www.peterellis.co.nz : seeking justice for Peter Ellis : mail to: [email protected]

Accusations of Abuse in Institutions

Index: Home Page Peter Ellis
Index: Accusations in Institutions

The Press
July 22, 2003

Case waits on police files disclosure
by David Clarkson

Justin Todd Richardson, charged with making a false complaint of sexual abuse against a former brother at Marylands School, was further remanded on bail for a fortnight when he appeared in the Christchurch District Court yesterday.

Defence counsel Gerald Lascelles told Judge Jane McMeeken that he was still waiting for disclosure of the police files on the case.

He said he was also awaiting two preliminary medical reports on Richardson, a 34-year-old foundry worker. Judge McMeeken granted the request for continued bail for Richardson's remand.

Richardson has been charged with making a false complaint, and with obtaining a $95,000 "pastoral gesture" from St John of God by a false pretence -- alleging he had been sexually abused while at Marylands.

The school was run by the St John of God order.

The former brother, Bernard Kevin McGrath, 56, who faces about 30 sexual abuse charges, has been granted a registrar's remand on bail to appear at a depositions hearing in early October.

The charges against him allege sodomy and indecencies committed against boys aged under 16 at the school from 1968 to 1984, the year the school closed.