AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph
Marist Brother and known paedophile made deputy leader of community attended by boys as young as 12
JANET FIFE-YEOMANS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH JUNE 19, 2014
A KNOWN paedophile was made a deputy leader of a Marist Brothers community and allowed to work at a “farmhouse” facility which was attended by boys from the age of 12, the child sex abuse royal commission has been told today.
When he was charged by police, Brother Kostka Chute had his legal fees paid for by the Marist Brothers, a multi-million dollar organisation that enjoys tax-free status, and accompanied to court on every occasion by the religious orders’s director of professional standards, Brother Alexis Turton.
Brother Turton, 74, who is a former Australian provincial, or head, of the Marist Brothers, said he could understand that his support for Brother Kostka was likely to have appeared offensive to the victims of his abuse but he had considered it part of his role.
He said there was an expectation within the Marist Brothers that he made sure that Chute, who was living at a Marist Brothers property at Blacktown, kept his court appointments.
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