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This page last
updated Oct 24 2006
April 27-28 Reaction to
sentence
Astonishment
and anger at sentence from victims and their advocates. Ken Clearwater (Male survivors of Sex Abuse Trust) "Five
years is a joke. For what that man's done, it's an insult to the
victims"; One of the victims
"I thought he would get life"; Former
pupil, not a victim: "expected at least seven to 11 years"
2006-0428 - The Press -
Sentence dismays victims
2006-0428 - Newstalk ZB -
Hurt continues for McGrath victims
2006-0427 - Newstalk ZB - Anger at
sex abuse sentence
April 27 McGrath sentenced to
5 years prison
Justice Chisholm said he was sceptical of claims of remorse; took
into account that McGrath has already spent time in prison for sex abuse of
boys
Kerryn Beaton Crown prosecutor)
said the abuse had been marked by violence, threats, and sometimes cruelty; Raoul Neave (Defence counsel) said
the regime at the school at the time had been for severe physical punishment
to be meted out to maintain discipline, but he pointed out the jury had
accepted that there had been exaggeration of some of the claims.
2006-0428 - NZ Herald - Monk jailed
for sex abuse of schoolboys
2006-0427 - One News -
Catholic brother gets five years
2006-0427 - The Press -
Catholic brother jailed for sex assault
2006-0427 - NZ Herald -
Former Catholic brother jailed for sexually abusing boys
Bernard McGrath
March 18 2006 Calls for a Sex Abuse Inquiry
Cindy Kiro (Childrens Commissioner): calls for an inquiry into
institutional care similar to one carried out by Australian Senate; Ken Clearwater (Male survivors of Sex
Abuse Trust) said abuse is still happening in institutions and needs to be
uncovered. He also said the government should hold an inquiry into why the
abuse was allowed to continue for so long.
2006-0318 - The Press - Sex-abuse
inquiry demanded
2006-0317 - One News -
Religious order abuse inquiry wanted
March 17 Reaction to the
verdict
The
Press editorial says that convictions will bring healing, but does
not produce closure. (The Press also prejudicially and naively criticises St
John of God for not "ensuring" the extradition of other Marylands
staff); John Henzell of The Press looks at the legacy to the
abuse; Anne Hudson-Ramage, wonders
whether the suicide of her son was prompted by the possibility he was abused;
Ken Clearwater (Male survivors of
Sex Abuse Trust) It was disappointing to see so many not-guilty findings.
2006-0318 - The Press - McGrath
convictions a step towards closure
2006-0318 - The Press - The sins of
Brother Bernard
2006-0317 - The Press - Trial
attempt to regain faith
2006-0317 - Newstalk ZB -
Counsellor says verdicts brings some closure
March 16 McGrath found guilty
of approx half the charges he faced
The jury found McGrath guilty on 21 indecency charges. He was acquitted of 32 charges – 23 by the
jury and nine having been discharged during the trial – including all of the
most serious charges of sodomy. Bernard Kevin McGrath, 58, showed little
emotion as the jury delivered their verdict. The judge rejected application
for bail
2006-0317 - The Press -
Disgraced brother guilty of 21 charges
2006-0317 - NZ Herald -
Catholic brother guilty on sex charges
2006-0316 - One News - Mixed
verdicts in abuse trial
2006-0316 - Newstalk ZB -
McGrath guilty on 21 charges
Bernard McGrath
March 13-16 Jury deliberations
Reports deliberations. The jury is considering 44 charges against Bernard
McGrath of abusing boys during his time at the former Marylands school in the
1970s. Shortly before the verdict the jury queried what would occur if they
failed to agree on all charges.
2006-0316 - Newstalk ZB - Jury
deadlocked after 30 hours
2006-0316 - The Press - McGrath case
jury still out
2006-0316 - Dominion Post - Brother Trial
2006-0315 - Dominion Post - Sex trial
jury still out
2006-0315 - Nelson Mail - Jury into third day
2006-0315 - Waikato Times - Deliberations continue
2006-0315 - Newstalk ZB - Still no
verdict in McGrath
2006-0315 - The Press - Jurors
take time in abuse case
2006-0314 - Newstalk ZB -
Jury still out in McGrath case
2006-0314 - One News - McGrath
jury resumes deliberations
2006-0314 - Newstalk ZB -
Jury continues to debate abuse charges
March 13 2006 Justice Chisholm
sums up
The court was
told that McGrath was jailed in 1993 for sexually abusing boys at Marylands
during his time with the St John of God order. He later admitted more
offending while in jail. The question was not whether McGrath was a child
molester, but how many and how seriously he offended
The Crown says that McGrath didn't
come clean in 1993 or in the custody clearance in prison; the complainants
are reliable witnesses; inaccuracies are due to length of time since
offending and their age at the time
The Defence says it's been near 30
years since the offending; there have been complications, including publicity
and payments of compensation to complainants;
and history has not been particularly kind to some of the
complainants. There are disparities between the time McGrath stopped teaching,
and when complainants said they were abused.
2006-0314 - Nelson Mail - Jury
resumes deliberations
2006-0314 - Taranaki
Daily News - Jury retires in trial of former brother
2006-0314 - The Press -
McGrath's fate up to jury
2006-0313 - Newstalk ZB - Jury
retires in McGrath trial
Justice Chisholm (One News)
March
10 2006 Defence and Prosecution sum
up
Raoul Neave
(Defence Lawyer) told jury they do not have to decide whether McGrath
sexually molested vulnerable boys. The only issues to determine are which
ones and how seriously. McGrath admits he preyed sexually on boys when he was
a teacher, but he denies 44 charges of sodomy and indecencies against more
than a dozen boys in the 1970s. There
had been "inconsistencies galore" in the evidence given to the
court and that made their evidence untrustworthy. "The evidence cannot
amount to proof beyond reasonable doubt. Clearly in many cases the evidence
is weak, exaggerated, and mistaken on certain key points". Neave said
that "the prosecution's approach is if they say it, you buy it. Rather
like the church". While in jail in the mid-1990s for his earlier sex
offending, McGrath had admitted to other sex charges through a process known
as custody clearance. "Why would he stop short there?"
Chris Lange (Prosecution) said it was clear from McGrath's guilty plea to an
indecency charge at the start of the trial that there were sexual offences he
had committed against boys at Marylands which he had not admitted at the time
of his last court appearance. McGrath's previous convictions were made known
to the jury because it showed a pattern of conduct in his sexual offending
against young boys. Many of the latest complainants' evidence showed striking
similarities to McGrath's offending in the past, bolstering their claims. The
real issue was whether they considered the boys were credible and their
evidence reliable.
2006-0311 -
The Press - Historic abuse claims 'mistaken'
 
Raoul Neave (Defence) Chris Lange
(Prosecutor)
March 10 2006 Defence case
The defence
closed its case after calling one witness for less than 30 minutes of
evidence over a video link from the North Island. McGrath himself did not
give evidence. His defence counsel, Raoul Neave, told the jury they had
already heard from the accused in several hours of
"cross-examination" recorded on video by two police officers
2006-0311 - NZ
Herald - Sex-abuse accused declines to testify
March 10 2006 Two indecency charges
dropped
McGrath, 58,
admits he sexually abused children in the 1970s at Marylands, a boarding
school in Halswell, Christchurch. But he denies the scale and severity of the
abuse
2006-0310
- Dominion Post - Charges dropped
March 6-9 2006 Prosecution
Mother claimed in a statement that she
had told a social worker, after her son disclosed "concerns about
indecency", but did not go into details about the indecency with her
son;
Bernard McGrath in a video police interview said
he had been jailed for sexually abusing boys at the school during the 1970s
but claims he has admitted the full extent of his offending, which never went
as far as sodomy or oral sex.He insisted he was not minimalising his crimes.
Detective Borrell, officer in charge, described his
involvement from time The Press broke story; agreed that McGrath's photograph
had wide publicity at the time;
Brother Peter Burke, Head of the St John of God order
said that about $5.1 million had been paid out to those who claimed to be
victims of sexual molestation at the school, and more could still be paid.
The order asked complainants to call them.
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. He agreed
however that there had been publicity about earlier cases in which
compensation had been paid in both NZ and Australia
Burke said his role was to listen and not challenge what he was being told. Defence
lawyer Raoul Neave asked
Brother Burke why the claims were not investigated before the payments were
awarded. Brother Burke responded saying he heard stories he thought he would
never hear in his wildest dreams...and it was hard for him to then say they
were made up
He acknowledged that there was a case of a man who was given $100,000 and
later prosecuted for a false complaint.
2006-0309 - The Press - Social
worker was alerted to abuse at school - witness
2006-0308 - The Press - McGrath ill;
sex trial adjourned
2006-0307 - The Press - St
John payouts top $5m
2006-0307 - NZ Herald -
Abuse complainants get $5m from order
2006-0307 - Newstalk ZB -
Former brother says "a victim too"
2006-0306 - Newstalk ZB - St John
of God head under fire
March 3 2006 Seven indecency charges
dropped, McGrath hospitalised
Seven
indecency charges have been dropped, after complainants evidence failed to
support the charges. McGrath hospitalised 2,3 March
2006-0303 - The Press - Trial
adjourned after McGrath hospitalised
2006-0303 - NZ Herald - Accused in
hospital
2006-0302 - Stuff - Illness
delays former teacher's sex abuse trial
2006-0302 - Newstalk ZB -
McGrath trial delayed
Feb 28 to Mar 3 2006
Prosecution
The court was provided a summary of facts from a previous 1993
conviction from which McGrath was jailed on 10 indecency charges.
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. 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”.
The man agreed he had many other convictions other than for attacking
churches. The man
claimed he was abused by McGrath at a time that McGrath was not there.
A man claimed that he was abused only once with McGrath laying on top of him
in bed and moved up and down. The man claimed he had told the police, but the
police had no record of such a complaint. The man agreed that he had seen
offers of compensation, and that he has physical and brain damage as a result
of an incident in 1987 when he was savagely beaten up
2006-0302 - The Press - Seven
counts dropped in McGrath sex abuse trial
2006-0301 - The Press -
Desecrator says he was molested
2006-0228 - The Press - Brother
said abuse all right - witness
Feb 21-24 2006 Prosecution
A man claimed to have told other brothers but was told "not
to lie". He claimed that McGrath "shut him in a coffin" and later to "locking him in a room
for a month, where he was repeatedly sexually assaulted." He claimed that McGrath sodomised him from
behind, possibly with a
cane. McGrath has admitted indecently touching the man, now a prison
inmate aged 40, in the mid-1970s but denies sodomising him. In later years the man said he spent time in
Lake Alice psychiatric
hospital and jail for burglaries and stealing cars and dishonesty. The man said he had been a cellmate in jail
of another alleged victim of McGrath but maintained they only acknowledged
that each had been sexually abused The man claimed he was abused by McGrath at a time that McGrath was
not there. The man said he had received $95,000 as a goodwill payment from the Catholic Church
2006-0225
- The Press - Accused brother 'acted out fantasies'
2006-0225 - NZ Herald - Boy shut in
coffin before sex, jury told
A man claimed that memories
of being sodomised came back after he read about allegations in a
newspaper. On the stand he came up with new claims. He said the new claims only surfaced in the past few
months while undergoing counselling. Discrepancies between what he said on
the stand and his police statement he explained by saying that he
cannot read and write properly
2006-0224 -
The Press - Witness makes new abuse claims
A man gave evidence clearly recalling incidents of sexual abuse while he was
at Maryland's school between 1974 and 1989, identifying McGrath in a number
of photographs as his alleged abuser. However at the end of his testimony he
was asked to identify McGrath in court but was unable to do so.
2006-0222 - Newstalk ZB -
Identification bombshell in abuse trial
Feb 20 2006 Trial of Bernard
McGrath opens
Bernard
Kevin McGrath, 58, faces 54 charges relating to his time at Maryland's
Residential School in the 1970s.He has pleaded guilty to one charge, that of
indecently assaulting a boy under the age of 16. The Crown alleges McGrath
abused 16 boys between 1974 and 77
The 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. ………..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.
"Memory is an extremely difficult tool at the best of times. Quality of
memory is very much an issue in this case," Mr Neave said. "Some of
the allegations are so bizarre, they simply can't be true." Widespread
coverage of abuse within the Catholic church and media reporting on abuse at
the Marylands School also "muddied waters that were already particularly
murky".
2006-0221 - The Press -
Abuse-accused's trial opens
2006-0221 - NZ Herald - Trial
opens old wound for church
2006-0220 - One News - McGrath stands
trial in Christchurch
2006-0220 - Newstalk ZB - Sex
abuse trial begins in Chch
 
St
John of God, Marylands, Christchurch
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