Christian Brother Who Pleaded Guilty to Sexually Assaulting Boys in Nsw Has Bail Revoked

By Thomas Oriti
ABC News
November 7, 2014

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-07/christian-brother-who-assaulted-boys-bail-revoked/5874956

Desmond Eric Richards, also known as Brother Neil, taught at numerous schools run by the Christian Brothers Catholic order.

He spent the later years of his career at the Vatican, but was arrested when he visited Australia a year ago.

Earlier this year, he pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting four boys in the 1970s and 1980s.

The offences included touching a boy's genitals, and on one occasion he got into a boy's bed on a school camp at Arcadia in north-west Sydney.

One of the offences took place at St Patrick's Christian Brothers College in the southern NSW town of Albury, where Richards was headmaster.

The other charges relate to incidents at Bishop Henschke School in the Riverina town of Wagga Wagga and at St Patrick's College at Strathfield in Sydney's inner-west.

The boys were aged between 11 and 13.

Royal Commission contacted about timing of allegations

Desmond Richards' lawyer, Greg Walsh, told Downing Centre District Court the 75-year-old confessed to the crimes, even though he has no memory of them.

The court today heard evidence from Sydney psychiatrist Dr John Roberts, who confirmed the man is suffering from "cerebral deterioration", leading to memory loss.

Mr Walsh said that even though his client did not remember the incidents, he had not denied his past behaviour and had shown remorse.

He told the court Richards lived a "simple, monastic-type life" in a retirement village and was not a risk to the community.

"What is the need to interfere with his rehabilitation process?" Mr Walsh asked Judge Peter Zahra in his argument against a jail sentence.

In an unexpected move, Greg Walsh also told the court he had evidence that the allegations against Richards were first reported to the Church in 1997, more than a decade before police were told.

He has contacted the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse about the matter.

Judge Zahra described the offences as "serious", referring to evidence that "the level of corporal punishment had increased" after the boys were sexually abused.

Crown barrister Cameron Gardiner said the pattern of violent behaviour was "an assertion of some dominance and control" to ensure the victims kept their silence.

The court was also told that Richards had pleaded guilty to an indecent assault offence at Gosford on the New South Wales Central Coast in 2006, but was never sent to jail.

The judge revoked bail, and said that although the man's health and age should be considered, a jail term was still appropriate.

One of the victims and his family were in court and watched the hearing but chose not to address the media.

Richards will be sentenced later this month.