Former North Catholic Teacher Faces Sentencing in Australia

By Peter Smith
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
May 14, 2015

http://www.post-gazette.com/news/2015/05/14/Catholic-brother-who-taught-at-North-Catholic-High-School-sentenced-for-sexual-abuse-australia/stories/201505140294

Brother Bernard Hartman

A Roman Catholic brother who taught for years at North Catholic High School in Pittsburgh is facing sentencing in Australia after his convictions in Melbourne of sexual abuse of children in that country, according to an Australian news report.

Brother Bernard Hartman, 75, faces a July 8 court date related to his sentencing, according to county court records for the Australian state of Victoria.

Brother Hartman, a member of the St. Louis-based Marianist Province of the United States, was convicted of actions during his time as a teacher at a Catholic high school in Victoria in the 1970s and 1980s, according to the Maribyrnong & Hobsons Bay Star Weekly in Victoria.

He returned from the U.S. to Australia to face the charges.

A Victoria County Court judge Tuesday lifted a suppression order that had previously forbidden the release of information on the case by court officials or by Australian media, according to the newspaper. The lifting of the order came after the last of a series of trials involving Brother Hartman that began in April.

According to the Star Weekly, Brother Hartman pleaded guilty to four counts of indecent assault in the 1970s on two girls whose brothers attended the school where he taught, St. Paul’s College.

He pleaded not guilty to charges of abusing two boys but was convicted on one count of indecent assault and two counts of common law assault on one of the boys. He was acquitted of other charges.

Brother Hartman was assigned to North Catholic High School for brief periods in 1961 and 1979 and then from 1986 to 1997.

Peter Smith: petersmith@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1416; Twitter @PG_PeterSmith. First Published May 14, 2015 3:50 PM