A Christian Brother Changed His Name after Being in Jail. Now He Pleads Guilty Again

Broken Rites
October 10, 2014

http://brokenrites.org.au/drupal/node/288

A convicted pedophile Christian Brother who changed his name from Ted Dowlan to Ted Bales to avoid publicity has admitted to another 55 offences committed during his long career as a Christian Brother in Victorian schools. Ted Bales, 64, is now behind bars after more of his earlier victims contacted the police.

Ted Bales pleaded guilty to these additional charges of sexual assault at the Melbourne Magistrates Court on 9 October 2014 and was immediately taken into custody. He will be sentenced in early 2015.

Originally known as Brother Edward Vernon Dowlan, he belonged to the Victoria-Tasmanian province of the Christian Brothers. He worked at Catholic schools in Melbourne, Ballarat, Geelong and Warrnambool.

In 2014, under his new surname of Bales, he was charged with indecently assaulting males in Ballarat, Forest Hill (Melbourne) and Warrnambool between 1970 and 1975 and in East Melbourne and Lower Templestowe (Melbourne) between 1980 and 1984.

Bales, who changed his name from Edward Dowlan after serving a previous jail term for similar offending, was allegedly moved between parishes by his superiors after complaints were made about him.

In 1971 he was stationed at Ballarat’s St Alipius primary school alongside notorious pedophiles Gerald Ridsdale and Robert Best.

The Christian Brothers supported both Dowlan and Best, paying more than $1 million defending Best and $10,000 to a private investigator to spy on a victim of Dowlan.

It also paid for legal advice for Dowlan and paid him $125,000 after he left the order.

How the case began

The Ted Bales case was first mentioned in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on 29 April 2014. This hearing was an administrative procedure. The court adjusted his bail conditions and released him until the next steps in the prosecution process. The case came up in court again for several more brief administrative procedures in mid-2014.

At the Aprll hearing, the court was told that Bales was convicted in the 1990s for sex-offences committed during his teaching career. He then spent five years in prison.

His defence lawyer told the April 2014 hearing that Bales had adopted that new surname to avoid publicity because his original surname came up whenever the media reported on crimes involving the Christian Brothers. Bales' previous name was not disclosed during this court hearing but Broken Rites knew -- and it became possible for the media to reveal the name "Dowlan" after Ted Bales pleaded guilty on 9 October 2014.

In the bail procedure in April 2014, Magistrate Peter Reardon allowed Bales to report to police once a week, instead of twice. Mr Reardon said that Bales was not a high flight risk. He noted that Bales was not his original name, and that there was a stigma attached to people who committed crimes.

"That's just a reality," the magistrate said.

Detective Senior Constable Colleen Connolly (of the Sano Taskforce in the Victoria Police) told the April 2014 hearing that police did not oppose changes to Bales' bail conditions as the police did not believe he would try to run. She said that Bales visited his elderly mother three times a week, had close family ties, and did not possess a passport.

Bales was arrested by the Sano Taskforce, which was established by Victoria Police Sex Crime Squad to investigate historic and new allegations arising from the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child sex abuse.

Ted Bales is scheduled for sentencing in February 2015. The case is Number E.11272388 in the court listings.