Child sex victims outraged over jailed Marist Brother's sales job, by Joanne Mccarthy, Newcastle Herald (June 13, 2015)

Child sex victims outraged over jailed Marist Brother's sales job

By Joanne Mccarthy
Newcastle Herald
June 13, 2015

http://www.theherald.com.au/story/3144513/child-sex-victims-outraged-over-jailed-marist-brothers-sales-job/

A MARIST Brother who was jailed in 2001 for sexual intercourse with a 12-year-old boy, but remains a Marist Brother, is selling comic books and school resources for the order through its official Australian schools website.

Brother Terry Gilsenan was jailed for offences against the boy in the 1980s, but has been the order’s contact person for sales of the ‘‘Champagnat Comic Book’’, and ‘‘cards, posters and publications for your school or ministry’’, for an unknown period until this week.

He was a teacher at Hamilton Marist Brothers in 1995-96.

He is identified only as ‘‘Brother Terry’’ on the Marist Schools Australia website, but can be contacted directly on an email address, land line and mobile phone numbers that are available from the website.

Gilsenan’s email address is also listed as contact point for the ‘‘Champagnat Comic Book’’ about Marist Brothers founder, St Marcellin Champagnat, in a Marist Brothers newsletter advertisement in March.

Marist Brothers Provincial Brother Jeffrey Crowe this week defended the order’s decision to place a convicted child sex offender’s direct contact details on a Marist Schools Australia website, but it has outraged victims’ advocate Bob O’Toole and NSW Greens Justice spokesman David Shoebridge.

‘‘Have they learnt anything from the royal commission?’’ said Mr O’Toole, who was sexually abused by a Marist Brother in the 1950s and was a key driver in the campaign for a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

‘‘I don’t begrudge a man making a living even if he is convicted, but why put him in a position like that working directly with schools, and where any child can inadvertently make contact with him simply by accessing the Marist Schools Australia website?’’ he said.

The failure to include Gilsenan’s surname, and naming him simply as ‘‘Brother Terry’’ on the website and in the advertisement, prevented people from having any ability to identify him as a child sex offender, Mr O’Toole said.

Mr Shoebridge said it was ‘‘unbelievable’’ that the order could consider it reasonable to make a convicted child sex offender the contact point for a children’s comic book.

‘‘There’s no effective screening between him and children,’’ Mr Shoebridge said.

‘‘Not only that, but there would be no reason for anybody to think they should have concerns because he retains all the status of being a Marist Brother, and his contact details are available on the order’s own website.

‘‘The Marist Brothers are still in denial, despite everything we’ve heard at the royal commission.“In 2015 no one with responsibility for educating children should have to be told it is wrong, in fact culpable, to have a convicted paedophile selling comic books.”

Gilsenan declined to comment when contacted on Wednesday.

‘‘At the present moment I’d like not to continue with this conversation,’’ he said.

In a statement this week in response to questions from the Newcastle Herald, Brother Jeffrey Crowe said Gilsenan’s position was ‘‘essentially an office role’’.

‘‘In this role, he has no contact with children, nor does he visit schools or any places that are regularly attended by children,’’ Brother Crowe said

Gilsenan had ‘‘carried out his tasks professionally and without incident’’.

‘‘It is the view of the Marist Brothers that Brothers who have been convicted can be gainfully employed, provided the strictest conditions are met.

‘‘Bother Terry’s role and these conditions were considered appropriate for someone in his circumstances. They are regularly reviewed.

‘‘In our experience, this is the best approach for the wider community as well as the Brother concerned.’’