaching career, Brother Standen also spent six years as the deputy principal at St Dominic's College, Penrith, in western Sydney. And he was the principal of St Mary's Cathedral College in inner-Sydney for a decade before he retired in 2010.

The prosecution file has been prepared by the Goulburn Detectives Office in southern NSW. The detectives are continuing their inquiries. The investigators are Senior Detective Dave Turner and Senior Detective Michael Callegha.