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Allegations
of Abuse in Institutions |
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More than 125
complaints about sexual abuse involving the St John of God Order were made after
The Press revealed historic allegations of molestation at the Catholic
Order's home outside Christchurch. After a 2002
investigation into alleged sexual offending by Brother Bernard Kevin McGrath
and others at the Marylands residential school at Halswell in the 1970s, the
order had to set up an 0800 number for victims. The head of the order,
Brother Peter Burke, yesterday told the Christchurch District Court jury
trying McGrath that so far more than $5 million had been paid out to those
who claimed to be victims of sexual molestation at the school, and more could
still be paid. Jury members were shown
the police's videotaped interview with McGrath, in which he claimed he was
being sexually harassed by senior members in the St John of God Order. McGrath is on trial for
over 40 charges of indecency and sodomy involving boys at the school. He
admits he was jailed in the mid-1990s for sexually abusing boys at the
school, but claims he has already admitted the full extent of his offending,
which never escalated to sodomy. The jury heard
yesterday from Burke, the Sydney-based head of the order, about the response
to The Press's investigation in 2002. He said he set up the
0800 number because his office line in Sydney was being clogged by calls from
those who claimed they were sexually abused at the school. "We asked people
to contact us and register with us if they had a complaint," he said. He arranged meetings,
accompanied by the chairwoman of the order's professional standards
committee, who was a psychologist trained in dealing with child sexual abuse.
"It was just to
listen to their stories. Every person I met I asked if they'd laid a
complaint with the police. Some said `yes', some said `no'. The ones who said
`no', I encouraged them to do so." He said there was no
mention of payouts from the church, but the order recruited a former High
Court judge to look at the claims at the meetings, after which "pastoral
gestures" of up to $120,000 were offered to claimants. "We were trying to
acknowledge that there had been a lack of duty of care in the past,"
Burke said. Often the money would
be paid into a trust for the complainants' benefit. Raoul Neave, for
McGrath, said payouts from the order for previous allegations of abuse had
been mentioned in The Press investigation. Burke agreed. Neave: "The
process of meeting with complainants didn't involve you challenging people to
what they were saying?" Burke: "No, it
didn't. I wasn't investigating; I was listening." He said he was
approaching the allegations from "a very Christian point of view",
but he also knew the police investigation was under way. After Burke's evidence
the jury watched the start of six hours of videotaped police interviews with
McGrath in which he was accused of sexually molesting boys. In it McGrath said he
had been the subject of sexual overtures from senior members of the order at
Marylands and in turn molested boys in his care. He also fell in love with a
woman who worked at Marylands, but the relationship was never consummated. "I didn't want to
break my vow of chastity. My understanding of chastity is you never have
sexual relations with a woman," he said. "I think I turned
to the kids because I was confused with my own sexuality and what my
orientation was." One senior member of
the order threatened to prevent him becoming a full member unless he
submitted to sexual overtures. "He wanted me physically. He touched
me." The trial continues
today. |
