Catholic Order Fails to Expel Pedophile after $1.5m Fees

By Tessa Akerman
The Australian
May 23, 2015

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The Catholic Church has failed to expel jailed pedophile Robert Best from the Christian Brothers and the order has paid more than $1.5 million to cover his legal fees.

The fee to defend the child abuser is about half the total amount the Christian Brothers have paid in compensation to scores of victims of abuse in the scandal-plagued Ballarat diocese in western Victoria.

Best was jailed for 14 years and nine months in 2011 for abusing 11 boys, most of them aged between eight and 11, in Ballarat, Box Hill and Geelong between 1969 and 1988.

Despite this reign of terror, the Oceania province leader of the Christian Brothers, Brother Peter Clinch, said yesterday he had been told it was a “very complicated and lengthy” process to have someone expelled from the order.

“That’s where I left it really,” he conceded.

The admission came as Bill Shorten urged George Pell, now a cardinal at the Vatican, to return to Australia to give evidence to the commission if required.

“I do believe that George Pell should help the royal commission and if that means coming back to Australia to co-operate with the royal commission, he should,” the Opposition Leader said.