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Allegations
of Abuse in Institutions |
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A Christchurch school
for troubled boys was a place of "very dark secrets and horrible
acts" of sexual abuse by Catholic brothers who ruled with an iron fist,
a High Court jury has been told. Confessed paedophile
Bernard Kevin McGrath, 58, went on trial yesterday, accused of sexually
abusing 17 boys during nearly five years as a teacher and dorm master at
Marylands residential school in Halswell in the 1970s. The jury was told
McGrath had been jailed in the early 1990s for sexually abusing boys, and in
the dock yesterday he pleaded guilty to one new charge of indecent assault. However, he denied 53
other charges of sexual indecencies relating to 16 other boys who had been
aged between seven and 15. His lawyer, Raoul
Neave, said McGrath might be a paedophile but he was not a liar and he had
already admitted to the full extent of his sexual offending at the school,
where at least one other man was also allegedly molesting boys. However, prosecutor
Chris Lange claimed McGrath's offending was far worse and far more widespread
than he admitted. He said Marylands was
run by the Australian-based Order of St John of God and was operated as a
school for young boys, often sent there as a result of difficulties at home
or at school, or because they had learning difficulties. McGrath joined the
order in the late 1960s, and was posted to Marylands in early 1974. Lange said the school
operated under a culture of "fear, total fear, and ruling with an iron
fist". Some boys claimed they
were enticed into indecencies with offers of lollies by McGrath, but others
were beaten into submission or abused while ill. One boy who claimed he
was indecently touched by McGrath was later approached by another Catholic
brother, accused of telling stories about McGrath, and was hit. "The Crown says
McGrath took (the boy) out of class and he was again hit and told to get
undressed," Lange said. "He initially
refused and was assaulted by McGrath again. He left and returned with a cane
and struck him with the cane." The boy claims the incident culminated
when he was sexually violated from behind. When police confronted
McGrath, he admitted there had been masturbation in his bedroom. Another boy wrote a
letter to his mother complaining about abuse. His mother wrote to the school,
leading to the boy being asked about it, but he "didn't answer because
he was scared". Lange said McGrath's
response to the allegations put to him by the police included claiming other
Catholic brothers were responsible, that the sexual abuse was less than
claimed, and that for certain boys "he wasn't attracted to them because
they were small kids and he preferred them bigger than that". He denied sodomising
any of the boys, but admitted hugging them naked from behind. In the defence's
opening statement to the seven men and five women on the jury, Neave warned
that they faced an "almost impossible" task of trying to ascertain
the truth from memories 30 or more years old. "These
(complainants) are people who suffer from many disadvantages -- social,
physical, and mental," he said. "You'll be dealing
with people to whom time and life haven't been kind. I'm sure you're going to
have buckets of sympathy, but don't let it cloud your judgment about whether
the evidence is reliable," he said. "Nobody in this
case, least of all the defence, deny that some terrible things happened at
Marylands. Nobody denies that St John of God brothers were responsible for
some horrible offending and nobody, least of all the defence, deny that
McGrath perpetrated some of these terrible acts. "He and the church
have some very dark secrets. He's been guilty of behaviour that's repulsive
by anybody's standards. Whenever he's confronted with something he's done,
he's put his hand up and acknowledged that." The trial continues
today. |
