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	Jail for Former Christian Brother, Teacher West Australian October 24, 2008 http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=77&ContentID=104450 A former teacher and Christian Brother has been handed a jail term after admitting he sexually abused two young boys during Catholic school camps in the mid 1980s. The 57-year-old, who was working at a WA Catholic boys' college in the mid 1980s when he molested two 10-year-old students in separate school camps, was sentenced to ten months jail in the District Court after pleading guilty to both crimes. The term will be served on top of a two-and-a-half year sentence handed to him last year for sex crimes against three other boys at the college during the mid 1980s. The court was told during today's sentencing that the man abused one of his victims during an unofficial weekend camp at which he was the only teacher. The man crept into the tent his victim shared with three other boys, lay next to him, put his hand down the student's sleeping bag and fondled him before the boy rolled over the top of another child to get away. A few weeks after molesting the student, the teacher again sexually abused a different 10-year-old boy at a separate annual school camp. The court was told the teacher went to say goodnight to a group of eight boys sleeping on bunk beds in a dormitory when he walked over to the student, who was lying on his side on a top bunk, put his hand inside the boy's sleeping bag and squeezed his bottom four times. He then removed his hand and ruffled the boy's hair. One of the boy's parents complained to the school and withdrew their son, prompting the teacher to seek counselling within the Christian Brothers community, the court was told. The other victim did not tell his parents about the sex abuse until 2007. The man is already serving two and a half years jail handed down in 2007 for five counts of indecent dealing against another three boys in the mid 1980s who were also students at the same Catholic college. The man's defence lawyer Robert Nash said his client had been eligible for parole last April but the fresh charges meant he had not been able to complete the sex offender's treatment programme, which would have been required before he could be released. Mr Nash said his client had trouble remembering details of the offences because they happened more than two decades ago but that he was remorseful for the "gross breach of trust". "He is desperately sorry, now he looks back for the hurt he's caused, and he is, at this time, acutely embarrassed by what he did," Mr Nash said. The defence lawyer said his client, who had a very religious upbringing, had wanted to be a Christian Brother since the age of seven and worked at "various schools" in the role during the 1970s. Mr Nash said while at the Catholic college at which he molested the boys, his client had felt lonely disconnected from the other brothers because he was the youngest, prompting him to seek the company of students. "He actually developed some very strong relationships with the boys, but it seems that in the yearning for companionship and friendship his intimacy became totally inappropriate on occasions," Mr Nash said. The court was told a psychological report deemed "the fairly narrow and prescriptive lifestyle he had from an early age… would have had a significant bearing on his emotional sexual development". Mr Nash noted that some of the counselling sought by his client at the time of the crimes had turned out to be "from a Jesuit priest in which he really went through a process of confessing and facing his sins, rather than counselling in a psychological sense". The man then attempted to change his life and moved to the Kimberley to work with Aboriginal communities in an effort to contribute to the community, Mr Nash said. The prosecutor said the man had "exploited the complainants' youth, naivety, inexperience with life, and their vulnerability". "They were very young boys, who should have looked to the offender as a role model, and as a person who should have kept them from harm's way whilst they were away from their parents, rather than one who ultimately put them at peril to satisfy his own needs," she said. One of the victims claimed the abuse had a devastating and life-long impact on him, she said. Judge Troy Sweeney sentenced the man to six months jail on the first charge and four months on the second. The total of 10 months jail will be served on top of the man's current sentence. The maximum penalty for indecent dealing, according to the law at the time the crimes were committed, is seven years jail.
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