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Allegations
of Abuse in Institutions |
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A man with a string of
convictions for attacking churches is one of 17 boys who claim they were
sexually molested by Catholic brother Bernard Kevin McGrath in the
1970s. The man, now 44,
said he ended up serving several jail terms for the attacks because going
past churches aggravated mental scars from his time at Marylands, a Catholic
residential school run by the St John of God Order on the outskirts of
Christchurch. "Every time I go
past a church, I’ve got so many memories," the man said. "I attack
it and end up going to prison." He told the High Court
jury in Christchurch yesterday that he was molested by several Catholic
brothers, including McGrath, during seven years at the home for troubled
boys. McGrath is the only one
on trial. He faces 53 charges of
sodomy and indecency against boys at the school and the jury has been told he
was jailed in the mid-1990s for other sexual offending against boys at the
school. The man said he had
been at the school for some time before the night he was woken. "He
(McGrath) asked me to come with him to his room," he said. "I sat
on the bed (in his room) and he said he'd be back shortly, He came back in
the nude. At the time I was crying, "I didn't know
what was going to happen." The man said he was
made to perform a sex act on McGrath, who then sodomised him. From then on he said
the abuse "happened most nights”, as well as elsewhere in the school,
including in the chapel while he served as an altar boy. He said he had a
significant criminal record as an adult. The abuse came to light
in 2000, while he was an inmate at Mount Eden Prison. "A lawyer became
interested in my case, about the way I'd been attacking churches," the
man said. Raoul Neave, defending,
said the man's criminal record contained many more convictions for other than
attacking churches, with most for breaking into cars. The man agreed. Neave suggested that
the allegations the man was making against McGrath were strikingly similar to
allegations he made against another Catholic brother, who was in charge of a
dormitory in what was known as the purple section of Marylands. He agreed but said he
had not confused the incidents. "I was abused by Brother McGrath before
I went to purple section.” Neave: "You can't
have been abused by Brother McGrath before you went to purple section because
he wasn't there The man replied:
"He was there. I can’t give exact timings to it. I know the abuse
happened. The trial continues
today. |
