Mission & Justice

ABC, 5/9/08

The head of the religious order that runs St Stanislaus school in the New South Wales central west has defended its handling of abuse allegations. The leader of the Vincentian order in Australia, Father Greg Cooney, says the organisation has been aware of complaints since 2002 and has always referred them to police. “We’ve always reported it to police when it’s obviously of a criminal nature, yes, and you know we urged other complainants themselves to take the matter to the police.” He says the Vincentians have completed their internal investigations into the allegations.

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Carol Nader; 4/9/08

Students would be able to make complaints of sexual harassment against teachers and older students from other schools, under a push by the Sex Discrimination Commissioner to strengthen federal laws. As the Federal Government reviews the 25-year-old Sex Discrimination Act, Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick has also urged the Government to amend the legislation to give greater protection to younger students. Ms Broderick said there were situations in which students and teachers from different schools mingled, such as school formals, sports carnivals and musicals. But a student who felt he or she had been the victim of sexual harassment by a teacher or student from another school was not legally protected. This is so in federal and Victorian legislation.

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Angus Hohenboken; 4/9/08

Allegations of sexual abuse at a NSW secondary college widened yesterday with the arrests of two Catholic priests and a teacher from an Anglican school. A former priest from St Stanislaus College in Bathurst, west of Sydney, faces 93 charges relating to the alleged attacks, which date back to the 1970s. Brian Spillane, 65, from Narwee in Sydney, was charged in May with 33 offences, and on Tuesday night a further 60 charges were laid. Two other priests who had served at the college and a lay teacher from Bathurst’s Anglican All Saints College were arrested yesterday. Vincentian brother John Gaven, 66, of Marsfield, in Sydney’s northwest, faces 28 charges for sexual offences. An Armidale priest, 65, was charged with four sex offences. Brother Gaven, Mr Spillane and the Armidale priest were granted bail to appear at Bathurst Local Court on September 15. A 63-year-old former teacher at the Anglican All Saints College was charged with three counts of indecent assault. The Russell Island man was granted bail to appear at Bathurst Local Court on November 17.

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Alex Tibbitts; 3/9/08

Brian Spillane, the former school chaplain and teacher at St Stanislaus Catholic college in Bathurst facing 33 child sex charges involving five former students, was last night charged with another 60. It is understood the charges relate to a further eight of Spillane’s pupils from the school in the 1980s. He was granted bail to appear in Bathurst Local Court on September 15 when the original 33 charges return to court. Strike Force Heador, which was set up to investigate claims of sexual abuse by Spillane and two other former staff members of the school, arrested the former priest at his Riverwood home yesterday and charged him at Hurstville police station.

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1/9/08; http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/08/31/2351255.htm?section=justin

Father John Fleming, a Catholic priest who is the subject of sexual misconduct allegations, has released a public statement denying any wrongdoing. Father Fleming says he has never been the subject of a police investigation and is shocked and sickened by the allegations of three people in the Sunday press. Father Fleming, who was a well-known Anglican priest in Adelaide before converting to Catholicism, denies ever engaging in sexual or other inappropriate behaviour with a minor. The priest, who is now working at a private Catholic College in Sydney, says he will cooperate with an investigation into the matters and will stand down from his duties as a priest until it is completed. Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal George Pell earlier defended his handling of the allegations saying he referred them straight to the church’s internal investigations unit.

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Michael Gawenda; 28/8/08

It was mentioned only in passing amid the extensive reporting of the conflict in Georgia: rape had, apparently, once again been used as a weapon of war. This is not surprising. Rape has been used as a weapon of war for thousands of years. It is still used this way, despite the fact that it has been declared a war crime and a crime against humanity by the United Nations. Thousands of women were raped during the conflict in the Balkans in the 1990s; thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, were raped in the civil war in the Congo; and thousands have been raped in Darfur in the decades-long campaign of genocide by the Sudanese Government and their Janjaweed militia. Rape as a weapon of war has been extensively employed by soldiers across vastly different cultures. The consequences for the women subjected to this form of violence are lifelong: in many instances, they are cast out - or subjected to further violence - by their families and their communities.

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Angus Hohenboken; 28/8/08

Orgies involving up to 60 schoolboys, priests and teachers are among allegations levelled at former staff members of a NSW Catholic boarding school. The Seven Network last night reported claims that nine former teachers and priests from St Stanislaus College in Bathurst, in eastern NSW, had committed sexual abuse on students during “hypnotic” night prayer services in the 1980s. An alleged victim, whose identity was withheld for legal reasons, said the number of victims involved in the encounters had grown over time. “It started out on a one-on-one basis and then in small groups of between eight and 12, and then on one occasion there was a large group of at least 60.”

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Bellinda Kontominas; 27/8/08

Alison Pels thought she had finally escaped the grasp of the cult Kenja Communications when she left the group in February last year. But six months later the then 20-year-old found herself the subject of a bizarre plot by Jan Hamilton and other members of the group, who disguised themselves with fake facial hair and wigs while posing as directors of a play. Ms Hamilton co-founded Kenja with her late husband, Ken Dyers, who committed suicide last year amid allegations of multiple sex offences against children.

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Angus Hohenboken; 15/8/08; http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24183654-5013404,00.html

A Catholic priest charged yesterday with child sex offences against 18 young boys has been working in a Catholic library opposite a school since 2001. Father John Sidney Denham was charged with a count of buggery, 28 charges of indecent assault against a male and one of attempted assault against a male. The offences were allegedly committed in the Newcastle area in the 1970s and 80s. Police facts handed to Sydney Central Local Court said Father Denham was working opposite the Missionary of the Sacred Heart school in the city’s eastern suburbs as a librarian. He was remanded in custody to appear in court in Newcastle on October 1.

Gina Maka’a; 13/8/08

It has been estimated that in the Solomon Islands, almost 85%-90% of sexual assault cases of adults and children alike have not been reported to the local police or authorities. Solomon Times took the time to talk to Family Support Center’s Counselor, Lovelyn Kwaoga. The Family Support Centre, is a Non-Government Organization that supports victims of domestic violence, rape, prostitution and sexual abuse. Ms. Kwaoga states that common cases of sexual assault are often from single mothers and young girls. It has also been noted that most sexual assault cases are results of domestic violence and alcohol.

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