Catholic survivor remembers, Marist principal can’t recall

Scott Hallett, 51, was a Year 5 student at St Joseph’s Primary School at the Junction in 1975 when Ryan began abusing him as part of a group of boys that included Mr Hallett’s best friend Gerard McDonald, whose evidence last Wednesday opened this Catholic case study hearing.

Pausing frequently to gather his composure, Mr Hallett told of an escalating pattern of sexual crime by Ryan that included the priest engaging in various sexual acts with the boys while in the vestry of the church next to the school.

“Don’t tell anyone, this is our little secret,” was Ryan’s warning to his nine-year-old charges. Mr Hallett said he told three teachers including the principal, who called him “a liar” who would get into trouble for “making up stories”. Ryan was sent to Melbourne for treatment the following year, and Mr Hallett said he wanted to kill the priest when he saw him again, in 1977, at high school.

Mr Hallett said that when he and Mr McDonald went to the police in 1995, a lot of people called him a liar, while others told him to “just get over it”.

The detail of Mr Hallett’s evidence contrasted with that of a former principal of Hamilton Marist Brothers (now St Francis Xavier’s College), Brother Christopher Wade, who was repeatedly unable to recall details of events “after this lapse of time”.

Brother Christopher said he joined the Marist Brothers in 1952 and taught at 10 schools, including five as principal. He was principal of the order’s Hamilton high school from 1971 until 1976 before moving to other schools, including Ashgrove in Queensland, where one of the brothers being examined by the commission, Brother Patrick, was accused of an incident in 2001.

Brother Christopher said he received one complaint about Brother Romuald, but none about Patrick or a third brother of interest to the commission, Brother Dominic.

He said he knew his evidence was in conflict with others who had told the commission they had spoken to him about abuse by all three brothers but he said he could not recall the things that others said had happened.

At one point, the commission’s chair, Justice Peter McClellan, said that if the complaint about Brother Romuald was the only one he received, then it must have stood out. Brother Christopher agreed, but said he could not remember who made the complaint or how he received it.

He said accepted Brother Romuald’s denial, which was:  “I thought I had been good in that area recently.”

Justice McClellan said “You were wrong, weren’t you?”, and “with terrible consequences”. Brother Christopher said he carried “a great deal of grief and regret and sorrow about it”.

Earlier, the head of the Marist Brothers in northern NSW and Queensland, Brother Michael Hill, admitted he had been “naive” to accept Brother Romuald’s word that he had been “wrongly accused”.

 “I should have at least informed the provincial [the head of the province] an possibly gone to the police,” Brother Christopher said.

Earlier, the provincial from 1995 to 2001, Brother Michael Hill, admitted he had been “naive” to accept Brother Romuald’s word that he had been “wrongly accused” of abuse.

The commission has heard evidence suggesting that Brother Romuald abused 13-year-old Andrew Nash, who hung himself by his pyjama cord in his bedroom in 1974.

As school principal, Brother Christopher said he could not remember how he heard about what had happened. He could not recall going to the Nash house, although the evidence of several other people has put him there the evening of the boy’s death.

Asked about his lack of recall, he said tragic events were “not, unfortunately, a one-off”: the bicycle death of a student and the motor-vehicle death of a brother were examples.

Earlier, Mr Hallett closed his evidence with a warning to parents to watch out for signs of abuse. “If a child says something that’s not quite right, ask a question,” he said.