by Beau Donelly – 30 August 2011
The church in cahoots with the legal profession to further compound abuse of victims – MP’s what are you doing?
Robert Best: the face of evil
From as early as she can remember, *Joan and her six siblings were sexually abused by their father in a house in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs. The abuse continued until she was 15. When Joan grew up and had her own children she vowed to protect them from the kind of abuse she suffered. She sent her children to Catholic schools. “At the time, when I had the faith, it seemed like the best thing to do,” she said. “If only I could relive those days – I wouldn’t go near the church in a million years.”
At the sentencing of notorious paedophile Brother Robert Charles Best earlier this month, Joan sat two rows in front of the clergyman found guilty of sex crimes against 11 boys. They were aged as young as seven, up to 13, and were under his care between 1969 and 1988.
One of the boys was Joan’s son, *Stuart. He was 11 years old when he was preyed upon and raped by Best over two years. Stuart, now 37, is still traumatised by the abuse. Over the years, he has struggled with alcohol abuse and depression. For a long time he questioned whether he was gay. If it weren’t for his own child, Stuart said, his suicidal thoughts may have gone further.
Joan didn’t know her son had been abused until many years after the fact. In a way, she blames herself. “I was an idiot,” she said after Best’s sentencing hearing.
In the courtroom only moments before, she had turned to face the former primary school principal as he was led from the County Court dock after being sentenced to 14 years and nine months in jail. When their eyes met, Best looked down at her, smiled and then smirked. “I wish I could get that smirk out of my head, but I can’t,” said Joan.
Sadly, Best’s convictions bring little comfort to his victims. There was no applause as there had been when Detective Sergeant Kevin Carson, who has been overseeing the investigation for a decade, emerged from the plea hearing a couple of weeks earlier. However, the convictions have given new purpose to the victims, who are demanding an inquiry to expose culpability in the church’s hierarchy.
‘‘This type of investigation would reveal the church to be a covert organisation that misleads its parishioners,’’ Stuart said.
Best’s exit was the first time in a succession of court appearances over the past 12 months that the 70-year-old Christian Brother’s expression revealed anything more than disinterest in the proceedings. Until he was removed for the last time – convicted of 24 counts of unlawful indecent assault, two counts of aggravated indecent assault and one count of buggery – his vacant gaze remained fixed towards the front of the courtroom, arms folded across his chest.
Outside the Williams Street courthouse, Paul Lyons, 51, sat on a bench in the level 3 courtyard, a crumpled figure on a gloomy winter’s morning. He questioned whether there was any justice in the sentence, which included a non-parole period of just over 11 years. Lyons was nine years old when Best brutally raped him. When he returned to his classroom in tears another Christian Brother asked him what was wrong. Lyons explained what had happened and was subsequently beaten. He was asked again, and again he was struck. The third time Paul was questioned, he said: “nothing happened, sir”.
Lyons recalled passing out during the horrific rape and thinking he was going to die. The abuse has left him fighting a life-long struggle with depression. At 19 he attempted suicide. His relationship with his parents has been strained ever since he confided in them about the abuse. ‘‘The family has failed to see the impact this has had on me,’’ he said. ‘‘I started this fight 11 years ago and my parents are finally starting to believe me.’’
Best, who worked as a teacher and principal, targeted the youngest and most vulnerable children over two decades at St Leo’s Christian College in Box Hill, St Alipius Primary School in Ballarat and St Joseph’s College in Geelong. Sometimes a sporting injury was the catalyst for his sadistic abuse; one boy was attacked after he broke his collar bone; another after he was hit in the groin with a ball. One boy had severe learning difficulties and children were sexually abused while in the sick bay.
Victim impact statements revealed some of the damage: aggression towards authority, post-traumatic stress disorder, emotional and sexual intimacy detachment and fractured relationships barely scratch the surface. Often, while reading their statements, the victims broke down in tears, as did their families, friends, and journalists in the gallery. Two victims couldn’t even begin to write about what they had suffered. One man took his own life before his case went to trial.
Stephen Woods, of Kew, was present at all the hearings. A former student at St Alipius, Woods was sexually abused by Best in 1973 when he was 11 years old. In 1974, convicted paedophile Brother Edward Dowlan also molested him. By the time Woods was 14 he questioned his sexuality and asked the church for guidance. He was referred to Father Gerald Ridsdale – another convicted paedophile, infamous for appearing at court in 1993 with the support of then auxiliary bishop George Pell, now a cardinal and Archbishop of Sydney. Within half an hour of their meeting Ridsdale had raped Woods at a lake near St Patricks College in Ballarat.
Woods, now a secondary school teacher, said he had turned away from the church in the years since the sexual abuse, as have most of the victims and their families. One of the prosecuting lawyers, also a practising Catholic, still attends mass but no longer donates to the collection, fearing the money will be used to defend clergymen such as Best. Those involved in the case who remain practising Catholics have joined the push for an investigation into child abuse in the church.
The call for an official investigation is being supported by Oakleigh MLA Ann Barker, who has visited Ireland to study the government’s response to abuse in the Catholic church, and Dr Vivian Waller, who is putting together a civil case against Best.
The victims and their supporters want a parliamentary inquiry into the 26 suicides committed by their former classmates in the years since they attended schools where Best and Ridsdale worked. Woods wants it to go further. “We need a state-based inquiry that holds the church accountable,” he said. “An inquiry into the culpability of the church and its organisations that can subpoena evidence.”
When Joan’s son Stuart first spoke up about what happened to him, he was referred to Towards Healing – the arm of the church that deals with allegations of abuse against its personnel. “I told them Best raped me and they said the ‘supposed’ rape wasn’t provable. But they offered me money – why would they do that? I never wanted money – I wanted him in jail.”
In arguing for a tough sentence, the prosecution dismissed claims that Best’s age would give him less opportunity to reoffend upon release. “There is no evidence of remorse,” said crown prosecutor Amanda Forrester. Judge Roy Punshon agreed, saying any admission of genuine guilt was “clearly absent”. In sentencing, Judge Punshon said: “You have caused a great deal of human damage and misery.”
Best maintained his innocence and denied any wrongdoing until pleading guilty earlier this year after losing four trials against him – trials that have set precedents in child sexual abuse cases by hearing each victim’s allegations separately, with a different jury, and placing a media embargo on reporting individual proceedings. The reason for Best’s guilty plea after years of denial, and a series of earlier sexual abuse trials during the 1990s which found him guilty but were later quashed on appeal, is unclear.
Sources have claimed the church decided to cut their losses after spending an estimated minimum of $1 million – $9000 a day – defending the latest round of charges. Early on in the proceedings, Best’s defence team made it clear money would not be a problem. The church has previously confirmed it paid for Best’s defence, but the Archdiocese of Melbourne and the Congregation of Christian Brothers declined to comment further for this article. Meanwhile, the Christian Brothers have said publicly that Best, who remains a Brother, would be allowed back into their ranks upon his release from prison.
As Paul Lyons butted out his second cigarette at the Williams Street court house just minutes after Best was taken into custody, he said he was relieved the case was finally over. “I have never felt the support of anyone in my life,” said the former potter who now lives on a pension. “Every night I think about what happened. The healing can finally start now.’’
(*Some names have been changed to protect victims’ privacy)
