Christian Brother William Stuart Houston jailed over orphan abuse

By Shannon Deery
Herald Sun
May 17, 2016

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/christian-brother-william-stuart-houston-jailed-over-orphan-abuse/news-story/3a8af9a86f113a0fa88317439cc78d0f

Christian Brother William Stuart Houston.

A VIOLENT sexual predator who preyed on small orphan boys then beat them when they complained will spend 12 years and nine months behind bars.

After evading justice for decades it is now likely former Christian Brother William Stuart Houston will die in jail.

During years of terrorising orphan children he taunted them about having no parents telling one: “don’t tell anyone. Oh, that’s right, you can’t tell anyone because you don’t have anyone.”

A string of his victims, joined by dozens of supporters, today turned out to the County Court to watch Chief Judge Peter Kidd sentence Houston.

They have waited a long time to see him punished for his evil crimes.

Now 77, Houston first faced court in 1997 charged with abusing boys at St Augustine’s Boys’ Home in Highton.

He was charged with 14 offences but was only ordered to stand trial on three charges of indecent assault and buggery.

The case never headed to trial, with the Office of Public Prosecutions waiting for more alleged victims to surface.

In 2008 another two accusers came forward and the original alleged victim signed a fresh police statement.

In 2014 Houston was cleared of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old.

He had already left the Christian Brothers under a cloud by that time.

Last month he pleaded guilty to 12 charges of indecent assault on three victims during the 1960s.

The guilty plea came after a jury found him guilty of a string of other charges including buggery and attempted buggery on separate victims.

One of them, a young orphan, was publicly flogged after reporting his sexual abuse at the hands of Houston.

The 9-year-old was abused almost immediately after having the misfortune of being assigned to the St Augustine’s Boys’ Home dormitory monitored by Houston in 1963.

So fearful during his first attack, that saw Houston gag him and lie in bed with him, the young boy wet himself.

It earned him a series of strappings by Houston who wanted to punish the boy for wetting the bed.

When the child reported the sexual abuse to the Highton orphanage’s head brother, he was promised the matter would be looked into.

Instead the boy was publicly flogged in front of other boys at the home during breakfast the following morning.

“This is what we do to people who fabricate stories about us,” he was told.

The public beating was not a one off, it happened regularly after, ensuring the boy’s silence against further complaints.

He went on to be abused for another three years, and finally when he was 13 reported the abuse to another senior figure at the orphanage.

He was again accused of lying, and again beaten.

Another boy was abused multiple times a week for more than a year.

Judge Kidd described Houston’s offending as brutal and callous.

He said he had also failed to show any remorse for his evil crimes.

“You showed a contemptuous indifference to their cries of pain, and protest,” he said.

“You were meant to protect and nurture these boys. You did not do that.”

Houston, who has spent 25 days in custody, must serve eight years before being eligible for parole.