Hearing room updates - Ballarat 3, Ballarat 2016

Thursday 3 March 2016 - Day 25

During today’s hearing, the fourth consecutive day of evidence from Cardinal Pell via video link from Rome, Cardinal Pell was questioned by lawyers representing abuse victims in Ballarat and Melbourne.

Cardinal Pell gave evidence about a telephone conversation in 1993 with David Ridsdale who had been abused by his uncle, Gerald Ridsdale, in the 1980s. Cardinal Pell said he had no reason not to believe David’s claims against Ridsdale.

He said he only became aware that David had claimed the Cardinal had asked him ‘what would it take to keep you quiet about this?’ in 2002 when interviewed by 60 Minutes. Cardinal Pell told the Commission that he did not say this to David.

He said it was implausible that he had done so because the police were already investigating Ridsdale, he had never tried to stop anyone going to the police, he was an Auxiliary Bishop in Melbourne at the time with no access to resources available for expenditure in Ballarat and he would not engage in the criminal offence of attempted bribery. 

He said that he did say to David that he would do whatever he could to help.

He told the Commission it was a mistake to accompany Gerald Ridsdale to Court. His motivation for doing so was the Christian principle of showing kindness to prisoners.

Asked if he felt he had any moral responsibility for the abuse by Christian Brothers at St Alipius School, he said he had nothing to do with the school. ‘I regret that the situation was there and I didn’t have the information to help. All those things at that stage were hidden to nearly everyone in the parish’.

Cardinal Pell flatly disputed the allegation that he and another priest had discussed Ridsdale’s sexual abuse activities before a funeral mass in Ballarat. Cardinal Pell said most aspects of this allegation were not corroborated or were inconsistent with other evidence given to the Commission.

Cardinal Pell told the Commission that he had no contact with another boy, BWF, who said he told the then Fr Pell in 1974 at the Cathedral Presbytery in Ballarat that Br Dowlan had beaten and molested his brother. He said he never lived at and hardly ever visited the Cathedral Presbytery. He completely rejected the allegations of BWF.

During Cardinal Pell’s evidence he told the Commission that sometime after 2002 a former St Patrick’s College student, who he considered ‘a good and honest lad’, had reminded him about a conversation the two had had in 1974 or 1975 in which the student had told the then Fr Pell words to the effect that Dowlan had been ‘misbehaving with boys’.

Asked by the Commissioner what he had done at the time of hearing about the allegation from the student Cardinal Pell said ‘I didn’t do anything about it’. He went on to say that he ‘eventually inquired of the school chaplain’.

When asked by the Commissioner if he should have done more Cardinal Pell said: ‘With the experience of 40 years later, certainly I would agree that I should have - should have done more’.

Cardinal Pell also gave evidence dealing with several other survivor witnesses who have already been the subject of extensive examination during the Ballarat and Melbourne hearings.

The Melbourne hearing concluded with the completion of Cardinal Pell’s evidence from Rome today. The Ballarat hearing will hear evidence from Bishop Mulkearns at a date to be determined.

Wednesday 2 March 2016 - Day 24

Today's hearing moved from events in Ballarat to events in the Archdiocese of Melbourne, particularly relating to the time when Cardinal Pell was Auxiliary Bishop and a member of the Curia and Personnel Advisory Board.

This is the third consecutive day in which the Cardinal has given evidence via video link from Rome.

As Auxiliary Bishop, Cardinal Pell was given pastoral responsibility for the Archdiocese's Southern Region, which included the parish of Doveton.

Cardinal Pell said that he was strongly critical of Archbishop Little's handling of sexual abuse complaints against priests. In the case of Peter Searson, who was parish priest of Doveton, the Cardinal said that the Archbishop had a lot of information available to him which he did not share with Cardinal Pell.

He was asked about a letter Archbishop Little received dealing with Searson pointing a handgun at some people. He said the complaint should have been investigated and the complaint suggests Searson was unsuitable to be a parish priest.

He was also taken to several other complaints against Searson including inappropriately talking to children, having a tape recorder in the confessional, having children kneel between his legs while hearing their confessions, and concerns of sexual advances towards children.

The complaints were referred to several church officials including Archbishop Little, the Vicar General and the Catholic Education office. He said the complaints were a basis for standing down Searson and Archbishop Little’s failure to act was indicative of his ‘blind spot’ in dealing with child abuse issues and his inclination to protect the church from scandal. Cardinal Pell agreed this was a similar approach to that taken by Bishop Mulkearns in Ballarat.

Cardinal Pell was asked about various incidents involving Searson which had occurred before Cardinal Pell was Auxiliary Bishop. He agreed that some of the matters should have been the subject of proper inquiries and that they suggested that Searson was unsuitable to continue to serve as a priest.

Taken to a list of grievances about Searson that was presented to Cardinal Pell when, as Auxiliary Bishop, a delegation from Doveton came to see him in 1989, Cardinal Pell said that he was not given an adequate briefing by officers of the Catholic Education Office about the long term issues with Searson at Doveton.

He said that they deceived him in relation to Searson's behaviour. Asked why they would have done that, he said that he was the ‘new boy on the block’ with a reputation for being outspoken and they wanted to keep a lid on the situation. He suggested the CEO was acting to protect Archbishop Little.

In relation to minutes of the Personnel Advisory Board recording Fr Bill Baker's transfer from Eltham to North Richmond in 1992, Cardinal Pell said that both Archbishop Little and Bishop Peter Connors deceived him because they knew of Baker' s child sexual abuse offence in Gladstone Park in 1978 but did not inform Cardinal Pell about it.

Counsel Assisting suggested to Cardinal Pell that his evidence regarding Searson and the reasons he gave for not being briefed fully by the CEO were extraordinary and ‘implausible’ and designed to ‘deflected’ from his actions. Cardinal Pell rejected this saying he can only tell the truth.

After putting to Cardinal Pell a list of people claimed to have deceived or lied to him including Archbishop Little, his Vicar General, Bishop Mulkearns and a number of senior staff within the CEO, Ms Furness put to Cardinal Pell that his position was ‘extraordinary’.

Cardinal Pell responded: ‘Counsel, this was an extraordinary world. A world of crimes and cover-ups. And people did not want the status quo to be disturbed.’ He said that when he became Archbishop he ‘turned the situation right around so that the Melbourne Response procedures were light years ahead of all this obfuscation and prevarication and deception’.

The hearing will resume at 7.00am (Sydney time) tomorrow.

Tuesday 1 March 2016 - Day 23

The sixth day of stage three of the Ballarat case study today continued to hear evidence from Cardinal George Pell via video link from Rome. This is Cardinal Pell’s second day of evidence.

During today’s hearing Cardinal Pell was taken to a number of documents including the minutes of Bishop Mulkearns consultors meetings which indicated Ridsdale had been moved from parish to parish within the Ballarat Diocese by Bishop Mulkearns.

Cardinal Pell agreed that a document shown to him indicated Bishop Mulkearns had moved Ridsdale to Apollo Bay knowing he was a threat to children.

Asked by Senior Counsel Assisting the Commission, Gail Furness, what he thought about this move Cardinal Pell said it was ‘unacceptable’.

Taken to another diocesan minute Cardinal Pell was asked about a reference to the appointment of Ridsdale by Mulkearns to Inglewood. He was asked again if the document indicated the move was made by the Bishop with the knowledge that Ridsdale was a threat.

Talking about the decision by Bishop Mulkearns to move Ridsdale, Cardinal Pell repeated that it was ‘unacceptable because of the risk it presented to children in Inglewood and that was exacerbated by the fact it doesn't seem as though any effort was made to withdraw Ridsdale, at least for a period, for counselling or advice or help.’

Cardinal Pell told the Commission he had no knowledge at the time that Ridsdale was offending with children in Inglewood. He said it was not until after 1993, when Ridsdale was convicted of child sexual abuse offenses, that he became aware of Ridsdale’s behaviour.

Cardinal Pell told the Commission that he didn't know prior to this whether Ridsdale’s offending was common knowledge or not.

Cardinal Pell was taken to a newspaper article written after Ridsdale was convicted in 1993 which reported on Ridsdale’s abuse of children.  ‘It's a sad story and it wasn't of much interest to me,’ he said.  When asked why Ridsdale's case was not of interest he said: ‘The suffering, of course, was real and I very much regret that but I had no reason to turn my mind to the extent of the evil that Ridsdale had perpetrated.’

In January 1977 the then Father Pell was appointed to the Diocesan consultors group by Bishop Mulkearns.

Cardinal Pell was taken to the minutes of a consultors meeting in July 1977 at which he was present and where Ridsdale’s resignation as parish priest and appointment as administrator at Edenhope was recorded.

Cardinal Pell said Bishop Mulkearns had not told the meeting about the knowledge he had about allegations against Ridsdale dating back to 1972. He told the Commission Bishop Mulkearns had ‘deceived’ the committee by withholding the information.

He said Bishop Mulkearns might have withheld the information on Ridsdale because ‘…he would realise that I didn't know and he would not want me to share in his culpability.’ He says he would have asked questions about the propriety of moving Ridsdale if he had been told of Ridsdale’s offending.

Cardinal Pell was asked if he thought the Church in Ballarat collectively failed children in the 1970s and 1980s: ‘I think that is a vast and misleading overstatement,’ he said going on to acknowledge there had been a major failure of leadership.

Cardinal Pell was taken to a 1982 Consultor meeting at which he was present in which moving Ridsdale from Mortlake to the Catholic Enquiry Centre in Sydney was discussed. At this stage Bishop Mulkearns had knowledge of Ridsdale abusing children in different parishes over some ten years.

"If I had known for a minute, I would not have tolerated...the legitimacy of such an appointment," Cardinal Pell said.

He said there was no reference by Mulkearns to paedophilia during the discussion to move Ridsdale. It was put to the Cardinal that it was implausible that Ridsdale's offending was not discussed at the meeting. He said that in 1982 he knew nothing about Ridsdale’s paedophilia.

The hearing will resume tomorrow.

Monday 29 February 2016 - Day 22

The fifth day of stage three of the Ballarat case study today heard evidence from Cardinal George Pell via video link from Rome.

Cardinal Pell was ordained a priest in the Diocese of Ballarat in 1966 where for part of the time he was a priest in Ballarat and one of the consultors to Bishop Mulkearns.

In 1987, Cardinal Pell was appointed an Auxiliary Bishop in the Archdiocese of Melbourne where Archbishop Little was the Archbishop. In 1996, Cardinal Pell became Archbishop of Melbourne.

Cardinal Pell told the Commission the Church has made enormous mistakes in dealing with clerical and other child sexual abuse and is working to remedy them. "The church in many places, certainly in Australia, has mucked things up, has let people down. I'm not here to defend the indefensible," Cardinal Pell said.

He told the Commission there are very few places in the world that have advanced as far as the church in Australia in dealing with survivors of child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. He said he supported the Commission’s proposal for the introduction of a national system of redress for abuse survivors.

He said during the time there were reasonable complaints that were not dealt with very well and there was an instinct to protect ‘the institution, the community of the church, from shame’. ‘I'm not sure at that stage there was too much concern about protecting assets’, he said.

Cardinal Pell also agreed that there was a belief within some parts of the Church that some sexual offenders could be treated. He said, however, that he was not aware of Bishop Mulkearns sending anyone off for treatment for sexual offending while Cardinal Pell was in Ballarat.

Cardinal Pell was asked extensively about his knowledge of Monsignor Day and his abuse of children in Mildura both before and after he was an assistant priest in Swan Hill. Cardinal Pell told the Commission he had no recollection of hearing about any concerns about Day by the police, parents and others while Day was in Mildura and he was in Swan Hill.

He was asked about his time as assistant priest in Ballarat East in the 1970s and 1980s and his knowledge of Christian Brothers who taught at St Alipius School and have been convicted of offences against children. He told the Commission no one came to him during this time with specific accusations against these brothers.

He was also asked about his knowledge of Brother Dowlan and allegations against him as a teacher at St Patrick’s College. Cardinal Pell told the Commission that some boys from the school had approached him with concerns about Dowlan. He said he was unaware at the time if the allegations were ‘indiscretions or crimes’.

Cardinal Pell was also asked about allegations made in several documents that indicated knowledge about the offending of a number of brothers at St Alipius, St Patricks’ s and St Paul’s Technical School. He agreed that some students, one or more teachers, the principal of St Paul’s Technical School and St Patrick’s College, a number of parents and Bishop Mulkearns were aware of the offending.

Cardinal Pell was asked about Gerald Ridsdale and the time they shared the St Alipius presbytery in East Ballarat for nine to ten months in 1973 as assistant priests.

He told the Commission that there were many children who suffered at the hands of Ridsdale and that he ‘deeply regrets’ this.

The hearing will resume tomorrow.

Thursday 25 February 2016 - Day 21

The fourth day of stage three of the Ballarat case study today heard evidence from Bishop Ronald Mulkearns, the bishop of Ballarat during the period in which a number of clergy, including Gerald Ridsdale, committed child sexual abuse crimes.

The evidence was heard via video link from the nursing home in which the Bishop is currently living.

Bishop Mulkearns told the Commission he had retired early in 1997 because he had determined he ‘was not doing the job’ very well including that he wasn’t handling well the problems with pedophile priests in the Diocese.

Bishop Mulkearns told the Commission: ‘I’m terribly sorry that I (didn’t) do things differently in that time… I didn’t know what to do or how to do it. (I) regret that I didn’t deal differently with the cases of pedophilia… I had no idea of the effects of the incidents that took place’.

Bishop Mulkearns was taken to a number of documents by Counsel Assisting Gail Furness which indicated that he had received information about priests in the Diocese who were offending against children. Bishop Mulkearns was unable to provide any insight into the documents.

He was asked about the minutes of a consultors meeting in 1977 in which it was noted that Paul David Ryan was in Washington DC. Bishop Mulkearns agreed that the consultors would have known that he was there for treatment of his homosexual activity.

Asked if based on a letter he had written in 1991 to the mother of a boy abused by Paul David Ryan that he was covering up for pedophile priests he said it ‘was not my intention’.

Bishop Mulkearns’ evidence was adjourned on medical advice and will continue at another time.

Dr Peter Evans, a former priest and retired psychiatrist, then gave evidence. He told the Commission that in late 1975 Ridsdale asked to see him. He concluded Ridsdale had been sent to see him by Bishop Mulkearns. He told the Commission he had not spoken with the Bishop before, during or after the sessions he had with Ridsdale.

He said Ridsdale revealed little during the sessions and that they were unproductive.

He said that if he had known there were many allegations against Ridsdale he would have been able to make a diagnosis of pedophilia and that Ridsdale was a danger to children. If he had known all the details he would have sought advice whether he should report Ridsdale to the police.

He said that there were only a small number of pedophiles who would benefit from treatment. He said someone like Ridsdale was very difficult to treat and should be in jail or at least medicated to suppress sexual desires. He descried ‘hard core pedophiles’ as ‘masters of deception’.

He said that, while celibacy was a factor in sexual deviancy amongst the clergy, it was not the primary cause. The vow of celibacy might attract deviants into religious orders as a means of suppressing their deviant tendencies.

He suggested that if the Catholic Church adopted optional celibacy it would be of great benefit. He said there were plenty of examples within the Church of priests being married.

He said that, at the time he saw Ridsdale he had neither seen nor heard of a priest sexually abusing children. Such a thing was ‘unthinkable’.

He said that in his several years as a priest he had never heard the confession of a priest where it was revealed they had abused a child. He said that if in the unlikely event an abusing priest were to go to confession they would more than likely mask the offence by describing it as giving in to sexual impulses and masturbating.

The hearing will resume on Monday when Cardinal Pell will give evidence via video link from Rome.

Wednesday 24 February 2016 - Day 20

The third day of stage three of the Ballarat case study today heard evidence from Brother Brian Brandon who was a member of the Provincial Council of the St Patrick’s Province of the Christian Brothers from 1984 until 1996.

Brother Brandon has also been part of the Professional Standards management for the Christian Brothers, from 1993 until the present.

Br Brandon was asked by Counsel Assisting the Commission about his time as the member of the Christian Brothers Provincial Council and the responsibilities of the Council which Br Brandon said existed to provide advice and support to the Provincial, the head of the order in the regional area.

He said decisions made by the Provincial Council were not binding upon the Provincial, but rather provided guidance to him.  He said decisions made about the movements of brothers would be discussed by the Council, a consensus reached, and that decision referred to the Provincial for him to make a decision.

He was asked about the annual ‘visitation process’ where a member of the Provincial Council would visit the 40 or so communities within the Province at least annually, so as to demonstrate leadership and to gauge the management of the community and wellbeing of brothers within the community.

Brother Brandon gave evidence about his knowledge of offending by Christian Brothers in St Patrick’s province, and the discussions of child sexual abuse at provincial meetings from 1984 to 1996 when appointments of brothers were made.

Br Brandon was asked about information the Provincial Council had received about Br Dowlan being ‘overly affectionate with boys’ and a number of other complaints made against Dowlan.  Br Brandon said Dowlan’s emotional immaturity was an issue discussed by the Council from time to time, however he did not recall that ‘particular attention’ had been paid by the Council to Dowlan.

Br Brandon said that in ‘absolute terms’ there was nothing by way of formal complaint about Dowlan to the leadership team prior to 1993.

When asked by Commissioner McClellan if the Provincial Council had acted on the rumour and innuendo about Dowlan prior to 1993, Br Brandon said there had been much ‘interaction with Dowlan’. Commissioner McClellan noted this appeared to be ineffective in stopping Dowlan’s abuse.

He was also asked about:

• Claims of inappropriate behavior by Br BWX in Western Australia in the early 1960s and in Victoria in 1973;
• Br CCJ and allegations of inappropriate behavior and suspicions of sexual behavior with boys in the 1970s, 80s and 90s in Victorian and Western Australian schools;
• Br Stephen Farrell and records which were destroyed by the former Provincial, Brother Naughton at the end of his term in 1984.

Br Brandon apologised to victims who had been the subject of private investigations during legal cases against Brothers, particularly in the Dowlan case.

Despite being questioned extensively about who gave solicitors the instructions to engage a private investigator he said he was not happy with the strategy which put victims under stress. He said using a private investigator was only used for Br Edward Dowlan's matter in 1995 and one other.

Br Brandon accepted that the Christian Brothers had not put in place appropriate management processes in all of their institutions to ensure the safety of the children.

He told the Commission the Christian Brothers now had in place many protocols including those dealing with the provision of legal assistance Christian Brothers in criminal matters, guiding principles for responding to civil claims and a protocol for the management of Christian Brothers who have sexually abused children. 

Asked why he thought there seemed to be a large number of Christian Brother sexual offenders, Br Branden attributed this to:

• its ‘vastly bigger’ number of school and communities of Christian Brothers across the country compared to other men’s religious orders,
• the vigorous recruiting, particularly in the 1940s, 1950s and 60s, of young people to the Order, many who not suitable for religious life and ‘in some instances felt trapped in a culture that wasn't for them’, an
• the inadequacy of formation processes which resulted in brothers in the order who should not have been there or who should have been ‘moved on’.

Br Brandon reiterated the apologies made to abuse victims by the current head of the Christian Brothers, Br Clinch and former head Br Julian McDonald in previous Royal Commission hearings.

Addressing his testimony to the survivors present, he said ‘we are actually on your side, we've got to go ahead together and sort of resolve these matters, and the world is out there in front of us to be grasped in some way and we want to help in that’.

The hearing continues tomorrow. 

Tuesday 23 February 2016 - Day 19

At the start of Day 2 of this week’s Ballarat hearing Commissioner McClellan announced the Commission will hear evidence from Cardinal George Pell from 29 February 2016 at the Hotel Quirinale in Rome via video link. His evidence will be streamed live on the Royal Commission’s website and into a dedicated room at the Ballarat Town Hall.

Witness CCD told the Commission about a complaint made to Brother Paul Nangle about Brother Stephen Farrell when Mr CCD was a student in year 5 at St Alipius Boys’ School.

He said that after being abused by Farrell he and his mother went to the Brothers’ residence and complained to Br Nangle about the abuse.  After the complaint Farrell disappeared from the school.

Brother Nangle was the Superior of the Christian Brothers community in Ballarat from 1973 until 1979.  He was also headmaster of St Patrick’s College from 1974 until 1979.

A number of former students of St Patrick’s College and St Alipius Boys’ School gave evidence in the first public hearing for this case study, testifying that students and some staff members were aware of the risk of sexual abuse posed by Brothers CCK, Fitzgerald and Dowlan, and by Father Ridsdale.

Brother Nangle was asked about complaints of abuse he received and rumours or allegations he became aware of while headmaster of St Patrick’s and Superior of the Ballarat community.

He told the Commission it was his responsibility to respond to complaints about brothers and lay teachers at St Patrick’s. 

While he had authority to remove a lay teacher from the school, he had no authority to remove a brother from the school.  He agreed that, from the perspective of Catholic community in Ballarat, as Superior of the Christian Brothers Ballarat community he was seen as being ‘in charge’ of the Ballarat brothers.

He said he had no recollection of being told about any concerns with any brothers at the time he became the community superior.

Br Nangle was asked about his knowledge of the actions of Br Dowlan.  Br Dowlan was convicted of 16 counts of indecent assault against 11 boys at four different Christian Brother schools in 1996.  In 2015 Dowlan was convicted of 33 counts of indecent assault and one count of gross indecency against a further 20 boys.

Br Nangle was asked about an incident in which Dowlan beat a child, BWG, with a belt across lower back, down his buttock and his legs leaving a belt buckle imprint.  He acknowledged that he had been made aware of the incident, by Dowlan and BWG’s mother, but was not told of the extent of the injuries BWG sustained.

Br Nangle told the Commission he was aware that in today’s society corporal punishment of a child is not acceptable.  Even in the 1970s he had been ‘instinctively reluctant to administer corporal punishment’.

Brother Nangle was asked about Br Leo Fitzgerald and a complaint he had received in 1975 from the father of a boy who reported Fitzgerald was kissing boys.  Br Nagle told the Commission he passed details of the complaint to the Provincial. Shortly after members of the Province leadership attended and Fitzgerald was retired from teaching.

Brother Nangle was asked about his knowledge of the conduct of another Brother, Stephen Farrell, and a complaint made to him by Mr CCD about abuse when he was a student in year 5 at St Alipius Boys’ School.

In 1997, Farrell was convicted of nine counts of indecent assault against two boys at St Alipius Boys’ School. He was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, wholly suspended.  In 2013, Farrell was convicted of a further charge of indecent assault on a 10-year-old boy, Mr CCD, at St Alipius Boys’ School. He was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment.  On appeal, that sentence was wholly suspended.

Brother Nangle told the Commission he had reported the complaint about Farrell to the Provincial.

Brother Nangle said he was only aware of two complaints he knew to have a sexual component during his time at St Patrick’s.  In both cases he took what he regarded at the time to be appropriate action.

Br Nangle also reflected on his knowledge of abuse and response to complaints during his time as Superior of the Ballarat community and Headmaster of St Patrick’s.

"I do regret enormously the horrible things that were done, and in my regret I profoundly wish that I had been better informed and had more complete knowledge of what was occurring," Br Nangle said.

"I'm appalled at what happened and I am deeply sorry for the pain that people have suffered as a result of that."

The hearing continues tomorrow. 

Monday 22 February 2016 - Day 18

The Royal Commission today recommenced its public hearing into allegations of child sex abuse by clergy and religious in Victoria's Ballarat Diocese. This is the third stage of this case study and follows earlier parts heard in Ballarat in May 2015 and Melbourne in December 2015.

During the hearing the Commission will examine the response of the Catholic Diocese of Ballarat and other Catholic Church authorities in Ballarat to allegations of child sexual abuse against clergy or religious.

This week, the Commission will focus on the response of the Christian Brothers in the former St Patrick’s Province, Australia, to allegations of child sexual abuse made against Christian Brothers.

Later this week the Commission will also hear evidence from the former Bishop of Ballarat, Ronald Mulkearns.

Cardinal George Pell will give evidence next week from 29 February 2016 by video link from Rome. The Commission will sit in Sydney to hear this evidence.

At the start of today’s hearing Justice McClellan advised that arrangements had been made in Rome for Cardinal Pell's evidence that should, following further technical testing, allow for survivors to hear Cardinal Pell give his evidence.

In her opening statement, Counsel Assisting the Commission, Gail Furness, outlined a range of allegations and claims against six Christian Brothers who all spent time working at schools in the Diocese of Ballarat - CCK, Edward Dowlan, Leo Fitzgerald, Stephen Farrell, CCJ and BWX.

Each of these brothers, apart from Brother BWX and Brother Fitzgerald, has been convicted of child sexual abuse offences. Brother Fitzgerald died in 1986.

During this hearing the Commission will hear from three survivor witnesses and representatives of the Christian Brothers including Brother Brian Brandon, former provincial/provincial council member of St Patrick’s Province and Brother Paul Nangle, who was both the superior of the Ballarat community and headmaster of St Patrick’s College from 1974 until 1979.

Counsel Assisting advised that Brother Nangle will be asked about complaints he received or rumours or allegations he became aware of while in his role.  Brother Brandon will give evidence about his knowledge of offending by Christian Brothers in the St Patrick’s province, and discussions at provincial leadership team meetings from 1984 to 1996 when appointments of brothers were considered.

The first witness to give evidence to the Commission this morning was Timothy Barlow, a boarding student at St Patrick’s College Ballarat from 1973. Mr Barlow gave evidence that he had heard rumors about Brothers abusing boys in the dormitories within his first year at the college.

He told the Commission that as a member of the school’s Student Representative Council in 1973, he had moved a motion requesting that then Headmaster, Brother Nangle, ask Brother Dowlan to stop abusing students.  Mr Barlow told the Commission that after the motion was passed, he was beaten by Dowlan and another brother.

Martinus Claassen, a St Patrick’s day student from 1974 to 1979, gave evidence that Br Dowlan was his first year house master.

Dowlan sexually and physically abused Mr Claassen as a first year student, after he failed to complete some homework. He told his mother of the abuse and later, he and his mother met with Brother Nangle to tell him about the abuse. Mr Claassen told the Commission no action was taken following the meeting. 

Mr Claassen said it was only many years later he became aware that other boys had been abused by Dowlan.  He told the Commission that from the time he was old enough to reflect on the incident with Dowlan, he had concluded Br Nangle had missed an opportunity to act.

The hearing continues tomorrow.