A Christian Brother Pleads Guilty to Some of the Charges in Court

Broken Rites
May 13, 2015

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

Christian Brother William Peter Standen (known as Brother "David" Standen), who has taught at Catholic schools in Sydney and regional New South Wales, appeared in court on 13 May 2015 to answer 32 charges of indecent assault, allegedly committed against 18 schoolboys. Standen pleaded Guilty to 11 charges and Not Guilty to 15 charges, while the remaining six charges were withdrawn.

Standen submitted his pleas to a magistrate in the Goulburn Local Court in south-western New South Wales. The charges had been laid by detectives at Goulburn, where one of Brother Standen's former schools (St Patrick's College) was located. Police alleged that the offences were committed against boys at this school between 1978 and 1981.

All of Standen's pleas, including the Guilty and Not Guilty ones, will be referred now to the Sydney District Court, where the Standen case is scheduled to have a procedural mention on 5 June 2015. Those charges for which Standen has pleaded Not Guilty would necessitate a trial and therefore the case would be put on the District Court's waiting list for when a time-slot becomes available on the District Court's schedule.

After the District Court trial is completed, Standen would be sentenced by the District Court for any charges on which he will have been found guilty, including those on which he has already entered a Guilty plea.

Meanwhile, Standen remains on bail until his next court appearance in Sydney.

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 on 19 August 2014 at Sydney Airport when he arrived in Australia from abroad.

St Patrick's College Goulburn was formerly a boys-only boarding school, conducted by the Christian Brothers. According to a history book about this school, the Brothers’ involvement at St Patrick’s College was winding down by the mid-1990s. In 2000, the boys' college merged with a Catholic girls' school, Marian College, to become today's Trinity Catholic College Goulburn.

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.

Detectives at the Goulburn Detectives Office are continuing their inquiries. The investigators are Senior Detective Dave Turner and Senior Detective Michael Callegha. A leading officer in this unit is Detective Sergeant Matt Woods.