Institutional Child Abuse

The abuse at St Bernard’s College Essendon perpetrated by Brother Robert Charles Best and Father Daniel Dominic Hourigan continues to haunt survivors many decades later.

Starting January 2025, child abuse survivors can enter aged care without the financial burden of National Redress payments affecting their access to essential services.

In 2015, Brother Dowlan was sentenced for offences committed against 20 boys across several schools, Chanel College among them.

Brother Romuald (Francis Edward Cable) and Brother Patrick (Thomas Butler) both left a trail of trauma and emotional damage at Marist Brothers Hamilton that, for those who survived if, continues to have significant impacts on their daily lives.

The Allambie Reception Centre, once a home for vulnerable children, became a site of mistreatment and abuse at the hands of Ronald Paul Harper and other staff members.

Father Paul “Rex” Brown served as a Catholic priest within the Diocese of Lismore for decades, but his legacy has been overshadowed by multiple allegations of child sexual abuse.

St. Patrick’s College in Sale, Victoria, carries a history of profound tragedy marked by numerous allegations of sexual abuse. These incidents, primarily occurring during the 1970s and 1980s, have left lasting scars on the lives of many former students.

In a significant legal development, the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle has been held liable for the actions of Father Pickin, who died in 2015, but who had been a Scripture teacher accused of abusing children under their care.

The two most notorious schools in the Archdiocese of Ballarat were St Alipius Primary School and St Patrick’s College and the 4 worst child abusers who worked under their auspices were Ridsdale, Best, Dowlan and Ryan