AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites
By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 11 April 2015)
When he was a Marist Brother in his mid-twenties, Brother Brett Anthony O’Connor taught in prominent Sydney schools. Then he left the Marist Order and began a career as a layman, eventually becoming the Director of Child Safety in the Queensland Government’s Department of Education and Training. In 2015, NSW police have charged O’Connor with alleged child-sex offences, relating to his earlier career as a Marist Brother in Sydney — at St Joseph’s College in Hunters Hill and St Gregory’s College in Campbelltown. O’Connor, now aged 52, is scheduled to appear in a NSW court on Monday 13 April 2015 (case number 2015/00084871).
According to a Marist Brothers document, Brother Brett Anthony O’Connor was born on 22 February 1963.
Police allege that the offences in Sydney were committed against two students (one from St Joseph’s College in 1987 and one from St Gregory’s College in 1989). Police say that both boys were aged 12 at the time of the alleged sexual assaults. Brother Brett O’Connor later left the Marist Order and began a new career in non-church positions.
St Joseph’s and St Gregory’s were boys-only schools, catering for Years 7 to 12. Both of the alleged victims were among the youngest students in their school.
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