Marist Brother Jailed for Sex Abuse in Nsw

Sky News
June 18, 2015

http://www.skynews.com.au/news/national/2015/06/18/marist-brother-jailed-for-sex-abuse-in-nsw.html

A Marist Brother has been sentenced to at least eight years in prison for sexually assaulting 19 schoolboys in NSW over a 15-year period.

Francis William Cable, known as Brother Romuald, was found guilty over four counts of buggery and 21 counts of indecent assault at Catholic schools where he taught in the Hunter region and Sydney between 1960 and 1974.

Victims and their supporters cheered and clapped in a Sydney court as Justice Peter Whitford handed down the sentence on Thursday.

In sentencing Cable, Judge Whitford said the 83-year-old systematically abused his position of power as a teacher and schoolmaster to prey on the schoolboys.

'(He was) capable of determining their vulnerability. Indeed it seems he might have picked his victims because of their frailties.'

The court heard Cable molested some victims during one-on-one sexual education classes he was entrusted to give, or while swimming and playing games with them at the beach or local baths.

Other victims he asked to stay back after school before forcing them to perform oral sex, raping them, and hitting them so they would remain quiet.

One boy who resisted Cable when assaulted at a beach had the teacher's thumbs pressed into his eyes so the boy wouldn't bite.

In another instance of abuse, Cable blessed one boy in Latin after assaulting him and said, 'Remember our little secret'.

'Inevitably, (the abuse) has profound impacts on their lives,' Judge Whitford said.

'It is one of the many reasons this kind of offending is so abhorrent.'

Cable is eligible for parole in March, 2023.